Nurses get death penalty in Libya

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.”—Agencies