NIAMEY, Niger: Nine members of an armed rebel movement seeking the release of Niger’s ousted president surrendered Monday, officials in the north of the military-ruled country said.
The rebel Patriotic Liberation Front (FPL) was set up in August 2023, a month after Niger’s democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown in a military coup.
Since then, Bazoum has been imprisoned with his wife Hadiza at the presidential palace in the capital Niamey.
“Nine FPL fighters repented and handed over their weapons and ammunition on Monday during a ceremony in the presence of General Ibra Boulama,” the governor of Agadez, an official from the governorate of the northern desert region near Libya told AFP.
FPL members began surrendering at the start of the month after discreet negotiations by “influential local personalities,” the Air-Info media outlet reported.
On November 1, FPL spokesman Idrissa Madaki and three other members turned themselves in separately in two towns near the Libyan border, according to Niger’s army and national television.
Last week, FPL leader Mahmoud Sallah was “provisionally stripped” of his nationality as well as seven members of the Bazoum regime who were suspected notably of “terrorist bomb attacks.”
Sallah had claimed responsibility for attacks against the army in the north and disabling part of a crucial pipeline carrying crude oil to Benin in June.
He had also threatened to attack strategic sites.
Another rebel movement also demanding Bazoum’s release, the Patriotic Front for Justice (FPJ), has held since June the military prefect of northeastern Bilma and four of his security team, kidnapped after an ambush.
Authorities in Niger, which is also battling attacks by jihadist groups, have stepped up security in recent weeks, with military patrols, checks and searches of vehicles.
Niger rebels fighting for ousted president’s release hand over weapons
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Niger rebels fighting for ousted president’s release hand over weapons
UN appeals for funds to help contain Uganda Ebola outbreak
KAMPALA: The UN has launched an emergency appeal to raise $11.2 million to help fund Uganda’s response to an Ebola outbreak that has killed two people, after the country’s health budget was strained by US cuts to foreign aid.
Uganda declared the outbreak of the highly infectious and often fatal hemorrhagic disease in January in the capital Kampala after the death of a male nurse at the East African country’s sole national referral hospital.
A second Ebola patient, a four-year-old child, died last week, the World Health Organization said, citing the country’s Health Ministry.
Uganda’s 10 confirmed cases have been linked to Ebola’s Sudan strain which does not have an approved vaccine.
In a statement sent out on Tuesday, the UN said the funds would cover the Ebola response from March to May in seven high-risk districts.
“The goal is to rapidly contain the outbreak and address its impact on public health as well as associated social-economic life of affected people,” said Kasonde Mwinga, Uganda representative for the World Health Organization, a UN agency.
Uganda has traditionally relied heavily on the US for its health sector funding.
During the last Ebola outbreak in 2022-2023, the United States provided $34 million to fund case management, surveillance, diagnostics, laboratories, infection prevention and control among other activities, according to a US Embassy report.
But President Donald Trump’s administration imposed an aid freeze and US funding to Uganda’s health sector has been slashed, hitting the country’s public health budget, according to government officials.
‘Stranded’ NASA astronaut backs Musk in rescue row
- Elon Musk recently clashed online with Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, who accused him of lying in a Fox News interview
- Musk’s response to Mogensen included a slur for people with intellectual disabilities, sparking backlash from the space community
WASHINGTON: NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, stranded on the International Space Station since June, said Tuesday he believes Elon Musk’s claim that the billionaire proposed an early rescue plan, but it was ultimately rejected by then-President Joe Biden.
Wilmore and fellow astronaut Suni Williams were originally scheduled for an eight-day mission, but their return was complicated when the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they were testing was deemed unsafe for the journey home.
Their prolonged stay has recently become a point of contention, with Musk and President Donald Trump accusing Biden’s administration of abandoning the pair to avoid making Musk look like a savior.
“I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says is absolutely factual,” said Wilmore, a former Navy test pilot. He admitted he wasn’t privy to the ins and outs of the drama, but added, “I believe him. I don’t know all those details.”
Musk recently clashed online with Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, who accused him of lying in a Fox News interview when he claimed the astronauts were abandoned for “political reasons.”
Mogensen pointed out that, since the Boeing Starliner was deemed unsafe for return with people aboard, NASA had planned for months to bring Wilmore and Williams back on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived at the ISS in September with two spare seats.
No alternative plan has been publicly discussed, and Crew-9’s return has been delayed by SpaceX itself due to setbacks in preparing the Dragon spacecraft for Crew-10, now scheduled for launch on March 12.
Interrupting the standard crew rotation would also be a deviation from protocol, and extended astronaut stays are not unprecedented.
In 2023, Frank Rubio became the first NASA astronaut to spend over a year in space after a meteoroid damaged the Russian Soyuz spacecraft he rode up on.
Similarly, after the Columbia disaster in 2003, when a shuttle disintegrated during re-entry, NASA suspended flights for two years, forcing astronauts to rely on Soyuz and extend their missions.
Musk’s response to Mogensen included a slur for people with intellectual disabilities, sparking backlash from the space community. Former NASA astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly defended Mogensen and criticized the SpaceX founder.
“Obviously, we’ve heard some of these different things that have been said,” Wilmore commented. “We have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk, and obviously respect and admiration for our president of the United States, Donald Trump. We appreciate them... and we’re thankful that they are in the positions they’re in.”
Wilmore’s remarks come just days after acting NASA administrator Janet Petro raised eyebrows by stating the agency aimed to put “America first,” echoing Trump’s political slogan.
“We’re going to be putting America first, we’re making America proud, we’re doing this for the US citizens,” she said before a private Moon lander touched down on Sunday — a notable shift from NASA’s longstanding stance that its space achievements were “for all mankind.”
Suspect in deadly German car-ramming gives no information on motive and is ordered held in custody
- The suspect gave no information in his appearance before a judge, “so that his motive for the act is still unclear”
- A search of his apartment in nearby Ludwigshafen also turned up no clues as to a motive
MANNHEIM, Germany: The suspect in a car-ramming in the German city of Mannheim that killed two people gave no information about his motive Tuesday as he appeared before a judge who ordered him held pending a possible indictment, investigators said.
The 40-year-old German man was arrested shortly after the car-ramming Monday at around noon on a busy pedestrian street in downtown Mannheim in southwestern Germany. Eleven people were injured, five of them seriously, and the latter were still being treated in hospitals on Tuesday.
Mourners laid flowers in the city center to honor the victims.
Mannheim prosecutors and state police said a district court in the city ordered the man kept in custody pending possible formal charges on suspicion of two counts of murder, five of attempted murder and 11 of bodily harm.
The investigators said in a statement that the suspect gave no information in his appearance before a judge, “so that his motive for the act is still unclear.” A search of his apartment in nearby Ludwigshafen also turned up no clues as to a motive.
The investigation so far points to mental illness, the statement added. The suspect is believed to have acted alone. Prosecutors and police said that objects the man had in his car and his home — including a blank gun and written documents — were being evaluated.
The suspect tried to kill himself by shooting himself in the mouth before he was arrested, Tuesday’s statement said. He was initially taken to a hospital but subsequently handed over to police.
Officials said on Monday that they had no indication of an extremist or religious motivation.
Prosecutors have said the man, whose identity was not revealed in line with German privacy rules, has previous convictions.
He served a short prison sentence for assault more than 10 years ago and was convicted for drunken driving. He had also been investigated for a hate speech offense on Facebook in 2018, for which he was fined, prosecutors said without giving further details.
Cars have been used as deadly weapons in other acts of violence in recent months in Germany.
Last month, a 2-year-old girl and her mother died two days after they were injured in a car-ramming attack on a union demonstration in Munich. A 24-year-old Afghan man who came to Germany as an asylum-seeker was arrested. Prosecutors said he appeared to have an Islamic extremist motive.
In December, six people were killed and more than 200 injured when a car slammed into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg. The suspect is a 50-year-old doctor who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative For Germany party.
Smoke grenades tossed in Serbian parliament, lawmaker suffers stroke
- A live TV broadcast showed black and pink smoke billowing inside the parliament
- Vucic later said authorities would hold all those deputies involved in the fracas to account, calling it “hooliganism“
BELGRADE: Serbian opposition lawmakers threw smoke grenades and used pepper spray inside parliament on Tuesday to protest against the government and to support demonstrating students, with one legislator suffering a stroke during the chaos.
Four months of student-led demonstrations, sparked by the deaths of 15 people when a railway station roof collapsed, have drawn in teachers, farmers and others to become the biggest threat yet to President Aleksandar Vucic’s decade-long rule, with many denouncing rampant corruption and incompetence in government.
At the legislative session, after the ruling coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) approved the agenda, some opposition politicians ran from their seats toward the parliamentary speaker and scuffled with security guards.
Others tossed smoke grenades and used pepper spray. A live TV broadcast showed black and pink smoke billowing inside the parliament, which has seen brawls before, in the decades since the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1990.
Vucic later said authorities would hold all those deputies involved in the fracas to account, calling it “hooliganism.”
Under Serbian law, parliamentary deputies enjoy immunity from prosecution but can lose it if they commit serious crimes.
POLITICIAN HURT
Speaker Ana Brnabic said three lawmakers were injured and one, Jasmina Obradovic of the SNS party, had suffered a stroke and was hospitalized.
Zlatibor Loncar, the Health Minister later said Obradovic was in a serious condition.
As the session continued, ruling coalition politicians debated while opposition lawmakers whistled and blew horns.
Opposition deputies also held signs reading “general strike” and “justice for those killed,” referring to those who died when the station roof collapsed in the city of Novi Sad last November.
Outside parliament hundreds of protesters stood in silence to honor those killed. Protest leaders called for a major rally in the capital Belgrade on March 15.
The ruling coalition says Western intelligence agencies are trying to destabilize Serbia and topple the government by backing the protests.
“We have a proposal ... to have a transitional government,” Radomir Lazovic of the opposition Green-Left Front told supporters in front of the parliament.
The opposition says a transitional government should secure conditions for free and fair elections, but Vucic and his allies have so far rejected that demand.
“This was a failed attempt of the ruling coalition to show it is in control ..., and (there’s) a potential for an escalation,” Radivoje Grujic, a Warsaw-based consultant told Reuters, commenting on the parliamentary session.
Parliament was due to adopt a law increasing funds for universities — one of the main demands of protesting students.
But other items put on the agenda by the ruling coalition including the one about noting the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic angered the opposition.
The session has been adjourned and is due to resume on Wednesday.
Pope stable with no new respiratory crises but will sleep with ventilation mask, Vatican says
- In its late update, the Vatican said Francis had no further respiratory episodes during a day spent praying, resting and undergoing respiratory physiotherapy
- Doctors said that they would put the noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask back on him while he sleeps
ROME: Pope Francis was in stable condition Tuesday and breathing with just the help of supplemental oxygen after respiratory crises a day earlier, but will resume using a ventilation mask at night, the Vatican said.
In its late update, the Vatican said Francis had no further respiratory episodes during a day spent praying, resting and undergoing respiratory physiotherapy.
Doctors said that they would put the noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask back on him while he sleeps, but that during the day he was only using high flows of supplemental oxygen.
Doctors said his prognosis remains guarded, meaning he is not out of danger.
Pope Francis stabilized enough after two respiratory crises to resume using a nasal tube for oxygen, rather than a ventilation mask, as he continued to fight pneumonia, the Vatican said earlier on Tuesday.
The 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, woke up after sleeping through the night. The fact that Francis no longer needed the mask by Tuesday morning was a sign of some improvement after crises that required doctors to extract “copious” amounts of mucus from his lungs.
But the doctors’ prognosis remained guarded, meaning he was not out of danger.
The Vatican said as of Tuesday morning, Francis no longer needed to wear the noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask that covers his nose and mouth to pump oxygen into his lungs and was just receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube.
Francis suffered two respiratory crises a day earlier. Doctors performed two bronchoscopies, in which a camera-tipped tube was sent into his airways with a sucker at the tip to suction out fluid. The pope remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical personnel during the crises, the Vatican said.
His medical team has not provided an in-person update on his condition since Feb. 21, a sign of the up-and-down nature of his hospitalization, the longest of his 12-year papacy.
Argentines pray for the pope at hospital
On Tuesday, a group of Argentines from the country’s embassies in Rome brought a statue of Our Lady of Lujan to the Gemelli hospital to pray for Francis. The Argentine pope is particularly devoted to the blue veiled Lujan Madonna, which has been revered in Argentina since the 17th century.
“I am very happy to be now close to him,” said the Rev. Fernando Laguna, parish priest of the Argentine church in Rome. “I would like to hug him, but it’s not possible, but he told us that a prayer is like a hug So I am happy despite the pain.”
Vatican prepares for Lent without Francis
Francis’ treatment comes as the Vatican prepares for Lent, the solemn period leading up to Easter on April 20. As it is, a cardinal has been designated to take Francis’ place this week on Ash Wednesday, which opens Lent with a traditional service and procession in Rome. The pope was also supposed to attend a spiritual retreat this coming weekend with the rest of the Holy See hierarchy.
On Tuesday, the Vatican said the retreat would go ahead without Francis but in “spiritual communion” with him. The theme, selected weeks ago and well before Francis got sick, was “Hope in eternal life.”
Francis, who is not physically active, uses a wheelchair and is overweight, had been undergoing respiratory physiotherapy to try to improve his lung function. The accumulation of secretions in his lungs was a sign that he doesn’t have the muscle tone to cough vigorously enough to expel the fluid.
Doctors often use noninvasive ventilation to stave off intubation or the use of more invasive mechanical ventilation. Francis has not been intubated during this hospitalization. It’s not clear if he has provided any instructions on the limits of his care if he declines seriously or loses consciousness.
Catholic teaching holds that life must be defended from conception until natural death. It insists that chronically ill patients, including those in vegetative states, must receive “ordinary” care such as hydration and nutrition, but “extraordinary” or disproportionate care can be suspended if it is no longer beneficial or is only prolonging a precarious and painful life.
Francis articulated that in a 2017 speech to a meeting of the Vatican’s bioethics think tank, the Pontifical Academy for Life. He said there was “no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy.” He added: “It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of ‘overzealous treatment.’”
