LIBYA. COURT CONFIRMS DEATH PENALTY FOR FOREIGN MEDICS

a Libyan court confirmed a death sentence against six foreign medics convicted of infecting children with AIDS, an AFP correspondent said.
The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were not in court for the verdict, which was announced the day after a compensation deal was reportedly sealed with the children's families.
Bulgarian nurses Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka, Valentina Siropulo and Kristiana Valcheva and Palestinian doctor Ashraf Juma Hajuj, have been behind bars since February 1999 and were first sentenced to death in 2004. They say they are innocent and were tortured to force them to confess.
Some Western scientists say negligence and poor hospital hygiene were the real culprits and that the six were made into scapegoats.