WASHINGTON: The US Department of Veterans Affairs said yesterday that around 100,000 veterans are experiencing long waits for health care appointments at VA facilities, with more than half of these waiting 90 days or more. In results of an internal audit ordered as the scandal over deadly VA wait times exploded last month, the agency said it found that schedule misreporting was widespread. Of the 731 facilities surveyed, it found that 76 percent experienced wait time reporting problems. In the May 12 to June 3 survey, the VA said it found that 57,436 new veteran patients had been waiting 90 days or more for an appointment. And it found that 63,869 patients over the past 10 years had requested appointments that have never been scheduled. The agency said it was abandoning a two-week scheduling goal for appointments after finding it was “not attainable”.
Jet crashes in Spain, pilot killed
MADRID: A Eurofighter jet crashed while attempting to land at an air base in southwestern Spain yesterday, killing its pilot, the defence ministry said. The sole pilot of the plane, 30-year-old Air Force captain Fernando Lluna Carrascosa, was killed in the accident, which happened at around 2pm, the defence ministry said in a statement. Carrascosa, who was married with a young daughter, had over 600 hours experience flying Eurofighter jets, the statement added. The cause of the accident is still unknown, the ministry said. The Moron air base, located about 35 miles (55 kilometres) southeast of Seville, is shared by Spain and the US Air Force, but only Spain operates the Eurofighter jet.
Kosovo PM seeks coalition partners
PRISTINA: Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, whose PDK party won snap parliamentary elections at the weekend, began the search yesterday for coalition partners to provide him with a third mandate. Based on more than 94 percent of votes counted, Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) had 31 percent of the vote, the electoral commission results website showed. The main opposition party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), was on 26 percent. But the ex-guerilla chief will need to find coalition partners to form a government as he will not have enough MPs in the 120-seat parliament to rule alone.
Nato war games near Russia border
RIGA: Nato yesterday launched one of its largest military manoeuvres in the Baltic states since tensions spiked with Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Around 4,700 troops and 800 military vehicles from 10 countries including Britain, Canada and the United States are participating in the Sabre Strike exercises near the Latvian capital Riga. Russia has voiced its objections to the manoeuvres, which move to neighbouring Lithuania today. Russia was quick to label the games an “act of aggression,” according to the Interfax news agency. The exercises are being held in the Baltic states till June 20. Agencies
