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Benjamin Pavard's stunning strike in France's World Cup last-16 victory over Argentina has been voted the best goal of the tournament in Russia. The defender, who showed superb technique to fire into the top corner, received the most votes cast by three million fans on the Fifa website.

"I didn't even think about it. I just tried to get over it and keep it down," Pavard, 22, said after the game. France beat Croatia 4-2 in the final to win the trophy for the second time. Pavard added: "The ball bounced up as it came to me. I was trying to hit it in the direction it came from, which is what the strikers always tell me. "When the ball went in I just felt so happy."

Juan Quintero's clever free-kick for Colombia against Japan came second and Luka Modric's brilliant long-range strike for Croatia against Argentina was third.

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BEIRUT, July 25, 2018 (AFP) - A string of Islamic State group attacks, including suicide blasts, killed at least 54 people in southern Syria on Wednesday in one of the jihadists' deadliest assaults in months, a monitor said. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blasts hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where IS retains a presence in a northeastern desert region. 

The attacks came almost a week into a deadly Russia-backed regime campaign to oust IS fighters from a holdout in a neighbouring province of the country's south. 
The raids began when three suicide attackers detonated their explosive belts in Sweida city as other blasts hit villages to the north and east, said the Observatory. 
A fourth suicide blast hit the city later. 

"IS fighters then stormed villages in the province's northeast and killed residents in their homes," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory. 
IS seized three of the seven villages they targeted, he said. 

The suicide blasts and attacks have left at least 32 pro-government fighters and 22 civilians dead, he added, updating an earlier toll. 
"The death toll rose after bodies were found in people's homes," Abdel Rahman told AFP. 

At least 21 IS jihadists were also killed. 

State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east, but did not give a specific toll. 
- Abandoned shoes -  

State television said the army was targeting IS in the province's east, and state news agency SANA reported "army units blocked an IS attack on a number of villages in northeastern Sweida, killing a large number" of the jihadists. 

SANA published images of the aftermath of the attack in Sweida city. 

The remains of a victim lay sprawled on a staircase near a damaged wall, while abandoned shoes lay in the middle of the road among fruit that had spilled out of cartons. 
Abdel Rahman said unidentified warplanes were also targeting IS fighters in the area. 

Despite pro-government forces ousting the group from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, surprise IS raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters. 

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad has in recent weeks ousted rebels from a majority of the country's south, part of which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. 

His forces are now closing in on a patch of territory in nearby Daraa province held by jihadist group Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, which has pledged allegiance to IS. 
The group, which has around 1,000 fighters in the region, has been the target of an intense bombing campaign by Russian and Syrian jets in recent days. 

SANA said the IS attacks on neighbouring Sweida were an attempt to relieve pressure "on IS remnants facing their inevitable end in the western Daraa countryside". 
- Desert holdouts - 

On Wednesday, Russia-backed regime forces continued their bombardment of the IS-held pocket in Daraa. 

At least 41 civilians have been killed in air strikes on the jihadist holdout since July 19, the monitor says. 
Fierce clashes between the two sides have killed 49 regime fighters and 67 jihadists. 

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AMSTERDAM, July 24, 2018 (AFP) - Scientists reported several setbacks in the quest for a cure to AIDS on Tuesday, highlighting concerns about inconclusive evidence that links a promising new drug to birth defects.

According to research presented at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, four cases of "neural tube" defects were recorded among the pregnancies of 426 HIV-positive women in Botswana who took the drug dolutegravir before conception.

Neural tube defects cause severe brain and spinal deformities in the first weeks after conception, and often lead to stillbirth.

The cases amount to a ratio of nearly one defect per 100 pregnancies, compared to the average population rate of about one per 1,000, researcher Rebecca Zash of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health explained.

The defects were observed between August 2014 and May this year.

There have been no new reports among the 170 dolutegravir pregnancies monitored since, but "I don't think we can take much reassurance" from that, Zash said.

Four birth defects in 596 pregnancies was "still seven times higher than other groups, and statistically significant", she added.

Dolutegravir is a relatively new HIV-suppressor with fewer side-effects and believed to be less likely to spark drug resistance in patients.

Countries targeted by the US PEPFAR AIDS relief fund were on the cusp of rolling it out as the leading antiretroviral therapy (ART), International AIDS Society president Linda-Gail Bekker told AFP.

- Waiting game -

Botswana was the first country to introduce dolutegravir as a first-line antiretroviral drug for all who need it, including women of child-bearing age.

"This puts a very definite bump in the road," Bekker said, adding that conference organisers "scurried" to organise last-minute sessions to discuss the consequences of the Botswana results.

Pending clarification, global health agencies have advised that HIV-positive women planning a family should use other antiretrovirals instead.

"I wish so badly that this (data) signal would go away" with further research, Zash told AFP.

In the meantime, "it's tough but I think we just have to wait" for more information.

On the cure front, there was some bad news too.

A trial to test a new strategy to "kick" the AIDS-causing HIV virus out of its hiding place in human cells, then "kill" it, yielded a disappointing outcome.

Researchers tested the effects of several medicines on top of standard ART in a trial with 60 men recently diagnosed with HIV.

Volunteers received two vaccines meant to coach the body's immune system to recognise HIV, and another drug to "wake up" the reservoir cells hiding the virus, forcing it to reveal itself and be attacked by the body's own defences.

But trial participants who received these drugs had no different outcome to those on standard ART, said Sarah Fidler, a professor of HIV medicine at Imperial College London who took part in the research.

"Of course the overall effect wasn't what we would hope for, but it was definitive," she told journalists in the Dutch capital.

"All results move the knowledge forward even if they're somewhat disappointing."

For scientists, "cure" means weakening HIV to a point where it poses no harm to the infected person and cannot be transmitted to others -- allowing people to stop lifelong treatment without any risk.

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Chelsea's Eden Hazard, Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne and new Juventus signing Cristiano Ronaldo are also included. England full-back Lucy Bronze is on the shortlist for the best women's player. Tottenham forward Kane, 24, won the Golden Boot at the World Cup in Russia with six goals as England achieved their best finish since 1990. He went into the World Cup on the back of registering his first 30-goal haul in a Premier League season. And Kane maintained that form at the finals, becoming the first English player to win the top scorers' prize since Gary Lineker in 1986.

Hazard, 27, won the FA Cup with Chelsea in May and then collected the Silver Ball in Russia after inspiring Belgium to third - their best World Cup finish.

Salah, 26, also enjoyed a prolific campaign. The Egyptian scored 46 times for club and country during 2017-18, helping Liverpool to the Champions League final in his first season at Anfield.

Belgium midfielder De Bruyne, 27, played a prominent role in a record-breaking season for City, who accumulated the most points and wins in a Premier League season.

It was also a landmark year for five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese scored 54 goals in 54 games in all competitions, spearheading Real Madrid's triumph in the Champions League and the Fifa Club World Cup.

Voting for the award closes at midnight on 10 August, while the awards ceremony takes place in London on 24 September.

Full shortlist

• Cristiano Ronaldo - Juventus & Portugal
• Kevin De Bruyne - Manchester City & Belgium
• Antoine Griezmann - Atletico Madrid & France
• Eden Hazard - Chelsea & Belgium
• Harry Kane - Tottenham & England
• Kylian Mbappe - Paris St-Germain & France
• Lionel Messi - Barcelona & Argentina
• Luka Modric - Real Madrid & Croatia
• Mohamed Salah - Liverpool & Egypt
• Raphael Varane - Real Madrid & France

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