WHO names new head for Africa office
COTONOU, Benin – With nearly 5,000 dead of Ebola in West Africa, the World Health Organization elected a new director Wednesday of its Africa office, which has been accused of bungling the response to the outbreak in its early stages.
The new chief, Matshidiso Moeti, is a doctor from Botswana and a WHO veteran who stepped down as deputy director for Africa in March, the same month the crisis was announced.
The results of the five-candidate election were made public at a meeting of the U.N. agency in Benin and came amid the worst outbreak of the dreaded disease ever seen.
Ukraine to cut aid for rebel-held areas
KIEV, Ukraine – Ukraine will freeze budget subsidies for the eastern territories controlled by pro-Russian separatists, the prime minister announced Wednesday a move that could worsen the already grievous economic conditions there.
Aging industrial operations in Ukraine’s economically depressed but coal-rich east have for many years relied heavily on state subsidies.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told a government meeting that $2.6 billion in state support will be held back from rebel-held areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. He did not say what time period that subsidy figure represented.
Yatsenyuk said the payment of pensions and government benefits to residents in conflict-stricken parts of the east will resume after separatist forces have surrendered there. The government has not been paying pensions in those areas for several months, but has said back payments will be paid to recipients when the rebels move out.
U.S., France push Iran before talks resume
PARIS – With time running out on the latest round of negotiations, France and the United States on Wednesday stepped up demands for Iran to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful or risk scuttling the closest chance for a deal in years and losing a chance to ease crippling sanctions on Tehran’s economy.
The entreaty to Iran comes days before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is to meet with top diplomats to Iran and the European Union to discuss how to break the years-long deadlock before a Nov. 24 deadline. Iran is seeking global recognition for its right to generate nuclear power which it says it will use for energy, medical and other benign purposes and the removal of at least some Western penalties against its oil and financial sectors.
But much of the rest of the world fears that Tehran, which has hindered fully transparent inspections of its reactors over the years, wants to build an atomic weapon.
Associated Press
