
Malaria vaccine hailed as possible breakthrough
CBSN
A new vaccine against malaria has proven highly effective in trials, raising new hope that one of the world's deadliest diseases could be brought under control. According to the World Health Organization, malaria sickens around 230 million people a year and kills around 400,000, the majority of whom are children under the age of five.
"These are very exciting results showing unprecedented efficacy levels from a vaccine that has been well tolerated in our trial programme," said Halidou Tinto, director of the Institute of Research in Health Sciences and the trial's lead investigator, said in a statement put out by Oxford University. The new R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by Oxford University's Jenner Institute, has shown up to 77% effectiveness against the disease in Phase II trials. Scientists at The Jenner Institute also developed the coronavirus vaccine produced and distributed by drug company AstraZeneca.
Felix Baumgartner, the daredevil who made a record-breaking parachute jump from the stratosphere in 2012, died Thursday in a paragliding accident in Italy, a local mayor confirmed. Firefighters who responded to the scene said they found a paraglider that had crashed into the side of a swimming pool in the city of Porto Sant Elpidio, on central Italy's eastern coast.

Baghdad — A fire at a newly opened mall in eastern Iraq's Wasit province killed more than 60 people, including women and children, Iraqi officials said Thursday. The nation's Interior Ministry said in a statement that 61 people died, most of them from suffocation, in the blaze that broke out late Wednesday in the city of al-Kut.

Moscow — An American who spied on Ukrainian troops to help Moscow's military offensive in the country has been granted Russian citizenship, Moscow-installed authorities said Tuesday. Daniel Martindale spent two years in Ukraine after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, transmitting coordinates of military facilities to Russia's secret services, according to reports in Russian state media.