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Kaieteur News
Sunday April 15, 2012
Another stabbing sends man to hospital Iran, big powers agree: to keep talking ISTANBUL (Reuters) - At their first meeting after a year of sanctions and saberrattling over Iran’s nuclear programme, negotiators from Tehran and six world powers said “constructive” talks yesterday meant they would sit down again together next month.A deal to reconvene in Baghdad on May 23 had been billed in advance by diplomats as a mark of a positive resumption and both Western and Russian negotiators at the talks in Turkey spoke of a more engaged tone from Iran, whose chief negotiator said he wanted to talk next about lifting Western sanctions on Tehran. Washington made clear such a demand was premature, however. A senior U.S. official in Istanbul spoke of an “urgency ... for concrete progress” as the “window” for diplomacy was closing. Over the past year, Israeli
and U.S. warnings of military strikes if Iran does not stop working on some aspects of nuclear technology have stoked fears of war - and raised oil prices - in an unsettled Middle East. A resumption of the kind of prolonged dialogue spoken of by both sides could help dampen anxieties. “We expect that subsequent meetings will lead to concrete steps towards a comprehensive negotiated solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme,” said Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief who leads negotiations for the six powers. The group comprises the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain along with Germany. It is known as the P5+1.
Calling Saturday’s talks “constructive and useful”, Ashton said: “We want now to move to a sustained process of dialogue.” The meeting in Baghdad, a rare friendly venue for Iranians in the Arab world, would be part of a “step-bystep” approach. Junior officials would meet again before May 23, she added. Chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili, however, made clear that Iran had no intention of stopping its plants that enrich uranium to contain 20 percent of fissile material - much higher than the quality needed to generate electricity, but which Tehran says is for medical and other uses, not for warheads. Nonetheless, however remote a final accord may be between the Islamic republic and its adversaries, a return to the negotiating table may calm nerves after 15 angry months.
Kamla claims newspaper article damaged her personal, national and international reputation PORT OF SPAIN - CMC Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar is demanding as a matter of “extreme urgency” a full and unequivocal retraction and apology from the Trinidad Express newspaper following the publication of an article last month she claimed damaged her character. Prime Minister PersadBissessar through her lawyers says she intends to make a claim against the paper for “substantial damages” for libel as the “unfounded allegations” have hurt her personal, national and international reputation.
In a 12-page pre-action letter sent by her lawyers to the newspaper, Prime Minister Persad Bissessar claimed the front page article entitled “Neighbours Flee”, was libellous and damaging to her character. The article, published on March 27, stated the Prime Minister’s neighbour, Leon Achilleous, had put up his house for sale because of noise disturbances and the construction of a chain-link fence at her private residence in south Trinidad. But the Prime Minister, through her attorneys, is denying there was ever any
noise emanating from her private residence, and the construction of the chain-link fence was to protect and to prevent any possible harm to the Achilleous children. The Express reported yesterday that the letter extensively spelled out the Prime Minister’s academic and political accomplishments and stated the publication of the article brought the Prime Minister’s “good name and reputation into odium and disrepute have sullied her personal and political reputation and have disparaged her in the eyes of the public”.
UNITED NATIONS/ BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia and China joined the rest of the U.N. Security Council yesterday to authorise deployment of up to 30 unarmed observers to monitor Syria’s fragile ceasefire as activists reported more deaths in the country and renewed shelling of Homs. The resolution by the 15nation Security Council is the first it has approved since the anti-government uprising in Syria began 13 months ago. Moscow and Beijing twice vetoed council resolutions condemning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s assault on protesters opposed to his rule that has killed thousands of civilians.
A spokesman for U.N.Arab League mediator Kofi Annan had said on Friday that the first group of observers was on stand-by and ready to fly to Syria as soon as the council approved their deployment. Annan is planning for an observer force that will have up to 250 monitors. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement released after a meeting in Geneva said the Syrian government had the prime responsibility to stop the violence and withdraw its forces from urban areas in line with Annan’s peace plan. “The Secretary-General reiterated that it is the government of Syria which
has the primary responsibility to stop the violence and withdraw its forces,” the statement said. Opposition activists said at least six people were killed in Syria on Saturday and also reported the first shelling, in the city of Homs, by forces loyal to Assad, since the U.N.Arab League-brokered ceasefire took effect three days ago. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were killed during a funeral march in Aleppo, one by shelling in Homs and a sixth succumbed to wounds inflicted by torture in the central town of Rastan, straddling the DamascusAleppo road.
UN votes to send Syria monitors, killings continue
A 47-year-old man is now at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), nursing a stab wound to his chest. The report is that the wound was inflicted by his friend. Joseph Vangronigen, also known as Betsy, was stabbed around 07:00 hrs yesterday, while he was engaged in a conversation with two friends at “Four Corner” in Melanie Damishana North, East Coast Demerara. One of his friends, Fitzroy Henry, who claimed to be an eyewitness, said that he, Betsy and another man were “gaffing” at the corner when another friend came and started to dance to the music that was playing at a house nearby. Henry explained that while one of them
was dancing, they continued their conversation. “When we de gaffing, none a we didn’t see anything but I hear like a loud stab and when I turn I see Betsy holding he chest and blood coming out,” Henry recalled. Vangronigen was immediately rushed to the GPHC by a neighbour who also witnessed the episode while Henry and his other friend followed Jermaine and later found him hiding in Buxton. He was subsequently handed over to the police. When Kaieteur News visited the hospital yesterday, the 47-year-old man was still undergoing surgery. Friends and family members of the victim were told that doctors are battling to save his life.
HIV on the decline in Guyana The HIV prevalence among the general population in Guyana has been steadily decreasing since 2004 from 2.4 percent to 1.07 percent in 2011. Additionally, the proportion of all deaths attributable to AIDS has also steadily declined by 56 percent since 2002. According to Guyana’s Global AIDS Progress Report 2010-2011, there is a body of evidence which suggests that the epidemic is stabilizing in the country. “There is a steady decline in the number of new reported cases of HIV infection among a significantly higher number of persons who are coming forward to be tested,” said Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, Minister of Health. He added that compared to 2010 when there were 1,093 new reported cases of HIV infection, there has been a decrease to 972 new reported cases in 2011. A similar trend has been observed in the number of new reported AIDS cases, from 146 in 2010 to 62 in 2011. In 2010, 5.8 percent of babies born to HIV-positive mothers were infected with HIV. This declined to 1.9 percent in 2011. HIV prevalence among pregnant women was 0.88 percent in 2010 and 1.08 percent in 2011. The number of tuberculosis (TB) patients testing positive for HIV also declined from 26 percent in 2010 to 23.4 percent in 2011 and prevalence among blood donors decreased from 0.2
- says PANCAP percent in 2010 to 0.1 percent in 2011. The report adds that the sex ratio (male to female) for HIV cases has been fluctuating over the last four years. Surveillance data from the Ministry of Health shows that for the first time since 2000 when the sex ratio was 1.16 there was an observed change, to 0.91 in 2008, then to 1.05 in 2009. This situation was reversed in 2010 and 2011, dropping to 0.8 percent in both years. There are also more persons in Guyana accessing treatment for HIV and AIDS. Then report indicates that there were 3,432 persons actively receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) at the end of 2011, compared to 3,059 in 2010. “We continue to identify and place more persons on treatment. We have also expanded the number of fixed care treatment sites from 16 in 2010 to 18 in 2011 thereby providing increased national coverage,” Dr. Ramsaran said. However, despite the many gains in the HIV and AIDS fight, Dr. Ramsaran said there was still the need to remain vigilant to aggressively tackle barriers to universal access in Guyana, such as stigma and discrimination, archaic laws, geography and attrition of highly qualified staff.
“It is imperative that we fully implement the principles, standards and guidelines for HIV prevention to ensure that we develop evidenceinformed strategies and activities to achieve prevention particularly among the most vulnerable – youth, sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), drug users and persons with disabilities. “ We will work assiduously in reducing the vulnerabilities for HIV as we comprehensively address the social determinants of health and tackle the difficult challenging issues of gender based violence,” the Minister added. Dr. Ramsaran said that in the face of dwindling resources for the HIV response globally, the Ministry will continue to focus its efforts to ensure full integration of its programmes, since offering services in isolation expends much more resources. “We will continue to mobilize resources to increase services to the populations at greater risk for HIV, to ensure that every Guyanese knows his or her HIV status, that no baby is born HIV positive and that persons living with HIV receive care of the highest standard,” he reiterated. These measures must be adopted, he said, if Guyana is to preserve the gains made in the last 10 years and increase the country’s social progress. (Allison Ali)
LIAT, UNION TO MEET ST JOHN’S, Antigua CMC – Officials from the regional airline, LIAT, and the Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU) will meet on April 23 as they seek to settle a dispute over the company’s plan to sever more than two dozen employees. L a b o u r M i n i s t e r D r. Errol Cort met with both parties Friday and a joint statement issued afterwards indicated that the “meeting agreed to a request from the Minister
for a two week extension of the time-frame for a consultation between the company and select representatives of the company’s unions”. It said that the consultation “is intended to provide an opportunity for additional dialogue between the unions and the company on the company’s business plans for 2012 and going forward”. Last week, LIAT issued redundancy papers to 25 employees of its Cargo and
QUIKPAK department sparking threats of strike action from the union. The airline said the move is to facilitate the outsourcing of that service to the Antiguabased Caribbean Airport Services (CAS). The ABWU described the move as premature, insisting that it urged LIAT to develop a comprehensive management plan to better handle layoffs when the airline closed its city ticket offices last year.