Section:GDN 1N PaGe:38 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 19:21 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^38) World
Protests after Ukraine releases
key suspect in MH17’s downing
Andrew Roth
Moscow
A Ukrainian court has released a
potential suspect and key witness in
the shooting-down of fl ight MH17 , as
Russia’s president confi rmed the two
countries were working on a deal to
swap prisoners.
Vladimir Tsemakh had b oasted on
video of commanding an anti-air bri-
gade in separatist-held east Ukraine
and indicated he had hidden evidence
of a BUK missile system, the kind that
Dutch investigators say shot down the
Malaysian airliner with 298 people
on board in July 2014.
Tsemakh, who was arrested in a
raid in June, has been charged with
terrorism for his part in fi ghting for the
Russian-backed separatists. Yesterday
he was abruptly released on his own
recognisance, pending trial.
His place in a swap deal with Russia
has not been confi rmed, but had been
widely rumoured in the media. The
Russian president, Vladimir Putin,
speaking at an economic forum shortly
after Tsemakh’s release yesterday, said
Moscow and Kyiv were “fi nalising”
talks on whom to exchange , adding
that the swap would be “large”.
The reports have worried Dutch
investigators and l egislators, who fear
Russia will pressure Ukraine into giv-
ing up one of the few suspects in the
MH17 case in custody. Russia is holding
dozens of Ukrainian prisoners, includ-
ing 24 sailors captured in November,
and the fi lm-maker Oleh Sentsov.
Forty MEPs urged Ukraine’s presi-
dent, Volodymyr Zelensky, this week
not to release Tsemakh, saying in a let-
ter that “his availability and testimony
before the joint investigation team is
... of the utmost importance ”.
The Dutch MEP Kati Piri said: “It
seems to be preparations to swap him.
Of course we don’t know this 100% for
sure yet, but that’s how I read the sig-
nals. You can imagine that, not just
for the Netherlands but also for the EU
and all the families of the victims of
MH17, this is a very, very bad moment
... I understand the situation – but not
on MH17, not just a witness but possi-
ble suspect. That is a step too far from
our perspective .”
Tsemakh’s arrest was recognised as
a possible breakthrough in the Dutch-
led investigation into the attack on
MH17. Of the 298 p eople on board,
196 were Dutch citizens.
Breakthrough hope
for antimalarial drug
as tests foil parasite
Gitonga Njeru
Nairobi
Human trials of new antimalarial drugs
are in the pipeline after Kenyan scien-
tists successfully used bacteria to kill
the parasite that causes the disease.
The Kenya Medical Research Insti-
tute (Kemri) and global health partners
say the results could lead to the devel-
opment of a new class of drugs in less
than two years.
The promise of a new treatment
comes after vaccine trials in Burkina
Faso proved that Iver mectin, a
drug used for parasitic diseases
including river blindness and elephan-
tiasis, reduced transmission rates. The
medication made the blood of people
who were repeatedly vaccinated lethal
to mosquitoes. The study also found
that Ivermectin can kill Plasmodium
falciparum , the malaria parasite car-
ried by female mosquitoes , when
administered to humans.
The US-based Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention will now carry
out human trials using new drugs
derived from the bacteria after exten-
sive lab research.
The initiative was prompted by
studies conducted by the World Health
Organization and several international
health agencies warning of resistance
to existing antimalarial drugs.
“Resistance is always a problem and
the parasite always fi nds a way to get
away with it,” said Dr Simon Kariuki,
head of Kenya’s malaria research pro-
grammes at Kemri. “That is why a new
line of treatment is a must. It has to be
made available soon.”
The research is being conducted in
Kenya by local scientists in collabora-
tion with international health experts.
“We have discovered [that the] bac-
terium is highly eff ective in killing
Plasmodium falciparum , the parasite
that causes malaria, but our research
is more focused on pregnant women
and children, as they are more vulner-
able ,” Kariuki said.
“In a few years, new malaria drugs
could be in the market if the current
research fi ndings are anything to go by.
The motivating success of Ivermectin
is leading us to venture into produc-
ing other drugs .”
Child malaria episodes could be
reduced by up to 20 % if populations
in high-risk areas are given Iver mectin,
according to a study published by the
Yale School of Public Health.
Kenya’s health ministry says malaria
cases have gone up from 16,000 in 2016
to about 18,757 last year, and experts
warn that the climate crisis could make
matters worse.
“Future drug trials of women and
children are planned ... obviously with
the highest safety standards. We need
more answers on Ivermectin. We need
new malaria drugs as soon as possible
as drug resistance is not something to
ignore and we have to treat the situa-
tion as urgent ,” said Kariuki.
An expert, independent of the
study, said reports of resistance to the
current malaria drugs are on the rise.
“There have been confi rmed reports
by the WHO that there have been
cases of resistance in Thailand and
Cambodia, and closer to home in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo,”
said Dr Evans Murage, a pharmacist
based in Nairobi, Kenya.
“ There are cases of the drugs being
sold over the counter, leading to resist-
ance and over use. Many people who
buy drugs from pharmacies suspect
they have malaria even without get-
ting tested. This should be a worry for
the government.”
Currently, the most effective
vaccine against malaria is RTS,S , intro-
duced in a WHO-recommended pilot
scheme in 2019. I t was found to pre-
vent about 39% of cases of malaria in
children aged from fi ve to 17 months.
Oscar hope
Pain and Glory
has been
chosen as
Spain’s
international
feature fi lm
entry for this
year’s Oscars.
The fi lm was
directed
by Pedro
Almodóvar,
pictured
(right) with its
stars, Antonio
Banderas and
Penélope Cruz.
PHOTOGRAPH:
STEPHANE CARDINALE/
CORBIS/GETTY
In brief
Afghanistan
Taliban car bomb kills
at least 12 in Kabul
China
Dead pet cat recreated
by cloning company
Germany
Serial child abusers
given long sentences
A Taliban suicide car bombing
in Kabul has killed a US service
member, a Romanian soldier and at
least 10 Afghan civilians in a busy
diplomatic area that includes the
US embassy. An interior ministry
spokesman said another 42 people
were wounded
It was the second such attack
this week, underscoring Afghan
government warnings that a
preliminary US-Taliban deal on
ending America’s longest war was
moving dangerously quickly. “Peace
with a group that is still killing
innocent people is meaningless,”
the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani,
said. AP Kabul
Two men who groomed and abused
hundreds of children at a campsite
near Hamelin in Germany for more
than 20 years have been jailed by
a judge who said she was “lost for
words” at their crimes.
Judges, police and politicians
came under fi re during the trial
for their slowness to act, despite
suspicions about the men having
been voiced years before. Andreas
V, 56, and Mario S, 33, will spend 13
and 12 years in prison respectively,
followed by a period in preventive
detention – a punishment reserved
for the most serious criminals
because of the risk they pose to
public safety. Kate Connolly Berlin
Seven months after Huang Yu’s pet
cat Garlic died, the British shorthair
was given a 10th life. Born on 21 July ,
a new Garlic, below, was created at
a cost of 250,000 yuan (£28,000)
by the Beijing-based company
Sinogene, becoming its fi rst cloned
cat. The company has also made
more than 40 cloned dogs, which
costs 380,000 yuan per pet.
Huang, 23, said he was overjoyed
and the “similarity between the two
cats is more than 90 %”.
Other countries where pet cloning
is legal include South Korea and the
US. The singer Barbra Streisand said
last year that she had cloned her dog
to create two new pets. AFP Beijing
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