Top stories from DAWNS Digest
Huge Breakthrough in Quest for Malaria Vaccine
Very encouraging news out of the US National Institutes of Health. “More than three dozen volunteers received multiple, intravenous doses of a vaccine produced with a weakened form of the disease, scientists from the National Institutes of Health, the Navy, Army and other organizations reported Thursday. Though the results were promising, more extensive field testing will be required, the researchers wrote. Nevertheless, the it marks the first time any vaccine trial has shown 100% success in protecting subjects from the mosquito-borne tropical disease, which sickens more than 200 million a year and killed about 660,000 in 2010.” (CNN http://bit.ly/1bg9dsP)
Assad’s Motorcade Attack (Was it?)
Assad has reportedly emerged unscathed from an attack on his motorcade by Syrian rebels. Trouble is, the national government is denying that there was an attack all. “Syrian rebels said on Thursday they targeted President Bashar al-Assad’s motorcade heading to a Damascus mosque to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, but state television showed him unharmed and the government denied he had been attacked. …’The attack rattled the regime, even if Assad was not hit,’ [Firas al-Bitar, head of the Tahrir al-Sham brigade] told Reuters from an undisclosed location in the capital.” Meanwhile, the government is completely denying the claims. “‘The news is wholly untrue,’ Information Minister Omran Zoabi said.” (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1cNDPDG)