GENEVA (Reuters) -- The European Commission has suspended funding to the World Health Organization’s programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to concerns over the UN agency’s handling of the sexual abuse scandal. An Oct 7 letter from the Commission marked “SENSITIVE”, seen by Reuters, informed the WHO of the immediate suspension of financing for five WHO programs, including its Ebola and COVID-19 operations. The total amount is more than 20.7 million euros ($24.02 million). The Commission, in an emailed statement to Reuters in Brussels, confirmed the move, saying that it expected partners to have “robust safeguards to prevent such unacceptable incidents as well as to act decisively in such situations”.

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BRUSSELS (Xinhua) – The top court of the European Union has fined Poland one million euros ($1.16 million) per day for ignoring an EU ruling that called for the suspension of the country’s Supreme Court disciplinary chamber. The decision by the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ) is the latest episode in a clash between Poland and the EU institutions over the rule of law. The European Commission had requested the financial penalty until the Polish government acts to improve the functioning of the Polish Supreme Court and suspends new laws deemed to undermine judicial independence.

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ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece mounted a rescue operation on Friday for a cargo ship carrying about 400 migrants after it sent out a distress signal off the island of Crete, the coast guard said. The Greek coast guard quoted passengers as saying the Turkish-flagged vessel had sailed from Turkey, calling it “one of the largest search and rescue operations carried out in the eastern Mediterranean.” Authorities said the ship was being taken to land but gave no further details. The nationalities of the passengers were not immediately made public.

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LONDON ( Al-Jazeera) -Ethiopia’s military has carried out an air raid on the capital of the war-torn Tigray region that a hospital official said killed ten people and wounded more than 20. The government said the attack on Thursday, the latest in a campaign of air bombardments, hit a factory in Mekelle used by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The air force “destroyed the second part of Mesfin Industrial Engineering. The facility was used by TPLF terrorist group for maintaining its military equipment,” government spokeswoman Selamawit Kassa said.

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LONDON (Reuters) -A man convicted of murder in the United States experienced convulsions and vomited as he was executed by lethal injection in Oklahoma, where the practice is being challenged in court. John Grant, 60, was the first inmate to be put to death in Oklahoma in six years following a series of botched executions – possibly related to the use of the sedative midazolam – led to a temporary moratorium on capital punishment in the state. Grant, a Black man, was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of a white prison cafeteria worker, Gay Carter.