Ukraine: Duo Jet In For Putin Truce Talks

War-Torn Ukraine Facing AIDS Care 'Disaster'

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 06 Februari 2015 | 20.18

By Nick Martin, Sky News Correspondent

Hundreds of children were born with HIV unnecessarily in Ukraine last year because of a shortage of vital drugs, a Sky News investigation has discovered.

A year of conflict has led to claims the country's AIDS programme is "breaking down" and not enough is being done to fight the epidemic, which has plagued the former Soviet state for more than 25 years.

War in the east of the country and political turmoil in Kiev has choked off the supply of antiretroviral drugs used to prevent the spread of the virus.

International organisations like Unicef are worried that one of the key indicators - the transferral of the virus from pregnant women to unborn children - is beginning to rise for the first time since 2002.

"There is potential for a real disaster," said Giovanna Barberis, Unicef's representative in Ukraine.

"Because of the crisis in Ukraine the system is breaking down and there is a shortage of antiretroviral drugs.

"They cost money, they are expensive and whilst the international community is there to support, it is probably not enough."

Many pregnant women who should have received antiretroviral therapy did not get access to the drug and have gone on to give birth to HIV-positive babies, Ms Barberis said.

Months of turmoil have left Ukraine's finances shattered and the government forced to sign a $17bn (£11bn) bailout with the International Monetary Fund.

Despite the warnings, Ukraine's new health minister Alexander Kvitashvili told Sky News the country has "a grip" on the epidemic.

"We're very well prepared to face the challenges and we are ready to send that message to our international donors," he said.

"Given the situation in the country, given the full-blown Russian aggression that we're facing, given the financial crisis, I think we have a grip on the situation."

But doctors on the frontline of the fight against HIV do not agree.

The National Treatment Centre in Kiev is home to 20 children, all of whom have HIV.

Many of them have been abandoned by their mothers and left to live in state-run orphanages.

Dr Vera Checheneva, an HIV specialist and paediatrician, is one of the few doctors who agrees to treat children with HIV - such is the level of fear among the medical profession.

"At the moment I feel I am not in Ukraine, that I am in Africa or somewhere," she said.

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Gallery: Mothers And Children Shunned In War-Torn Ukraine

These are antiretrovirals which can help alleviate the symptoms of HIV or AIDS. They are expensive and Ukraine needs constant help from international donors in order to keep up supply

Dr Vera Checheneva is an HIV specialist and Paediatrician at the Okhmadut clinic in Kiev. She is one of the few doctors in Ukraine willing to treat children with HIV and AIDS

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20.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ukraine: Duo Jet In For Putin Truce Talks

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are due in Moscow for talks aimed at ending the 10-month conflict in Ukraine.

The pair will try to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to sign up to a peace plan as part of their biggest push yet to halt the crisis.

It follows a meeting in Kiev with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who said discussions had raised "hope for a ceasefire".

The West sees Mr Putin as the orchestrator of rebels who have taken territory in eastern Ukraine - something the Kremlin denies.

Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande say their new initiative is "based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine" - though few details have been made public.

Several previous peace deals have collapsed.

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Gallery: Latest Pictures From Ukraine

A serviceman from the battalion 'Aydar' throws a tyre on a fire during a protest against disbanding of the battalion in front of Ukraine's Defence Ministry in Kiev

Pro-Russian separatists vowed to mobilise up to 100,000 fighters for their latest east Ukraine offensive as the US mulled sending weapons to Kiev's out-gunned forces after the latest truce bid collapsed

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Russia's Foreign Ministry said Mr Putin was ready to hold constructive talks with European leaders and Russia would "do everything it can" to help resolve the crisis.

But the spokesman added that Ukraine was using weapons that had effects similar to those of weapons of mass destruction.

The conflict, which has claimed 5,350 lives, has led to a deterioration of relations between Russian and the West.

US Secretary of State John Kerry also visited Kiev and revealed that President Barack Obama was considering arming Ukraine.

"The president is reviewing all of his options, among those options is the possibility of providing defensive systems to Ukraine," Mr Kerry said.

"The president will make his decision soon but not before he has had a chance to hear back from myself and others."

He added that Washington would prefer a diplomatic solution and that the US backed a "helpful" peace plan Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande will present in Moscow.

However, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has warned that, in staging talks with European leaders, Mr Putin could be trying to "split the unity between the EU and the US".

Some 220 people have died in the last three weeks following an escalation of the violence.

Separatists allying themselves with Moscow have been fighting with Ukrainian troops as they attempt to set up independent states in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Meanwhile, hundreds of children were born with HIV unnecessarily in Ukraine last year because of a shortage of vital drugs, a Sky News investigation has discovered.

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Written By Unknown on Kamis, 05 Februari 2015 | 20.18

The father of the Jordanian pilot who was burned alive by Islamic State has told Sky News his son's killers are "wild beasts".

His condemnation came as Jordan's King Abdullah pledged a "relentless war" against the extremists as he flew home early from Washington for crisis talks over the response to the murder of Mu'ath Al Kassasbeh.

His country's response was swift, taking revenge by executing two prisoners after a horrific video of Mr Al Kassasbeh's killing was published online.

One of them was the Iraqi would-be suicide bomber Sajida al Rishawi, who the extremists had wanted freed.

Safi, the dead pilot's father, said: "My feeling is that of every father - I am mourning my own son.

"The whole world, the Arab world, the Jordanian society is mourning with me.

"What they did is more than criminal - it's never been seen before in history.

"Even animals couldn't do this - they are wild beasts, they have no connection to Islam.

"They are not human beings let alone Muslims.

"I think the reaction of Jordan will be very strong."

There has been widespread condemnation of the fighter pilot's death, with Saudi Arabia's new King Salman describing his murder as "inhuman and contrary to Islam".

Mr Al Kassasbeh was captured by the militants in December when his F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group's self-styled caliphate.

The 26-year-old's murder appeared to be aimed at pressuring the government of Jordan - a close US ally - to leave the coalition that has carried out months of airstrikes on IS positions in Syria and Iraq.

But experts say the brutality shown by the extremists against a fellow Muslim could backfire and serve to galvanise opposition against the militants.

20.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mothers Of Hostages Criticise US Policy

By Sky News US Team

The parents of two American journalists kidnapped in Syria have criticised the Obama administration's hostage policies.

Speaking to Sky News, the mothers of James Foley and Austin Tice cast doubt on whether media blackouts and a blanket ban on ransom payments are truly effective.

They also voiced shock at the "horrific" recent killings of a Jordanian pilot and two Japanese men by Islamic State militants.

Speaking at an event on press freedom in Washington DC, Mrs Foley said she hoped a new White House-ordered review on Americans held captive by terrorists overseas would bring changes.

Mrs Foley said the US government had kept her "totally" in the dark about her son, who was beheaded by Islamic State militants in August last year.

"Jim was let down big time," she said, adding that the family now regretted abiding by the media blackout.

The Foley family was left to negotiate by email with the captors, she said, after the FBI refused to discuss a ransom, angering the militants.

"There was no communications from our government agencies to us," she told Sky News at the Newseum.

"They were constantly asking us for information but nothing came back to us.

"We never knew a thing. They always told us Jim was the highest priority, trust us, don't talk to the media."

Mrs Foley said she never received any official notification of his death, only learning their nightmare had come true from a reporter.

Debra Tice, whose son Austin Tice was abducted in August 2012, said she was now hoping to "raise the volume" on his case.

She said her family's relationship with the FBI had "become acrimonious in a middle-school kind of way, unfortunately" because of the "information vacuum" from the agency.

A month after the 33-year-old freelance reporter went missing, a brief video uploaded to YouTube showed him blindfolded, apparently being walked through rocky terrain by Islamist militants.

The State Department raised the possibility at the time that the former US Marine was actually in the custody of the Syrian government. No ransom demands have been made.

The mothers also said the recent immolation of a Jordanian pilot in an Islamic State video had appalled them.

"The pain that family's feeling, it's just a horrific thing to go through again," said Mrs Foley.

Douglas Frantz, US Assistant Secretary of State for public affairs, accepted some of their points.

"We have had difficulty communicating consistently with families and I'm confident that the (hostage) review is going to fix this," he said.

He told Sky News the National Counterterrorism Center would report back with recommendations in the spring.

Mr Frantz also said the State Department was working "very hard" to free a 26-year-old female aid worker who is the Islamic State's last known US captive.

But he said ransom payments "put targets on the back of every American overseas and feed the kidnap economy".

20.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

IS Reaches Out To Women With Inequality Message

Women should "remain hidden and veiled", only leaving their homes in exceptional circumstances, according to an Islamic State manifesto intended as a recruitment tool.

The document includes a curriculum for teaching young girls how to be homemakers and mothers who are "sedentary, still and stable" - and condemns the notion of gender equality.

It also criticises the West's obsession with studying "the brain cells of crowd, grains of sand and fish arteries", and suggests such educational pursuits are a distraction from worshipping God, which is "the only reason for their existence".

Circulated widely on jihadist forums, the text was apparently released in an attempt to recruit women living in Saudi Arabia.

"Woman was created to populate the Earth just as man was," one passage reads.

"But, as God wanted it to be, she was made from Adam and for Adam. Beyond this, her creator ruled there was no responsibility greater for her than that of being a wife to her husband."

The fashion industry and beauty salons are deemed as the work of Satan.

"He wishes to bring her from her Paradise of covering and decency, and encourages her to spend huge amounts of money to change God's creation and demand that surgeons change her nose, ear, chin and nails," the document states.

"This is the 'real fashion of women' - things hanging from ears, hair shaved in some places and not in others."

A plan for "the ideal education of our girls" is also included, which takes place when they are between seven and 15 years old. Religious studies, knitting, cooking and Sharia law feature prominently in the curriculum.

"It is considered legitimate for a girl to be married at the age of nine," the text adds. "Most pure girls will be married by 16 or 17, while they are still young and active."

In another section, IS authors state: "Women gain nothing from the idea of their equality with men apart from thorns.

"Under 'equality' they have to work and rest on the same days as men, even though they have 'monthly complications' and pregnancies - in spite of the nature of her life and responsibilities to their husband, sons and religion."

The Quilliam Foundation, which translated the document from Arabic, has labelled it as "fundamentally misogynist".

The think-tank added: "This (treatise) enables us to get into the mindset of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women who willingly join its ranks.

"Its objective is clear. This is a piece of propaganda aimed at busting myths and recruiting supporters."

According to the group, the manifesto was not translated into English by IS because it would have been "ineffective – perhaps even counterintuitive - in achieving its propagandistic aims with a Western audience".

20.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

European Leaders Push Ukraine Peace Deal

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By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent, in Luhansk

Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande are travelling to Kiev and Moscow with a new peace initiative, amid a flurry of diplomacy to end what has been described as "a war on Europe's edge".

The German Chancellor and French President's proposal is "based on the territorial integrity of Ukraine", and is in response to the deepening humanitarian crisis on the frontline of the conflict.

A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Vladimir Putin was ready to hold constructive talks with the European leaders, and that Russia "will do everything it can" to help resolve the crisis in Ukraine.

However, he claimed the Ukrainian government was using weapons in the conflict zone which had effects similar to those of weapons of mass destruction.

There has been a considerable escalation of violence in recent days, and John Kerry is also in Kiev to meet the country's president, Petro Poroshenko.

As he arrived, the Secretary of State announced an additional $16.4m humanitarian aid to help civilians caught up in the conflict.

Sky News travelled to some of the areas worst-hit by the ongoing fighting, with a significant number now suffering without any running water.

They include the small village of Irmina, where people are being forced to queue for water from a local well and many are struggling to survive without power.

The shelling has been getting closer, food supplies are running low and people are running out of money.

But there is no major rescue effort in the village, located in Lukansk region. Help is not getting through and people say they have seen no humanitarian aid convoys.

"We have no jobs, we have nothing, how can we live?" one man asked.

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Gallery: Several Dead After Hospital Shelled

The shell hit around midday

Reports say four people were killed and several injured

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The hospital was badly damaged

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More than 5,300 people have already been killed in the war

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Another round of peace talks collapsed earlier this week

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"Shells were coming down - we were all sitting in the basements."

We met Svetlana Zorina, who works as a nurse at the maternity unit in the next town, queuing for water with her son. She told us she has not been paid since September.

"We have no water, sometimes no light. And they say that the water won't be back for a long time, because a shell hit the pipe," she said.

"They are shelling all the time. Today in the maternity hospital the windows were shaking, during the day and all night."

In the village market, stall after stall has closed down, and where there is food for sale there are few with money to buy it.

The Ukrainian government has cut off pensions to those living in rebel-controlled areas and the social care system is breaking down.

The self-proclaimed separatist "people's republics" have yet to fund an alternative.

"They're coming but they have no money, even to buy bread," stallholder Nina Andreeyevna said.

"We are helping some of them, but we can't help everyone - me, myself, I am one of them, I have no pension."

We heard rocket and artillery fire close to the village - parents are afraid to let their children play outside here now.

At a children's residential school we saw shrapnel damage to the walls, and the hollow of a mortar strike in the playground, reportedly one of several in the summer.

Teachers said the children were sleeping in the basement at night for safety, as fighting has intensified in the area over the last two weeks.

Those who could be sent home have gone back to their families, but staff are still caring for several children with special needs and a little girl who was orphaned three weeks ago.

"We always have winter clothes in our common room, because it's cold down there in the basement," teacher Lyudmila Anatoleyevna said.

"If we have electricity we use the heaters, if not we work with what we have.

1/9

Gallery: Ukrainian Army's New Conscripts

Conscripts attend a ceremony marking their enrolment in the Ukrainian army in Kiev

Relatives react as they attend the ceremony. Ukraine's parliament voted to refresh its front-line forces and resume partial conscription after a top security official warned Russian forces backing rebels had sharply increased military activity in the country's east. Continue through for more images

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"It's dangerous to go to school because the classroom is located in a different building, so they are spending their free time here in this building."

The teachers are not being paid and are dependent on local donations of food and medicine for the children.

The frontline in this region extends across a vast, rural area, leaving many small towns and villages increasingly isolated.

The recent upsurge in violence has prompted expressions of concern from the international community, but the fighting here has been going on for many months and conditions for people living here are deteriorating.

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Written By Unknown on Rabu, 04 Februari 2015 | 20.18

Iraqi Militant Executed After IS Murders Pilot

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Jordan has executed two prisoners after Islamic State murdered one of their pilots, a government spokesman has said.

One of those executed was Iraqi would-be suicide bomber Sajida al Rishawi, who was on death row for her role in a hotel attack that killed 60 people.

The other was Ziad al Karbouli, who had been an aide to the late former leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and who was sentenced to death in 2008 for plotting terror attacks on Jordanians in Iraq.

Jordan had promised a swift and lethal response after IS released a video showing captured pilot Mu'ath Al Kassasbeh being burned alive in a cage.

Since news of his death emerged, #IAmMuath has been trending on Twitter, with protesters chanting the slogan outside King Abdullah's palace in Amman.

The pilot's father, Safi, has said he "considers Mu'ath a martyr to God", and called on the Jordanian government "to take revenge for Mu'ath's blood".

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Gallery: Everything We Know About Sajida Al Rishawi

Sajida Al Rishawi, believed to be in her 40s, was known as the 'would-be bomber'. She was executed in Jordan following the murder by IS of Jordanian pilot Mu'ath Al Kassasbeh

She and her husband were involved in the 2005 Amman bombings, a plot to attack a string of Jordanian hotels

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Sixty people were killed and 115 injured after other suicide bombers targeted three hotels. Al-Rishawi's device, which was packed with ball bearings, failed to detonate

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She and her husband targeted a wedding party at the Radisson SAS hotel - the fathers of the bride and the groom were both killed

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In 2005 Al-Rishawi released a televised confession while in Jordanian custody. She was sentenced to death and lost an appeal against the conviction in 2007

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He added: "The blood of Mu'ath is this country's blood. The country has to take its revenge, and I call for no one to remain alive from Islamic State, I call for revenge by executing prisoners, and I call to erase the Daesh organisation."

IS had demanded the release of Rishawi in exchange for Mr Al Kassasbeh and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, who the militant group killed in a video posted online three days ago.

Jordan had agreed to the swap, but called off the deal after saying it had received no proof that the pilot was still alive.

Some Arab commentators had suggested jihadist Al Karbouli could also have formed part of a prisoner swap.

The two jihadists were hanged in Swaqa prison, a large facility 70km (45 miles) south of the capital, Amman, just before dawn, a security source told Reuters.

"They were both calm and showed no emotions and just prayed," the source added.

The killing of the pilot outraged Jordanians and drew worldwide condemnation, including from President Barack Obama and the UN Security Council.

Mr Al Kassasbeh was captured by the militants in December when his F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group's self-styled caliphate.

But observers say the extremists' brutality against a fellow Muslim could backfire and galvanise other Sunni Muslims in the region against them.

King Abdullah II, Jordan's leader, has portrayed the campaign against the extremists as a battle over values.

In a speech on Jordanian state television, he urged his countrymen to unite.

"It's the duty of all of us to stand united and show the real values of Jordanians in the face of these hardships," the monarch said from Washington.

In a statement before a meeting King Abdullah, US President Barack Obama vowed the pilot's death would "redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of our global coalition to make sure they are degraded and ultimately defeated".

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