Washington, July 26 (IANS) Former US President Donald Trump welcomed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, calling out “Come on in, come on in”.

Netanyahu was accompanied by his wife Sara Netanyahu, who were both greeted warmly by Trump, in a video the former President posted on Truth Social, a social media platform he owns.

Trump and Netanyahu had shared a close bond going back to the former President’s first term, when he had moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in recognition of a long-standing Israeli demand for the world to consider Jerusalem as the capital, despite its status as a city party claimed by the Palestinians.

Trump had also recognised Golan Heights as a part of Israel, which had captured the area from Syria in the 1967 war.

The former President had capped his tight embrace of Israel by brokering the Abrahamic Accords that paved the way to the normalisation of ties between Israel and Bahrain and Israel and the UAE. They fell out in early 2021 when Netanyahu became one of the first world leaders to call and congratulate President Joe Biden, whose election Trump has continued to dispute to this day.

No details were available at this time of the meeting on Friday.

Netanyahu is a close observer of US elections and has inserted himself into US politics several times over the years. He has recently quarrelled with Biden over military supplies for Israel and could be preparing himself for Trump’s return to the White House, a possibility that is being considered in capitals around the world.

The Israeli Prime Minister addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress on Wednesday and met President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris in the White House on Thursday.

–IANS

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Yangon, July 26 (IANS) Water level of major rivers in Myanmar has exceeded the warning mark in 12 towns across the country, Myanmar’s weather agency reported on Friday.

Myanmar’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology said that the water level of the rivers, including Ayeyarwady river, Sittaung river and Ngawun river, has risen above the warning mark.

The weather agency has urged residents living near riverbanks and in low-lying areas to take precautionary measures, Xinhua news agency reported.

Heavy rains have been hitting parts of the Southeast Asian country in recent days, causing floods in many areas.

July and August are the middle of the rainy season in Myanmar, and heavy rains are typical during the period.

–IANS

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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.

–IANS

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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.

–IANS

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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.”

–IANS

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