African Union ‘dismayed’ US withdrawing from WHO

The African Union expressed dismay Wednesday over President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, urging his administration to reconsider.Just hours after taking office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order directing the US to withdraw from the UN agency, which threatens to leave global health initiatives short of funding.African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said in a statement he was “dismayed to learn of the US government’s announcement to withdraw” from the Geneva-based WHO.Washington is easily the biggest financial contributor to the organisation and the pullout comes as Africa faces a range of health crises, including recent outbreaks of mpox and Marburg viruses.”Now more than ever, the world depends on WHO to carry out its mandate to ensure global public health security as a shared common good,” Moussa Faki said, adding he hopes “the US government will reconsider its decision”.He said Washington was an early supporter of the Africa CDC, the African Union’s health watchdog which works with the WHO to counter present and emerging pandemics.Trump has repeatedly criticised the WHO over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and said prior to his inauguration that “World Health ripped us off.”The United States was in the process of withdrawing from the WHO during Trump’s first term, but the move was reversed under Joe Biden.Tom Frieden, a former US senior health official, wrote on X that the withdrawal “weakens America’s influence, increases the risk of a deadly pandemic, and makes all of us less safe.”It comes as fears grow of the pandemic potential of a bird flu outbreak, which has infected dozens and claimed its first human life in the United States earlier this month.WHO member states have been negotiating the world’s first treaty on handling future pandemics since late 2021 — negotiations now set to proceed without the US.

11 people run over by train in India

Eleven people were killed Wednesday after rumours of a fire on their train caused them to jump off and were crushed to death by another incoming train, officials said.The incident in the western Maharashtra state is the latest to hit India’s creaking rail network, which carries millions of passengers each day and has seen several disasters over the years. “People were run over by a train,” said Ayush Prasad, a top official of Jalgaon district where the accident occurred, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the country’s financial hub of Mumbai. “11 people have died and about five are undergoing treatment.”  It was not immediately clear whether the fire alarm was false. A spokesperson for Indian Railways was quoted by local media as having said that someone had pulled the “alarm chain” on a Mumbai-bound train, following which “a few passengers got down from the train”.  “At that moment, they were run over by another train going in the opposite direction,” the spokesperson said.India’s interior minister Amit Shah expressed his “deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident”.Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the “tragic incident” was “deeply disturbing”. “Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives,” he said in a post on X. India has launched a $30 billion railway infrastructure modernisation in a bid to boost the economy and connectivity.But analysts say that while the number of accidents has gone down over time, India’s antiquated rail system still has a long way to go.An average of 20,000 people died each year between 2017 and 2021 in rail accidents, according to official records. In 2023, nearly 300 people were killed when a passenger train and a stationary goods train collided, with the derailed compartments then striking another fast-moving passenger service.

Fin de vie: “Pas question d’abandonner” le sujet qui sera à l’agenda parlementaire “le plus vite possible”

Le gouvernement n’a pas l’intention “d’abandonner” le projet de l’aide légale à mourir qui sera à l’agenda parlementaire “le plus vite possible”, même si l’exécutif souhaite le distinguer de celui des soins palliatifs, a assuré mercredi la porte-parole du gouvernement Sophie Primas qui veut “rassurer les associations”.”Ce sujet sera à l’agenda le plus vite possible. Il n’est pas question du tout de l’abandonner, mais il est question de libertés individuelles, du vote du Parlement sur des sujets qui sont des sujets distincts”, a-t-elle affirmé à l’issue du Conseil des ministres.François Bayrou a suscité l’inquiétude des partisans de l’aide légale à mourir en faisant savoir mardi qu’il souhaitait aborder séparément ce sujet, clivant, de celui des soins palliatifs, accédant ainsi à une demande des adversaires de l’euthanasie et du suicide assisté.”Le Premier ministre est très attaché à cette liberté parlementaire de pouvoir avoir une réponse à chacun de ces sujets. Quand vous devez en même temps répondre à la question sur l’accès de chacun aux soins palliatifs et sur l’aide active à mourir, vous n’avez pas de liberté sur aucun des deux choix, puisque l’un engage l’autre”, a justifié Sophie Primas. Elle a distingué “la possibilité pour tous les Français de bénéficier de soins palliatifs, qui sont une réponse à la peur tout à fait légitime vis-à-vis de la souffrance et de la fin de vie” d’un sujet “éthique qui a trait à l’aide active à mourir”.En optant pour deux textes, M. Bayrou répond à une demande de ceux qui sont opposés ou sceptiques sur l’aide à mourir, principalement à droite de l’échiquier politique. Mais cette scission suscite la désapprobation des partisans de cette aide comme la présidente de l’Assemblée nationale Yaël Braun-Pivet.

Wall Street ouvre en hausse, tirée par les résultats d’entreprises et des annonces de Trump

La Bourse de New York a ouvert en hausse mercredi, portée par des résultats d’entreprises globalement au-dessus des attentes et soulagée par des annonces du président américain Donald Trump sur les droits de douane et l’intelligence artificielle.Dans les premiers échanges, le Dow Jones gagnait 0,26%, l’indice Nasdaq grimpait de 0,96% et l’indice élargi S&P 500 prenait 0,53%.

Spaniard kidnapped in Mali thanks Algeria after rescueWed, 22 Jan 2025 14:25:50 GMT

A Spanish man kidnapped by an armed group in the turbulent Algeria-Mali border area thanked the Algerian authorities on Wednesday after his rescue.Identified as Joaquin Navarro, the Spaniard had been on a trip last week when he was kidnapped “by an armed group made up of five people”, according to the Algerian authorities.Late on Tuesday, …

Spaniard kidnapped in Mali thanks Algeria after rescueWed, 22 Jan 2025 14:25:50 GMT Read More »

Spaniard kidnapped in Mali thanks Algeria after rescue

A Spanish man kidnapped by an armed group in the turbulent Algeria-Mali border area thanked the Algerian authorities on Wednesday after his rescue.Identified as Joaquin Navarro, the Spaniard had been on a trip last week when he was kidnapped “by an armed group made up of five people”, according to the Algerian authorities.Late on Tuesday, Algerian national television broadcast his arrival at a military airport near the capital aboard a military jet flown from Algeria’s southernmost commune of Tin Zaouatine.The foreign ministry in Madrid confirmed on Wednesday that the man had been freed with the participation of Spanish diplomatic and intelligence services.No group has claimed responsibility for Navarro’s kidnapping.The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a coalition of predominantly Tuareg separatist rebel groups in northern Mali, said he was released on Monday following their intervention.The FLA said “kidnappers affiliated to an organised crime network operating in the Sahel and beyond” seized Navarro in southern Algeria on January 14 and took him into northern Mali.”I am very happy to be here,” Navarro said at an Algiers press conference, standing next to Madrid’s ambassador to Algeria Fernando Moran Calvo-Sotelo and Algerian Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Lounes Magramane.He thanked the Algerian authorities “for their kindness”, singling out President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.”This is a complicated moment for me,” Navarro said, speaking in French.”I am still in shock and I will need a few days to be able to recover a state of calm and tranquillity. I really need it.”Calvo-Sotelo also thanked the Algerian authorities, citing “decisive decisions and actions”.”Algeria has a preeminent role in the fight against terrorism and in guaranteeing the security of all of us,” the Spanish envoy added.Algeria and Mali share a vast 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) desert border in the Sahel region of North Africa which is difficult to monitor.The region plays host to Tuareg rebel groups and Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims.The Islamic State group is also active in the northern Menaka region of Mali, which has been embroiled in a political, security and economic crisis since 2012.