Conakry, July 26 (IANS) The date of December 31, 2024, will not mark the end of the transition that began in Guinea after the army seized power on September 5, 2021, Amara Camara, secretary general of the Guinean presidency, said Thursday.

Camara told a press conference here that the “dynamic compromise” reached with the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) consists of “readjusting the transition schedule at each stage.”

“At each stage reached, we will sit down with ECOWAS to reassess and make readjustments,” Camara said, Xinhua news agency reported.

He noted that the elections that are supposed to end the transition must be organized in peace, social tranquility, and harmony. “We will compete to ensure that this peace is guaranteed so that today’s transition process is not interrupted.”

Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, the government spokesperson, said the Guinean government intends to organize a referendum “before the end of this year to provide the country with a constitution” as a prelude to organizing the elections.

In an interview on March 12, Prime Minister Bah Oury estimated that there was still “a lot to do” to complete the transition schedule, and he thought that 2025 was “a good time to crown the whole process.”

The National Committee of Reconciliation and Development, the ruling military junta of Guinea, announced as soon as it took office on September 5, 2021, that it would hand over power on December 31, 2024.

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Bujumbura, July 26 (IANS) Three cases of monkeypox have been reported in three health facilities in western Burundi, according to Burundian health authorities.

“On July 22, 2024, three new alerts of suspected monkeypox virus cases were reported to the health ministry,” said Lydwine Baradahana, minister of public health and fight against AIDS, in a press release issued in Bujumbura, the economic hub of Burundi, Thursday evening.

“They are clinically characterized by a fever, joint pains, and generalized skin eruptions,” she said, adding that a multidisciplinary team made up of the urgency operations center from the health ministry, the National Reference Laboratory and the World Health Organization was deployed to the ground to conduct investigations and do the necessary screening.

“After laboratory analyses, the three samples turned positive for the monkeypox virus,” said Baradahana, Xinhua news agency reported.

Monkeypox is a viral disease that affects both humans and animals. Symptoms include an unexplained acute rash and back pain, swollen lymph nodes, acute onset of fever, headache, muscle and body aches, and low energy.

“The disease is highly contagious and causes death if it is not treated quickly. That’s why we recommend hygiene measures like handwashing and avoiding contact with people having symptoms of the monkeypox virus,” said Baradahana.

She reassured the population that adequate measures have been taken, noting that the three cases are under treatment in health facilities and that contact cases are being closely monitored.

On July 16, a child with symptoms similar to monkeypox died at a health facility in Mugamba, in Burundi’s southern province of Bururi. The deadly disease has been reported in neighboring eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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Paris, July 26 (IANS) France’s TGV high-speed train services are gradually resuming after severe disruptions caused by arson attacks, with one-third of the trains expected to be operational by Friday afternoon, announced the resigning Minister for Transport, Patrice Vergriete.

France’s TGV high-speed train traffic on the Atlantic, Northern, and Eastern routes was severely disrupted due to arson attacks targeting installations, the French national rail company SNCF reported on its X social media account Friday morning.

According to the SNCF, 800,000 passengers were affected by the attacks, with some trains diverted and many canceled.

International travel through the English Channel and to neighbouring Belgium has also been disrupted, Xinhua news agency reported.

Despite the attacks, the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games on Friday evening will proceed unaffected, as the incidents have no impact on the transport network in the Paris region, confirmed Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, quoted by BFMTV.

“All the evidence indicates that these acts were deliberate,” Vergriete told BFMTV on Friday. The resigning Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, stated on X, “Our intelligence services and law enforcement agencies are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.”

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Beirut, July 26 (IANS) Two Hezbollah members were killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on a Lebanese village in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.

The sources, who spoke anonymously, said that an Israeli warplane fired two air-to-ground missiles targeting the vicinity of the southeast village of Markaba in southern Lebanon, killing two Hezbollah members. The two killed men were Abbas Hussein Hammoud and Fadl Nour al-Din.

They added that a civil defense ambulance transported their bodies to a hospital in the border area, and several houses adjacent to the targeted point were damaged.

Military sources said that Israeli warplanes and drones carried out on Friday four raids on four towns and villages in the eastern sector of the border area, and Israeli artillery shelled nine towns and villages with about 45 shells, causing material damage and the outbreak of several fires that the Civil Defense worked to extinguish.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced in separate statements that air defense units fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli warplanes inside Lebanese airspace in the southern region, forcing them to retreat and withdraw behind the Lebanese border with occupied Palestine, Xinhua news agency.

In this context, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon spokesman Andrea Tenenti expressed on Friday concern over the increasing intensity of the conflict across the borderline and the potential risks of a sudden, wider conflict that is difficult to control.

He called on all concerned parties to cease fire and return to the full implementation of Resolution 1701, which is ultimately the path to stability and peace.

He called on Lebanon and Israel to commit to UN Resolution 1701, which remains the most effective framework for addressing the current situation and working towards a long-term settlement of the conflict.

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Moscow, July 26 (IANS) Russia’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by 200 basis points from 16 to 18 per cent, it said in a statement Friday.

Inflation continues to rise and currently surpasses the bank’s April forecast, the bank said, adding that domestic demand continues to grow faster than the capacity to expand supply.

The central bank has revised its inflation forecast for 2024, raising it to 6.5-7.0 per cent. It said that annual inflation would decline to 4.0-4.5 percent in 2025 and stay close to 4 percent further on, Xinhua news agency reported.

Data for the second quarter of 2024 indicate that the Russian economy continued to grow rapidly. However, labor shortages were on the rise, and the growth in domestic demand did not lead to a proportional increase in the supply of goods and services but rather intensified inflationary pressures, according to the statement.

“Given that from January 1 to July 28, 2024, the average key rate is 16 per cent, from July 29 to the end of 2024, the average key rate is projected to be in the range from 18.0-19.4 per cent,” the bank said.

The bank will review the possibility of raising the key interest rate further at its upcoming meeting, scheduled for September 13.

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