Humanitarian agencies in the region are already stretched thin. “Tanzanian refugee camps and relief workers, struggling to help tens of thousands of Burundian refugees, fear a new wave may pour across the border because of the violence that hit Burundi’s presidential election on Tuesday, aid agencies said. A policeman and an opposition official died in violence marring the start of the election, in a nation already hit by opposition boycotts and protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term…Some 80,000 Burundian refugees have entered Tanzania since Nkurunziza announced in April he would seek a third term, the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children said.” (TRF http://bit.ly/1COeQAx)
An HIV Breakthrough…A girl infected with HIV at birth has been in remission for 12 years after stopping her treatment. “Now a young woman of eighteen and a half, she was infected at birth by mother-to-child transmission and is now in virological remission, despite not having taken any antiretroviral therapy for the last twelve years. Monitored in the French ANRS pediatric cohort, this young woman seems to have benefited from the treatment that was initiated shortly after her birth and was continued for almost six years before being stopped. Her case suggests that long-term remission after early treatment may be achieved in children infected with HIV at birth, as demonstrated in 20 adults in the ANRS VISCONTI study.” (Institute Pasteur http://bit.ly/1TORU8t)
Another Horrid Example of Violence Against Women in India…More than 100 women have fallen victim to this kind of witch hunt in Assam. “A 63-year-old woman in India was beheaded Monday after a mob of more than 200 people accused her of witchcraft. The incident took place at a village in the eastern state of Assam, Indian broadcaster NDTV reported. Seven people have been arrested for the lynching, which occurred after the woman was dragged out of her house and attacked.” (Time http://ti.me/1TORZZD )
Quote of the day: “It is a bit of a crisis of the postwar settlement for multilateralism to adapt … it’s not so easy to invent an alternative to the UN. The UN has to be made to work,” said former UNDP head Helen Clark about the changing world around the UN. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1GA1Usx)
Africa
A policeman and an opposition official died in violence marring the start of Burundi’s presidential election, already hit by opposition boycotts and protests over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1OvgRTp)
Traditional rite-of-passage ceremonies in South Africa left 32 boys dead and more than 150 hospitalised, local authorities said Tuesday, as the annual initiation season drew to a close. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1HHja3l)
The U.N. refugee agency reports increasing numbers of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon are moving away from the volatile border area to a UNHCR camp in a more secure region farther inland. (VOA http://bit.ly/1COqMCn)
Zimbabwe’s government said it has approved $971 million in foreign investments in the first half of the year versus $555 million a year ago, but a law handing majority control of businesses to locals was putting off investors. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1OvgRmh)
Nigeria’s presidency said on Tuesday that the World Bank had pledged to spend up to $2.1 billion to rebuild the northeast of the country that has been devastated by Boko Haram militants. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1VqTteq)
During an address to the nation, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said security and trade will top the agenda during U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the country later this week. (VOA http://bit.ly/1COqMlD)
The trial of Chad’s former ruler Hissene Habre on war crimes charges has been adjourned until September 7 after the presiding judge appointed three new lawyers on Tuesday for the defence. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1COeV7p)
Hollywood actor George Clooney launched an initiative on Monday to track down and help bring to justice those funding and profiting from Africa’s deadliest conflicts in a bid to fight corruption in war zones. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1COeVEm)
Some 65 percent of Zimbabwe’s 14 million people now rely on the informal sector to survive, according to the African Development Bank. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1COeUAk)
Aid dependency, weak governance and protracted conflict mean that Central African Republic is in danger of becoming “the case study of a failed state”, a report warns. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1GA1SkB)
MENA
A UN aid ship docked in Yemen’s devastated port city of Aden Tuesday, bringing in desperately needed relief supplies after four months of fierce fighting between rebels and loyalist fighters. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1HHj7V1)
The International Organization for Migration reports an extortion racket is flourishing in war-torn Yemen. The IOM says traffickers, armed groups and others are kidnapping vulnerable Ethiopian migrants on their way to Saudi Arabia and holding them for ransom. (VOA http://bit.ly/1OvsXvN)
Greek authorities say a boat carrying 150 to 200 migrants has been located adrift in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and two merchant ships have reached it to offer help or evacuate the vessel if necessary. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Ovt0Yt)
Asia
Thailand’s human rights body has named as a commissioner the wife of a lawyer who disappeared 11 years ago after criticizing police conduct. (AP http://yhoo.it/1VqTpvb)
Eleven members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party were sentenced Tuesday to long prison terms after a court convicted them of insurrection over a protest last year that turned violent. (AP http://yhoo.it/1VqTq2h)
The Laos football federation pledged Tuesday to investigate a local club over allegations teenage African players were trafficked to the communist country and forced to sign contracts without adequate pay. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1VqTqPG)
A new $100 billion international development bank backed by developing countries launched in Shanghai Tuesday, in what official Chinese media called a challenge to Western-backed international lenders. (VOA http://bit.ly/1COqOtT)
The Americas
A Honduran spring is happening, led by young people mobilising over the social networks, who are flooding the streets with weekly torch marches against corruption and impunity. (IPS http://bit.ly/1Ih3Ewq)
President Michelle Bachelet’s push to relax strict abortion laws in socially conservative Chile has created a rift inside her ruling coalition and key elements of the reform are likely to be scratched. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1GA2lmF)
…and the rest
A diverse coalition of 24 leading British scientific institutions has issued a communique urging strong and immediate government action at the U.N. climate change conference set for Paris in December. (IPS http://bit.ly/1GzMJ2M)
The Rockefeller Foundation is adding $64 million more to an already $100 million initiative that recognizes cities for their ideas on physical, social and economic resilience. (AP http://yhoo.it/1VqTsXO)
A key United Nations body granted accreditation to civil society organization Freedom Now, overturning an earlier rejection of an application by the U.S.-based group that works to free prisoners of conscience worldwide. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1OvsZnq)
Pope Francis said he had “great hopes” that a fundamental agreement to tackle climate change would be reached in Paris later this year and that he believed the United Nations needed to play a central role in the fight against global warming. (Guardian http://bit.ly/1GA25nT)
Opinion/Blogs
Five ways aid agencies can better communicate with those they help (IRIN http://bit.ly/1COpCqq)
Sustainable development is failing but there are alternatives to capitalism (Guardian http://bit.ly/1MiUrW8)
The How Is As Important As the What When It Comes to Technology for Development (The Conversation http://bit.ly/1IhcRVF)
The Political crisis leaves Burundi on the Brink of Economic Collapse (African Arguments http://bit.ly/1g2GG1J)
Three concerns ahead of Côte d’Ivoire poll (IRIN http://bit.ly/1COqI5n)
Confessions of a humanitarian: the consultant’s manifesto (Guardian http://bit.ly/1IhcD0H)
Will Development Finance Serve Africa? (Addis Fortune http://bit.ly/1g2GwYh)
Science is a perfect but overlooked target for aid (SciDevNet http://bit.ly/1g2GBLm)
Obama rewarding oppression in Cuba (CNN http://cnn.it/1MiUSzO)
Playing the EU asylum lottery (IRIN http://bit.ly/1GzN19L)
17 suggestions for supporting peacebuilding in fragile states (Guardian http://bit.ly/1OvtwFI)