The U.S. National Institutes of Health announced that it is expanding an early-stage HIV vaccine clinical trial in South Africa due to very promising early results. The new study, called HVTN 702, is designed to determine whether the regimen is safe, tolerable and effective at preventing HIV infection among South African adults. The trial is slated to begin in November 2016, pending regulatory approval. “A safe and effective HIV vaccine could help bring about a durable end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and is particularly needed in southern Africa, where HIV is more pervasive than anywhere else in the world,” said Anthony S. Fauci, director of NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health and a co-funder of the trial. (NIH http://1.usa.gov/1rUA0IL)
Video of police brutality goes viral in Kenya…Widely viewed pictures and video of a protester being kicked by Kenyan riot police as he lay on the ground have caused a stir in this East Africa country, prompting debate on police brutality and civil rights. The U.S. and human rights activists are condemning the violence displayed by Kenyan police who on Monday beat up opposition supporters protesting for election reforms ahead of polls next year. (News 24 http://bit.ly/1rUAyyf)
Massive flooding in Sri Lanka…At least 37 people were killed in landslides and flash floods and hundreds of thousands were displaced, Sri Lankan officials said on Wednesday, as torrential rains and gusting winds continued to lash the country just days after the beginning of the monsoon season. Rescue workers recovered at least 15 bodies from two major landslides in the Kegalle district, about 75 miles east of the capital, Colombo, said Pradeep Kodippili, a spokesman for the Disaster Management Center of Sri Lanka. Officials said the death toll from the flooding was likely to rise. (NYT http://nyti.ms/1rUAIWm)
Africa
A leading anti-slavery campaigner in Mauritania said he would again run for president after a Supreme Court decision freed him from 18 months in jail. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1TI2eNb)
A top U.N. humanitarian official called for greater world attention on the massive humanitarian crisis unfolding in Niger’s Diffa region, where violence at the hands of Boko Haram has forced over 240,000 people out of their homes. (ReliefWeb http://bit.ly/1TI2Imn)
A senior U.N. official on Wednesday welcomed the freeing of a Nigerian Chibok schoolgirl abducted more than two years ago by Boko Haram, but said the jihadist group still holds thousands more people. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1TpboSF)
MENA
A 19-year-old Israeli woman has spent more than three months in military prison in what supporters say is the longest sentence ever handed down to a female conscientious objector. (AP http://yhoo.it/1TI26gO)
Morocco’s foreign ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador to express anger over a “scandalous” State Department report on human rights in the North African kingdom. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1TI2iwm)
A Tunisian court overturned a six-month suspended jail term for a popular comedian, a television host and a colleague for identity theft, fraud and insulting the head of state. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Tpb8Di)
A woman in the Emirates has been sentenced to a fine and deportation for violating her husband’s privacy by checking his mobile to see if he was being unfaithful. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1TpbTfA)
Asia
At least 20 people were killed in flash floods that hit the northern Afghan province of Sari Pul. (AP http://yhoo.it/1TI378z)
India is revising its rehabilitation plan for forced laborers to include transgender and other marginalized people, speed up court proceedings, and increase compensation for rescued workers. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1TI3eRs)
Kyrgyzstan’s security agency has arrested an opposition activist as part of a probe into the alleged plot to overthrow the government. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Tpc6zo)
The Americas
Brazil’s week-old interim government is regressive and unequal, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said in a statement Wednesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1TpbHwW)
One person was killed and 85 injured Wednesday as two strong aftershocks shook Ecuador a month after a devastating earthquake left some 700 dead. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Tpciyz)
The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control warned Wednesday that a legislative measure to combat the Zika virus is inadequate to deal with the swelling threat to public health. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Tpc0HZ)
…and the rest
The World Health Organization on Wednesday urged Europe to be vigilant ahead of a possible summer outbreak of the Zika virus. (Yahoo! http://yhoo.it/1Tpc0rs)
A small tent city has formed on Serbia’s border with Hungary where migrants are waiting to cross into the European Union despite border closures. (AP http://yhoo.it/1TI2YBS)
Opinion
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy discusses why the United States should ban arms sales to Saudi Arabia and fundamentally alter a 70-year-old alliance between D.C. and the House of Saud. (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/1WE8M5C)
Migrant Brides in the Matchmaking Industry: Blurring the Binaries (UN University http://bit.ly/1Tp9SA5)
Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war finally ended seven years ago. But moving on from the past is not easy (Monkey Cage http://wapo.st/1Tp9VvL)
There’s a “Gender Data Gap” that’s standing in the way of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/1Tp9OQD)
Universal health coverage: political courage to leave no one behind (Lancet Global Health http://bit.ly/1Tpa02i)
Kenya’s Young Inventors Shake Up Old Technology (IPS http://bit.ly/1TpbvNX)
Hypertension – Why the Approach Has Changed to Tackle the Silent Killer (The Conversation http://bit.ly/1Tpb5at)
Why more money alone won’t improve crisis response (IRIN http://bit.ly/1TI3lfV)
We will lose the battle against HIV without LGBT decriminalisation (Guardian http://bit.ly/1TI3zn4)
