No breakthrough as Prince Harry returns to US and wife Meghan Markle

Prince Harry returned to the US to be with his pregnant wife Meghan Markle after a trip to the UK for Prince Philip's funeral that included meetings with the queen.

Harry met Queen Elizabeth twice, but there was no breakthrough in strained family relations, the couple’s biographer Omid Scobie reported in HarpersBazaar.com.

His plane landed at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday afternoon local time after more than 10 hours in the air.

Prince Harry and Meghan's US television interview with Oprah Winfrey last month rocked the royal family with accusations of racism and indifference to Meghan's mental health struggles. At the time, Buckingham Palace said the issues raised would be dealt with privately by the family.

“This trip was to honour the life of his grandfather and support his grandmother and relatives,” a source close to the prince said.

“It was very much a family focused period of time. Saturday broke the ice for future conversations but outstanding issues have not been addressed at any great length. The family simply put their issues to one side to focus on what mattered.”

While in Britain, Prince Harry stayed within Windsor Castle’s grounds, 40 kilometres from London, and self-isolated at Frogmore Cottage.

After the funeral, there were chats with his father, Prince Charles, and brother, Prince William.

The brothers also had a brief conversation as they walked away from the chapel after the funeral service on Saturday.

“The love and respect [Harry} has for his grandmother will always be unwavering,” a source said.

The queen turned 95 on Wednesday, her first birthday without her husband in more than seven decades.

The birthday fell during a two-week period of royal mourning after the duke was interred in the royal vvault beneath St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

As boys, Prince William and Prince Harry walked behind their mother Diana’s coffin at her funeral in 1997.

On July 1, a memorial statue to her will be unveiled on what would have been her 60th birthday, and it has been suggested as the next time Harry is likely to return to Britain.

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HIV on the rise in the region

A 2019 United Nations special analysis on Aids reveals 37 per cent of new HIV infections in the Mena region are from people injecting drugs.

New HIV infections have also risen by 29 per cent in western Europe and Asia, and by 7 per cent in Latin America, but declined elsewhere.

Egypt has shown the highest increase in recorded cases of HIV since 2010, up by 196 per cent.

Access to HIV testing, treatment and care in the region is well below the global average.

Few statistics have been published on the number of cases in the UAE, although a UNAIDS report said 1.5 per cent of the prison population has the virus.

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