An American in Germany afflicted with leukemia and AIDS has been cured of the immune system disease after receiving a bone marrow transplant meant to cure his blood disease, his doctor claimed Thursday. Hematologist Gero Huetter, 39, only identified the patient as a 42-year-old man living in Berlin and being treated at the city's Charité Medical University. The man has been suffering from AIDS for more than 10 years and also has leukemia.

Two thousand people climbed the 2,109 steps of the Sears Tower in Chicago, the country's tallest building, to raise money for cancer research Sunday. The climbers came out on Sunday, Nov. 9 to take part in the seventh annual Go Vertical Chicago event.

A tourist left behind on a dive trip swam all night, covering nearly 10 kilometers through shark-infested water before reaching land in Taveuni, Fiji Monday. Thomas Holz, 40, of Berlin, Germany, was out a scuba diving trip with three other tourists at Rainbow Reef, near Viani Bay in Vanua Levu, according to the local Fiji Times newspaper.

While billions of dollars are being talked about as U. S. and European banks collapse under the pressure of the global credit crunch, Zimbabwe is also dealing with stratospheric numbers few calculator screens could accommodate in full. The African nation's inflation rate again broke another world record as it hit 231 million percent in July, surpassing another global record made by Zimbabwe in June at 11. 2 million percent.

A German farmer who lost his two arms in an accident six years ago went public Wednesday with two new arms transplanted to him in the first surgery of its kind. Karl Merk, 54, showed his arms, which were supported by a special corset attached to his shoulders, at the teaching hospital of the Technical University here. He was with the doctors who performed the 15-hour transplant from July 25 to 26.