Ukraine: Duo Jet In For Putin Truce Talks

War-Torn Ukraine Facing AIDS Care 'Disaster'

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 06 Februari 2015 | 16.15

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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16.15 | 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 | 16.15

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.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Recording Of Crash Pilot's Last Words Released

An audio recording of the last communication between air traffic control and stricken TransAsia flight GE235 has been released as a rescue operation continues in Taiwan.

The audio reveals the pilot said "mayday, mayday, engine flameout" before the plane crashed in the Keelung River, killing at least 31 people.

Authorities say 12 people remain missing after the crash, which occurred shortly after the plane took off from Taipei's Songshan Airport.

Recovery teams worked through the night to lift the fuselage from the water and rescue workers retrieved the bodies of those who died.

There were 58 people on board the ATR 72-600 plane when it hit a road bridge and crashed into the river. Fifteen people survived.

Video taken by a passing driver's dashcam shows the aircraft's wing clipping a taxi after managing to avoid nearby buildings.

It then disappears from view, coming down on its side in the Keelung River about 25 metres (30 yards) from the bank.

The plane was heading for the Kinmen islands. As many as 31 passengers were Chinese, three of them children.

Kinmen's airport is a common link between Taipei and China's Fujian province.

The other 22 passengers, including one child, and five crew members were from Taiwan.

The plane, which went into service last year, was one of eight French-built ATR 72-600s ordered by TransAsia in 2012.

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Gallery: Rescue Operation Following Plane Crash

Workers hoist the wreckage of a TransAsia passenger jet that crashed into a river shortly after takeoff in Taipei, Taiwan

At least 19 people were killed and many trapped in the wreckage

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16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ukrainians Queue For Water As Shelling Nears

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By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent, in Luhansk

A humanitarian crisis is deepening in villages on the frontline of the conflict in Ukraine, with US Secretary of State John Kerry due to hold talks with the country's president.

Sky News has 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.

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

Sky News visited the village as Mr Kerry headed to Kiev for talks with Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko.

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.

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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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"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.

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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 | 16.15

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.

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.

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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 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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Her 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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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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Written By Unknown on Selasa, 03 Februari 2015 | 16.15

By Katie Stallard, in Horlivka, East Ukraine

Pro-Russian rebels on the front line in eastern Ukraine have told Sky News they are not interested in peace talks or compromise.

The team was given rare access to forward positions in the separatist-controlled city of Horlivka.

Soldiers from the self-proclaimed 'Army of Novorossiya' (a tsarist term for the region, which translates as new Russia) said the time for talking had passed.

"Before, we wanted to talk. But now we are not interested in that," a commander who gave his name as 'Shusha' explained.

"They killed so many children, women and civilians so now we have nothing to talk about with them."

The commander said the two sides were just 700 metres apart at his position, as the rebels attempted to encircle a Ukrainian army position in the small town and strategic railhead of Debaltseve.

Another fighter, nicknamed 'Yakut', said peace talks were pointless and the conflict could only be resolved by military means.

"As soon as we start peace talks they change their positions and become more powerful," he said.

"When we start to press them, the international community asks for peace and ceasefire. But all negotiation and all ceasefire only helps them."

The Ukrainian government says the rebels are receiving weapons and support from Russia, a claim the Kremlin denies.

Aid workers have called for an immediate ceasefire to allow urgently-needed humanitarian supplies in.

At the city hospital in Horlivka, we saw more civilian casualties being brought in.

A man hit by mortar shrapnel in the street was rushed into emergency surgery, but doctors were unable to save his leg.

A middle-aged lady was stretchered in with a serious head injury. Paramedics said a shell had landed near her apartment block.

Behind her, in the ambulance, an elderly woman asked over and over again where she was and what had happened to her walking frame.

In the corridor outside the operating theatre, another frightened family waited for news.

They had been hiding in the basement of a relative's house when it was hit by a shell.

"The house was destroyed," a mother told us. "Our family and their family were there."

"The boy died. Her son." She pointed to a lady holding a small baby. "He was seven years old," she said.

"My son lost his face, he is here in the hospital now," she added.

Both sides have accused the other of indiscriminately shelling civilian areas.

It is little comfort to those caught in between.

16.15 | 0 komentar | Read More

Malu Rasanya

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