Iraqi Militant Executed After IS Murders Pilot

Ukraine: Duo Jet In For Putin Truce Talks

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 06 Februari 2015 | 15.00

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.

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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War-Torn Ukraine Facing AIDS Care 'Disaster'

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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Parents Of US Hostages Criticise Obama Policy

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 05 Februari 2015 | 14.59

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".

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UK Can And Should Do More In IS Fight, Say MPs

By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent

Britain can and should be doing more in the fight against Islamic State, a group of MPs has said.

A report by the Commons Defence Select Committee also found the UK is contributing less than its NATO partners and that the British military lacks a strategy for defeating IS, also known as ISIS.

The report comes after the father of a Jordanian pilot murdered by IS denounced the group as "wild beasts".

The committee's chairman, Rory Stewart, said: "The UK should be focused much more on Iraq. It should be a higher priority.

"That doesn't mean combat troops on the ground. That means, to begin with, just understanding what is going on.

"That means putting military and civilian personnel on to the ground to start mapping who is the enemy, who are these people in ISIS or Da'ash?

"Who are our allies? How do we work with the Sunni tribes? How do we work with the neighbours? What is the US campaign plan? What is the Iraqi campaign plan?

"Once we answer those questions, and we need to answer them urgently, we're not going to begin to play a constructive role fighting ISIS."

Britain only has three military personnel stationed outside northern, Kurdish Iraq.

They have not yet made any specific pledges to send more. That number compares to 3,000 Americans, 300 Spanish personnel and 280 Italians.

Britain has so far contributed 40 heavy machine guns, but Germany is offering a vast arsenal of weapons, including 16,000 assault rifles, 10,000 hand grenades and 8,000 pistols.

RAF aircraft, confined to bombing Iraq and not Syria, have only contributed to 6% of the total strikes against Islamic State positions.

General Sir Richard Shirreff, former deputy supreme commander of NATO forces, is unimpressed with the UK effort, considering it is one of the P5 - permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

He said: "What we need to see from our political leaders is leadership and a preparedness to say, 'This isn't going to be easy, this isn't going to go away, this does affect us dramatically and domestically and internationally'.

"We have a role to play, we have responsibilities as a member of the P5, we have responsibilities in the area, we have history in the area, we have an understanding of the area and we need to be prepared to put our shoulder to the wheel."

The committee emphasised it was not calling for British combat troops to be deployed but saw a need for a strategy which is currently absent.

It also said it was "shocked by the inability or unwillingness of any of the service chiefs to provide a clear and articulate statement of the UK's objectives or strategic plan in Iraq".

:: Watch the special report IS - The New Terror at 2.30pm, 4.30pm and 8.30pm on Sky News, skynews.com and our mobile apps - channels Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 132.

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Iraqi Militant Executed After IS Murders Pilot

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 04 Februari 2015 | 14.59

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.

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 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 | 14.59

By Thomas Moore, Health and Science Correspondent

Britain could today become the first country in the world to legalise the creation of IVF babies with DNA from three different people.

MPs will debate the controversial technique that involves changing the genetic material passed down the generations.

The new regulations MPs will debate "make provision to enable mitochondrial donation" under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

It would allow women to have children without passing on serious and incurable diseases of the mitochondria, tiny power generators found in almost every cell.

Opponents question the technique's safety and warn it could lead to "designer" babies.

But Prof Dame Sally Davies, England's Chief Medical Officer, says the technique would prevent great suffering.

"The 37 genes in the mitochondria are for energy making. They do not make us who we are or what we are.

"Yet children born with defective ones often don't live a year or two.

"Others get gradual deterioration of muscles, heart, kidneys, vision and brain and die in their late teens and early 20s."

Mitochondrial donation has been pioneered by scientists at Newcastle University.

They propose using standard IVF techniques to fertilise an egg from an affected woman and another from a donor.

They would then remove from the affected embryo the nucleus, which contains 99.9% of the parents' DNA, and leave behind the defective mitochondria.

At the same time they would remove the nucleus from the donated embryo.

Finally they would transplant the nucleus containing the parents' genes into the donated embryo, which would then be implanted in the mother's womb.

It's estimated that 2,500 women in the UK are affected by mitochondrial diseases and could use the technique.

But David King, of Human Genetics Alert, urged MPs not to allow the technique.

"This is not about protecting embryos but about protecting children from the severe health risks of these unnecessary techniques and protecting everyone from the eugenic designer baby future that will follow from this.

"These diseases can be prevented through conventional egg donation - a reliable method that doesn't risk the child's health. All that these dangerous experimental techniques add is that that they allow the mother to be a genetic parent, which is not a medical benefit for anyone."

The technique has already been cleared by scientific and ethics watchdogs. The public have also been consulted and broadly supported its use.

Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, the UK's biggest research charity, said: "The Government is right to ask Parliament to support regulations that will allow the law to catch up with public and scientific opinion, and we urge MPs and peers to vote for them."

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Written By Unknown on Kamis, 05 Februari 2015 | 14.59

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