Some good news from the WHO is being released today. ”Guinea and Sierra Leone each recorded a single cases of Ebola in the past week, putting a year-end goal of ending the deadly epidemic within reach although risks remain, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. ’The progress is real … as of today we have two cases (in the week to Aug. 2),’ [WHO Assistant-Director Bruce] Aylward told a news briefing upon return from West Africa where the epidemic has killed more than 11,000 people since December 2013. ‘It is a realistic goal to have transmission stopped this year.’ In the previous week to July 26, there were seven confirmed cases in the two countries, which had been the lowest in the past year, according to the WHO.” (Reuters http://bit.ly/1DrpJID)
An Historic Peace Deal May End This Long Simmering Insurgency…”Hopes of ending one of India’s oldest insurgencies have risen with a landmark peace accord in the remote northeastern state of Nagaland. But questions remain whether the agreement will endure. India’s government has sealed the peace deal with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, a feared insurgent group that has waged a violent struggle for an independent homeland for the Naga people for more than six decades. Nagaland is one of seven remote northeastern states in which India has been battling several separatist rebel groups. The restive region borders China, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan.” (VOA http://lat.ms/1KP0Iaf)
Did the U.S. water down its human trafficking report? In the weeks leading up to a critical annual US report on human trafficking that publicly shames the world’s worst offenders, human rights experts at the State Department concluded that trafficking conditions hadn’t improved in Malaysia and Cuba. And in China, they found, things had grown worse. The State Department’s senior political staff saw it differently – and they prevailed. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1P4UZOM)
It’s Really, Really Hot in the Middle East Right Now…And this could have some political ramifications. (NYT http://nyti.ms/1KP19B9)
Africa
The attempted killing of a leading Burundian human rights activist, shot in the face by a gunman, triggered international outrage and concern on Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1N8yzuP
The International Criminal Court must broaden its investigation into the violence that ripped Ivory Coast apart in 2010 and 2011 to include violations committed by loyalists of President Alassane Ouattara, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1DruHow)
State radio in Liberia says 14 men illegally mining for gold in Liberia’s west fell victim to a landslide. They were trapped under rubble and are presumed dead. (AP http://yhoo.it/1N8yAz0)
The United States could lift a ban on shipping arms to Nigeria’s military to help fight the militant Islamist group Boko Haram if Abuja improves its human rights record, visiting U.S. Congress members said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1DrpJrV)
Amnesty International said on Tuesday that the Sudanese army had committed war crimes in the conflict-hit South Kordofan region, including bombing and shelling civilian areas and infrastructure. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1DruG48)
Sudan said on Monday it could freeze court verdicts against armed rebels if they agree to join national reconciliation talks, a renewed attempt by the government to end fighting that has long mired the country. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1eR5QyR)
French police have released the chief of staff to Gabon’s President Ali Bongo who was detained for questioning in a corruption probe after the foreign ministry said he had diplomatic immunity, a judicial source said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1eR5Oaj)
A South African judge struck the corruption case against fiery opposition politician Julius Malema off the roll on Tuesday, saying that the firebrand leader had waited too long for the trial. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1DrpNI7
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi leaves this week on a visit to three of the African nations hardest hit by an outbreak of the Ebola virus, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1DruJNb)
MENA
Blocked from selling Yemen’s oil, the Houthi-led government has slipped into a financial crisis after four months of conflict with a Saudi-led military coalition. (WSJ http://on.wsj.com/1KP0Ar7)
A severe funding shortfall has led to the closure of 84% of health programmes supported by humanitarian partners, including the World Health Organization, in Iraq, leaving almost 3 million people without access to urgently needed health care services. (WHO http://bit.ly/1KP13cS)
More than 2,000 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year, data showed Tuesday, bearing testimony to migrants’ increasingly desperate attempts to reach the continent. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1N8ywiH)
Asia
Floods from days of torrential rain have now claimed at least 180 lives in India with one million people sheltering in relief camps after fleeing surging waters, officials said Tuesday. (AFP http://bit.ly/1M3wzFG)
Myanmar said on Tuesday it had appealed for international assistance to help provide food, temporary shelter and clothing for more than 210,000 people affected by widespread flooding following weeks of heavy monsoon rains. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Drubqx)
Twelve people were killed early Tuesday when an old building on the outskirts of Mumbai collapsed after days of heavy rain, an Indian official said. (AP http://yhoo.it/1N8ykjj)
Bowing to a public outcry, the Indian government on Tuesday said it would lift a days-old ban on hundreds of pornographic websites after critics accused the government of encroaching on personal freedoms. (LAT http://lat.ms/1KP0Iaf)
Pakistan on Tuesday hanged a man whose case triggered an international outcry because his lawyers said he was arrested as a juvenile and tortured into confessing to murder. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1N8yiYW
South Korean President Park Geun-hye removed her minister of health on Tuesday after criticism over the handling of an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome which killed 36 people as it spread through hospitals. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1N8ykQu)
Malaysia’s anti-graft agency has said that nearly $700 million deposited into the prime minister’s personal bank accounts were from “donations” and not related to a brewing scandal. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1N8yQxP)
The Americas
Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera has expressed his outrage over the murder of photojournalist Ruben Espinosa and four women in the city last week. (BBC http://bbc.in/1eR5f0f)
Jamaica’s LGBT community is holding its first gay pride celebration in the island’s capital, a weeklong event that was previously almost unthinkable in a Caribbean country long described as the one of the globe’s most hostile places to homosexuality. (AP http://yhoo.it/1DruD8q)
Opinion/Blogs
Is creating a new nation for the world’s refugees a good idea? (Guardian http://bit.ly/1N8ycR5)
Africa’s entrepreneurial dilemma (Al Jazeera English http://bit.ly/1IEulqB)
Claim that Jonathan left Nigeria with 7 trillion naira deficit does not add up (Africa Check http://bit.ly/1M3zq1i)
16 Crucial Lessons After a Decade of Experience in Humanitarian Work (Douglas La Rose http://bit.ly/1M9qDMV)
Beware development geeks bearing gifts (KM on a Dollar a Day http://bit.ly/1Ii53l4)
South Africa: Are Minimum Wages Desirable? (Africa in Fact http://bit.ly/1M9wWQw)
The UN has set itself some ambitious new goals (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/1M9x0zR)
Amnesty must stand firm on decriminalising sex work (Guardian http://bit.ly/1P4uoSa)
In The Fight Against Tsetse Flies, Blue Is The New Black (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/1DrpeOz)
Problems in the immigration court system are seemingly endless (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/1M3wIc9)
Searching for Indonesia’s Amartya Sen (The Jakarta Globe http://bit.ly/1P4VzfD