Word: libya
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sofia was the scene of great joy and much relief Tuesday, after six Bulgarian medics detained in Libya for the past eight years on murder charges touched down to freedom following a French-brokered agreement for their release. But while attention was largely focused on the arrival of the medical workers and their reunion with families, eyes also turned towards Paris, where French president Nicolas Sarkozy was being credited with the biggest diplomatic coup yet in his already highly accomplished two months in office. Only Sarkozy, it seemed, sought to downplay his own role in the breakthrough to focus...
...radical reversal in their fortunes over the past month - and Sarkozy's occasionally controversial diplomatic crusade on their behalf. Less than a month ago, the death penalty handed down with the medics' convictions of having willfully infected 438 children in a Benghazi hospital was upheld by Libya's highest legal body. But intense negotiations among Libyan, French and European Union authorities produced an agreement for the families of the HIV-infected children to receive up to $460 million in damages in exchange for their pardoning of the accused. Libya's legal system soon thereafter commuted the Bulgarians' death sentence...
...structure at Airbus. He's also managed to roll out a fistful of important domestic social and economic reforms. Before he embarks on his short August vacation, Sarkozy hopes to cap an active international debut by engineering the release of five Bulgarian and one Palestinian health workers, held in Libya for nearly eight years on charges they infected hundreds of children with...
...Sunday, Sarkozy dispatched his wife Cécilia and a high-ranking Elysée official to Tripoli for the second time in 10 days to discuss the plight of the six, after a major diplomatic effort led by France was followed on July 17 by Libya's highest legal body commuting the death sentences in the case to life in prison. Since then, efforts to secure their release have advanced so quickly that Sarkozy has accepted an invitation by Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi to visit the country - probably as an additional stop, on Wednesday, to an Africa trip Sarkozy...
...defending "the Bulgarian nurses" one of his campaign promises. Although no one in France is certain why Sarkozy took the plight of the Bulgarians so close to heart, his involvement has done wonders to unblock what long appeared to be a hopeless situation. Under the Sarko-led diplomatic push, Libya's Higher Judicial Council commuted the capital sentences to life in prison after families of victims agreed to accept around a million dollars each in compensation to be distributed by the Ghaddafi Foundation. Meanwhile, official sources say Sarkozy's team of negotiators have agreed to secure financing of long-term...