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Originally posted by Tigerlily:
Libya sentences Bulgaria nurses to death By

KHALED EL-DEEB and WILLA THAYER, Associated Press Writers

10 minutes ago



TRIPOLI, Libya - A court convicted six foreign health workers Tuesday on charges of deliberately infecting 400 children with the AIDS virus and sentenced them to death, setting off shouts of joy in Tripoli.

The verdict, which will be automatically referred to Libya's Supreme Court, drew quick condemnation from European nations, which have charged that the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were being made scapegoats. A Western medical study, released too late for the trial, said the infections occurred before the medical workers came to Libya.

The United States and European Union had called for the release of the defendants, warning that the case would affect Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's effort to repair his rogue image and rebuild ties with the West.

But Libyans strongly supported a conviction. A few dozen relatives of infected children — about 50 of whom have died of AIDS — waited outside the court holding poster-sized pictures of their children and placards reading "Death for the children killers" and " HIV made in Bulgaria."

After the verdict, the crowd chanted "Execution! Execution!"

"God is great!" yelled Ibrahim Mohammed al-Aurabi, the father of an infected child, as soon as the presiding judge finished reading the verdict. "Long live the Libyan judiciary!"

The nurses and doctor have been in jail since 1999 on charges that they intentionally spread the AIDS virus to more than 400 children at a hospital in the city of Benghazi during a botched experiment to find a cure for the disease.

Western nations blame the infections on unsanitary conditions at Libyan hospitals and accuse Tripoli of using the six workers as scapegoats.

Bulgaria and the EU swiftly condemned the verdict.

"Sentencing innocent people to death is an attempt to cover up the real culprits and the real reasons for the AIDS outbreak in Benghazi," Bulgaria's parliament speaker, Georgi Pirinski, said in the capital, Sofia.

EU spokesman Johannes Laitenberger in Brussels, Belgium, said the bloc's leaders were "shocked by this verdict." He said there was no immediate decision on EU action against Libya but said he "did not rule anything out."

France, where about 150 of the infected children have been treated, reacted strongly.

"France deplores this verdict," said Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, adding that his government was "fundamentally opposed" to the death penalty.

The chief Bulgarian counsel for the workers, Trayan Markovski, said the defendants would appeal to the Libyan Supreme Court. Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam told reporters the verdict would automatically be referred to the Supreme Court.

He added that after the Supreme Court review, the case would also be heard by the Judicial Board, which could overturn the ruling. He described the case as having "a political dimension," alluding to international pressure on Libya to free the defendants.

Presiding Judge Mahmoud Hawissa took just seven minutes to confirm the presence of the accused — who all answered "yes" in Arabic — and read the judgment in the longest and most politicized court process in modern Libyan history.

The five Bulgarians and the Palestinian did not react.

Detained for nearly seven years, the defendants had previously been convicted and condemned to death, but Libyan judges granted them a retrial last year after international protests over the fairness of the proceedings.

An international legal observer, Francois Cantier of Lawyers Without Borders, criticized the retrial as lacking scientific rigor. "We need scientific evidence. It is a medical issue, not only a judicial one," Cantier said after the verdict.

On Dec. 6, too late for use in the trial, Nature magazine published an analysis of HIV and hepatitis virus samples from the children. Using changes in the genetic information of HIV over time as a "molecular clock," analysts concluded the virus was contracted before the six defendants arrived at the hospital — perhaps even three years before.

Oxford University, which took part in the study, issued a statement saying the verdict "runs counter to the conclusion reached by a research team from Oxford University's Zoology Department who, in collaboration with several European universities, showed that the subtype of HIV involved began infecting patients long before March 1998, the date the prosecution claims the crime began."

Idriss Lagha, president of a group representing the victims, has rejected the Nature article, telling a news conference Monday in London that the nurses had infected the children with a "genetically engineered" virus. He accused them as doing so for research on behalf of foreign intelligence agencies.

In testimony last month, the defendants denied intentionally infecting children.

"No doctor or nurse would dare commit such a dreadful crime," said nurse Cristiana Valcheva, adding that she sympathized with the victims and their families.

A second Bulgarian, Valentina Siropulo, testified that of her seven years in Libya, "I've spent only 6 months working as a nurse and the rest of the time in prison."

Gadhafi, who has been trying to refashion his image from leader of a rogue state, got his government to ask Bulgaria to pay compensation to the children's families.

But Bulgaria rejected the idea as indicating an admission of the nurses' guilt.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061219/ap_on_re_af/libya_bulgaria_aids_trial

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They're just looking for a scape goat. Talk about ignorance at its best. That isn't to say though, that governments haven't been guilty in using populations as lab specimens.But, something doesn't seem quite right. I truly feel sorry for those health workers.

Posts: 820 | Registered: Mar 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Cosmogirl:
I read that they (the 5 Bulgarian nurses, and 1 Palestinian Doctor) have been in jail for 7 years already, and that they were doing an "experiment" with regards to trying to find a cure for AIDS. In their minds these 'subjects" were like lab rats for their experiments. I think less of a mass murder plot, and more of a marginalizing of human value issue.

Of course, who knows what dark motive may lay in the middle of the mess. But the talking points are that they were working to cure AIDS, not spread it. Is it reasonable to assume that there are no humans involved in the "race for the cure'? or that all victims were infected discretely (separately). From a pure research viewpoint, having the sample group all be infected by the same strain and at a measurable interval is clean science. It's the use of orphans that offends the public, but I'm sure that this is happening elsewhere, ALOT.

for more facts go to http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7109/full/443254b.html

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Posts: 3168 | From: If you don't like it, don't look or read it! | Registered: Oct 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Cosmogirl:
WOW!!! It is fully possible for two discrete readers to form differing opinion on the same subject matter.

Reading cited sources? Eat me you presumptuous bitch. I get to have my own take on whatever situation I want, and I am fully capable of having an opinion and a say that is contrary to the source. Not that you understand that level of critical thought. I cite an article, then state my opinion.

Try it sometime in lieu of presenting others research as immutable. Then return to your hole of personal misery and self hatred, which is frankly where I prefer to see you.

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Posts: 3168 | From: If you don't like it, don't look or read it! | Registered: Oct 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Cosmogirl:
So clever, and so witty. Hubby knock you around again and now you're all bitter? I thoroughly enjoyed last week's pity party you threw, detailing all of your families transgressions upon you and how poor poor you had no control and were treated so sorely. What a mean mean man you married, how could he have hidden his dark druggie side when you were spending SO MUCH TIME getting to know him and falling in love legitimately?

I laughed out loud when I saw where your relationship and parenting patterns began. No neighbors there to help you run the pot head out? Nobody there to show you how to report domestic violence? Why do you care if they deport him, seems he is as trashy as you are. Like does tend to draw like...

If you ever want a lesson on how to get over yourself and move on with your life.. call Dr Phil. Because nobody needs a kick in the ass and a lifeplan more than you do.

Re: Opinion v/s summary... try having an opinion one day, that should make all the difference. The cite says: for more facts, not "this is where I culled the info."

But it's good to see you & your mom share the same taste in men. And at 32, aren't you a little old to be blaming everyone around you for your messes? No wonder you are so inherently jealous of anyone who has better coping skills than you do, not to mention better parents, lives and futures. But the rest of the world, grows up and accepts responsibility for thier conditions and choices. You seem incapable of separating yourself from your "stories" and poor thing, you just can't imagine why you keep getting victimized.

(BTW, not suprised to see you speculating on the sexual lives of dogs, after Kong, I imagine a Spaniel would be a step up for you)

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You are stuck at work and he isn't answering his mobile or your home phone heh?

This is why its helpful for the hubby to have a job. At least then he can screw his co-workers and stay away from your friends and relatives 40 hours a week.

Posts: 3168 | From: If you don't like it, don't look or read it! | Registered: Oct 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Cosmogirl:
Sweetie, it's 2:30 in the afternoon... at least I have a job. And at the rate I get paid we don't call it "stuck", we call it a regular work day.

More insults to a man who doesn't read them or even know of them, whatever are you hoping to accomplish by that? I smack you, you smack my husband? Stupid woman, learn how to fight.

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Posts: 3168 | From: If you don't like it, don't look or read it! | Registered: Oct 2006  |  IP: Logged | 

posted                      

quote:

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Originally posted by Tigerlily:
Libya sentences Bulgaria nurses to death By

KHALED EL-DEEB and WILLA THAYER, Associated Press Writers

10 minutes ago



TRIPOLI, Libya - A court convicted six foreign health workers Tuesday on charges of deliberately infecting 400 children with the AIDS virus and sentenced them to death, setting off shouts of joy in Tripoli.

The verdict, which will be automatically referred to Libya's Supreme Court, drew quick condemnation from European nations, which have charged that the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were being made scapegoats. A Western medical study, released too late for the trial, said the infections occurred before the medical workers came to Libya.

The United States and European Union had called for the release of the defendants, warning that the case would affect Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's effort to repair his rogue image and rebuild ties with the West.

But Libyans strongly supported a conviction. A few dozen relatives of infected children — about 50 of whom have died of AIDS — waited outside the court holding poster-sized pictures of their children and placards reading "Death for the children killers" and " HIV made in Bulgaria."

After the verdict, the crowd chanted "Execution! Execution!"

"God is great!" yelled Ibrahim Mohammed al-Aurabi, the father of an infected child, as soon as the presiding judge finished reading the verdict. "Long live the Libyan judiciary!"

The nurses and doctor have been in jail since 1999 on charges that they intentionally spread the AIDS virus to more than 400 children at a hospital in the city of Benghazi during a botched experiment to find a cure for the disease.

Western nations blame the infections on unsanitary conditions at Libyan hospitals and accuse Tripoli of using the six workers as scapegoats.

Bulgaria and the EU swiftly condemned the verdict.

"Sentencing innocent people to death is an attempt to cover up the real culprits and the real reasons for the AIDS outbreak in Benghazi," Bulgaria's parliament speaker, Georgi Pirinski, said in the capital, Sofia.

EU spokesman Johannes Laitenberger in Brussels, Belgium, said the bloc's leaders were "shocked by this verdict." He said there was no immediate decision on EU action against Libya but said he "did not rule anything out."

France, where about 150 of the infected children have been treated, reacted strongly.

"France deplores this verdict," said Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, adding that his government was "fundamentally opposed" to the death penalty.

The chief Bulgarian counsel for the workers, Trayan Markovski, said the defendants would appeal to the Libyan Supreme Court. Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam told reporters the verdict would automatically be referred to the Supreme Court.

He added that after the Supreme Court review, the case would also be heard by the Judicial Board, which could overturn the ruling. He described the case as having "a political dimension," alluding to international pressure on Libya to free the defendants.

Presiding Judge Mahmoud Hawissa took just seven minutes to confirm the presence of the accused — who all answered "yes" in Arabic — and read the judgment in the longest and most politicized court process in modern Libyan history.

The five Bulgarians and the Palestinian did not react.

Detained for nearly seven years, the defendants had previously been convicted and condemned to death, but Libyan judges granted them a retrial last year after international protests over the fairness of the proceedings.

An international legal observer, Francois Cantier of Lawyers Without Borders, criticized the retrial as lacking scientific rigor. "We need scientific evidence. It is a medical issue, not only a judicial one," Cantier said after the verdict.

On Dec. 6, too late for use in the trial, Nature magazine published an analysis of HIV and hepatitis virus samples from the children. Using changes in the genetic information of HIV over time as a "molecular clock," analysts concluded the virus was contracted before the six defendants arrived at the hospital — perhaps even three years before.

Oxford University, which took part in the study, issued a statement saying the verdict "runs counter to the conclusion reached by a research team from Oxford University's Zoology Department who, in collaboration with several European universities, showed that the subtype of HIV involved began infecting patients long before March 1998, the date the prosecution claims the crime began."

Idriss Lagha, president of a group representing the victims, has rejected the Nature article, telling a news conference Monday in London that the nurses had infected the children with a "genetically engineered" virus. He accused them as doing so for research on behalf of foreign intelligence agencies.

In testimony last month, the defendants denied intentionally infecting children.

"No doctor or nurse would dare commit such a dreadful crime," said nurse Cristiana Valcheva, adding that she sympathized with the victims and their families.

A second Bulgarian, Valentina Siropulo, testified that of her seven years in Libya, "I've spent only 6 months working as a nurse and the rest of the time in prison."

Gadhafi, who has been trying to refashion his image from leader of a rogue state, got his government to ask Bulgaria to pay compensation to the children's families.

But Bulgaria rejected the idea as indicating an admission of the nurses' guilt.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061219/ap_on_re_af/libya_bulgaria_aids_trial

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I read that a couple of these children actually died HOURS after leaving! Seems that perhaps they were infected with much more than HIV/AIDS, I didn't think HIV moved that quickly.
It's another typical attempt for a govt to not want to take responsibility much less try to change hygiene of their medical facilities and in the end, it is the people who suffer. I'm sure the parents are there rallying for the deaths of these foreigners, after all, HIV is still a western disease in arab countries is it not? Guess it'll hit them one day when it's too late and these people are dead and they can't change things anymore. Sad....

Posts: 13440 | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged |