Russia defends intercept of U.S. reconnaissance plane over Baltic

An U.S. Navy picture shows what appears to be a Russian Sukhoi SU-24 attack aircraft flying over the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea in this picture taken April 12, 2016 and released April 13, 2016.

REUTERS/US NAVY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

Sat Apr 30, 2016

Russia said on Saturday it had sent a fighter plane on Friday to intercept a U.S. aircraft approaching its border over the Baltic Sea because the American plane had turned off its transponder, which is needed for identification.

The Pentagon said the U.S. Air Force RC-135 plane had been flying a routine route in international airspace and that the Russian SU-27 fighter had intercepted it in an "unsafe and unprofessional" way.

An U.S. Navy picture shows what appears to be a Russian Sukhoi SU-24 attack aircraft flying over the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea in this picture taken April 12, 2016 and released April 13, 2016.

REUTERS/US NAVY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

CNN reported that the Russian jet had come within about 100 feet (30 metres) of the U.S. plane and had performed a barrel roll.

"All flights of Russian planes are conducted in accordance with international regulations on the use of airspace," the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.

"The U.S. Air Force has two solutions: either not to fly near our borders or to turn the transponder on for identification."

Friday's incident underlines rising tensions between Russia and the United States over eastern Europe. NATO has said it plans its biggest build-up in the region since the Cold War to counter what the it considers to be a more aggressive Russia.

The Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which joined NATO in 2004, have requested higher and permanent presence of the alliance, fearing a threat from Russia after it annexed the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

The Kremlin denies any intentions to attack the Baltic countries, but it has often said that they have become an aggressive "Russophobic kernel" pushing NATO towards a consistently anti-Russian course.

"We are already starting to get used to the insults of the Pentagon regarding alleged 'unprofessional' manoeuvres when our fighters intercept U.S. spy planes at the Russian border," the defence ministry said in its statement.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Protesters Storm Green Zone in Baghdad

BY DAVID FRANCIS-APRIL 30, 2016

Hundreds of protesters stormed Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone Saturday, the first time the safe area had been penetrated by angry Iraqis.

Supporters of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had been protesting the Iraqi government for months, staging sit-ins and demonstrations. But Saturday’s actions mark a steep escalation; the Green Zone is home to most Iraqi government buildings and foreign embassies.

The breach of the Green Zone was preceded by comments from al-Sadr earlier Saturday, in which he accused Iraqi politicians of blocking reforms to stop waste and corruption. He didn’t call for supporters to escalate their demonstrations, but soon after he spoke, protesters stormed the compound’s walls and pulled a section of it down. Videos of the breach are below:

The storming of the Green Zone is the culmination of weeks of political protests against the Iraqi government. Demonstrators entered the parliament building, where some broke into offices, while other protesters shouted “peacefully, peacefully” and tried to contain the chaos, according to AFP. Iraqi security forces were present, but did not try to stop the protesters.

The riots follow a car bomb that exploded earlier Saturday at a market in Nahrawan, east of Baghdad. The Islamic State claimed credit for the attack, which left at least 24 people killed and as many as 38 wounded.

It also comes as Iraqi government plans to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State have become bogged down in sectarian and ethnic rivalries.

Photo credit: HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/Getty Images

Hungary’s Unacknowledged Leadership

Accusing the Hungarians of inhumanity for their regulation of migration is unwise. To protect nations many walls have been built: just think of the Roman Hadrian or the Chinese Qin Shi Huang 2000 years ago. Walls are still being built today, by Austria, Serbia and now also by Turkey.

by Michael R. Czinkota

( April 30, 2016, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) Hungary has a strategic position in the heart of Europe. The country offers a highly developed logistics system. Its traditional role as a trading post make it important as a regional production and distribution center.  Porsche, General Motors, and Audi are now producing many of their cars in Hungary – with other suppliers working for and close by. A recent investment by Mercedes Benz re-affirms the auto cluster formation in Hungary. The significant development of industries like information technology, electronics and automotive has attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) at a rising rate.  Hungary’s acceptance as a member of the European Union and the Schengen Zone further boosted its own and its European partners economic, social and political development and stimulated more R&D activities.

All this is now jeopardized because of major EU internal strife over immigration policies. I observed the early stage of human flow between Serbia and Hungary which was then a 200 kilometer long green zone. Groups of 30 to 50 men, women and children slowly walked across the border. The local chief of police shrugged, since he neither had the manpower nor the physical resources to round up or process the waves of humanity. In 2015, more than 400,000 people entered Hungary from Serbia, aiming to settle in Germany, France or Britain. The march through Hungary used to encounter an ostrich policy of “carry on and ignore”. But the people who immigrate were worn out and not any less hungry because they were in Hungary. To rest, or feed themselves, they trespassed on property and took fruits and other food. Locals were weary and talked about organized protection for their harvest. Pressures and complaints are like sparks in a tinder box.

The government of less than 10 million Hungarians has only limited resources to respond to the clashes. A wall has been built to stop the immigration flow across the most accessible border areas. The public response in Europe to Hungary’s defensive measures have been complaints, accusations of government over reaction, and lack of sympathy towards restriction of mobility. Prime Minister Orban, a democratically elected head of government was accused of a lack of sentimentality and guilty of behaving like a political winner (DUH)!

Today, Hungary is again encountering its traditional environmental ambiguity. In history, the country has been too far East to be part of the West, and too far West to be integrated into the East. There have been long term occupations by the Tatars, Ottomans and Austrians. The treaty of Trianon, removed large portions of Hungary’s population and resources. During the Cold War Hungary kept conditions at least lukewarm with its Gulyas communism, and was often at the forefront of clamoring for change, for example, with its 1956 revolution against the Soviet Union, and the 1989 opening of its borders to help escaping East Germans.

Again Hungary has been an early proponent of the need to monitor refugee access to a country for purposes of justice, information, planning and control. Given its small size and population, repercussions of new factors are simply felt more quickly and demand more rapid actions than for nations which have lots of reserve resources to deal with new conditions. Even those players eventually recognize the need for new policies.

Accusing the Hungarians of inhumanity for their regulation of migration is unwise. To protect nations many walls have been built: just think of the Roman Hadrian or the Chinese Qin Shi Huang 2000 years ago. Walls are still being built today, by Austria, Serbia and now also by Turkey. Doing so is not a disregard for human lives, but rather an institutional requirement for control of the distribution of resources. Even Herculean effort is to provide food, shelter and security for migrants can fail if there is no timely count and assessment of human needs and the direction of the massive flow of people. It has not been sensible to overburden Hungary with expectations and demands for accommodative actions which, as we can see now, has shaken up major countries as well. In today’s times, leaders are all-to-often confronted with asymptotic conditions, where they encounter major demands for actions by outsiders who are shouldering neither the political burden nor are paying for all their wonderful suggestions. Later on, those who earlier decried and dismissed responsible government action often turn about and imitate the once so deployed steps. Particularly in groups of nations which disagree about idealistic policies, one winds up with the unfortunate constant of politics: foresight and early implementation of corrective action has no international payoff. No gratitude, no memory, no long term, no acknowledgement, just like an unhappy couple.

MICHAEL R. CZINKOTA is a professor of international business and marketing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Busines. His book, International Marketing (with I. Ronkainen), is in its 10th edition with Cengage.

Cuba finds it hard to dampen afterglow of Obama visit

Residents watch the filming of a scene of the Hollywood action film "Fast and Furious" in Havana. Events on the ground are making it harder for Cuba’s leaders to portray the United States and capitalism as dire threats. (Ramon Espinosa/AP)

By Michael Weissenstein-April 30

HAVANA — Thursday morning was looking bad for Lazaro Martinez, who makes his living playing trombone for tourists on the Malecón, the sweeping boulevard overlooking the jewel-clear Florida Straits.

Police shunted everyone onto side streets as a sleek black helicopter filmed scenes for the eighth installment of “Fast and Furious,” the multibillion-dollar car-chase and bank-robbery franchise. The promenade was deserted, but Martinez said he didn’t mind.

“I never thought I was going to see a Hollywood production passing right in front of my eyes,” he said. “This is the start of what Obama said in Cuba. Step by step, we’re seeing the change. If Obama hadn’t come to Cuba, this never would have happened.”

[Cuba, through the eyes of American children]

More than a month after ordinary Cubans jubilantly welcomed President Obama to Havana, the communist government is finding it hard to dampen the afterglow.

On the morning of March 22, Obama declared from the stage of the Grand Theater in Old Havana that “I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas.” Calling for freedom of speech and democratic elections, Obama told Cubans live on state television that “it is time for us to look forward to the future together.”

[Smokey Robinson and other U.S. artists hail new ‘love’ with Cuba]

The next day, President Raúl Castro watched a baseball game with Obama and cordially saw him off at the airport. Then, after days of official silence, the Cuban government began to take a harder line.

Fidel Castro, who handed power to his brother in 2008, wrote a 1,500-word editorial on the front pages of the state-run media advising the man he sarcastically called “Brother Obama” to “not try to develop theories about Cuban politics.”

“We don’t need the empire to give us any charity,” he wrote.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez was blunter, telling Communist Party members on April 19 that Obama’s visit was “a deep attack on our political ideas, our history, our culture and our symbols.”

[The U.S. embargo didn’t push Cuba toward democracy. Neither will its end. ]

Although Cuba’s public sphere showed no signs of thawing after Obama’s departure — in fact it seemed to get chillier — few people interviewed around the capital this week showed signs of accepting government arguments that Obama was simply the expertly packaged spokesman for U.S. corporate interests that want to economically recolonize Cuba.

“The response that’s been given is the government’s, not the people’s,” said Barbara Ugarte, who runs a small shop selling party supplies in Central Havana.

She watched Obama speak live on March 22 and said she welcomed his words as a sign that things might be changing in a country where entrepreneurs like her find it frustrating to run a business.

A month of tough government talk has alienated her from Cuba’s leaders more than from Obama, she said.

“With this government, I don’t think there are going to be big changes,” Ugarte said. “I don’t think they want to open. They want to tighten down. We’re still very closed.”

“They don’t let you sell, they don’t let you get a license to import,” she said. “We aren’t changing.”

Other people were more optimistic, saying government actions since Obama’s visit show that it remains open to normalization with the United States, even as it warns its people that Washington remains a threat.

Last Thursday, the government lowered the prices of basic items such as chicken and cooking oil, making some highly priced goods slightly more affordable. A day later, Havana dropped a decades-old ban on Cubans traveling by cruise ships, with a prohibition on private boat travel to be dropped at an unspecified date.

For Yolanda Mauri, a 26-year-old computer programmer, it all feeds a mood of post-Obama optimism that has her hoping to start a family and find a well-paying job in Cuba rather than emigrating like so many of her friends.

“Two years ago, one couldn’t imagine even 30 percent of the things that have happened,” she said. “There’s an optimistic mood. It’s obvious.”

She said, however, that she disagreed with the government’s vision of Obama’s visit as an attack.

“That’s going against the whole process of normalization,” she said. “I’m not going to try to get closer to you and maintain the perspective that you’re still my enemy. That’s the traditional discourse of the past.”

Events on the ground are making it harder for Cuba’s leaders to portray the United States and global capitalism as dire threats to the island’s most dearly held values.

Cuba will hold nationwide marches on Sunday, celebrating International Workers’ Day. Twenty-four hours later, the first U.S. cruise ship in more than a half-century is scheduled to arrive at Havana’s harbor, heralding what is expected to become a new era of mass U.S. travel, with regularly scheduled flights set to begin as early as this summer.

On Tuesday, the city’s grand Paseo promenade will be shut to local traffic, converted into a giant runway for French luxury-goods label Chanel to show its 2017 cruise collection.

For many loyal Cuban communists, it’s not a betrayal of the past but a transformation of Cuba to a nation that draws desperately needed investment and income from the global market while maintaining state control of key industries and guaranteeing its citizens basic rights such as health care and education.

“I don’t see any contradiction,” said Esteban Morales, a Communist Party member, economist and political scientist. “We’re aware that these relationships and links implicitly carry dangers, but they’re necessary for the country.”

— Associated Press

Kitchener startup headed to Google Demo Day

James Francis, left, and Travis Rantam, are two of the founders of Knowledgehook, a startup that has developed software that helps teachers teach math to students from kindergarten to Grade 10.

Knowledgehook    -Peter Lee,Record staff

By Terry Pender-Apr 28, 2016

KITCHENER — Travis Ratnam is preparing a five-minute pitch before a who's who of Silicon Valley investors early next month after his startup was selected for the prestigious Google Demo Day at the tech giant's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Ratnam is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Knowledgehook, a startup that has developed a web-based platform that helps teachers and students in math classes from kindergarten to Grade 10.

The Kitchener company is one of only two Canadian startups picked for the annual event on May 4 — the other is Halifax-based PACTA. Last year, Kitchener startup Bridgit was the winner at Google Demo Day with its mobile app for construction management.

"To be honest I did not know it was a big deal," Ratnam says. "Then I realized why it is a big deal — all the investors I had plans to eventually go to are at this event."

An early version of Knowledgehook's software was first used at Loretto College, a Catholic high school in Toronto, and math scores improved 14 per cent after one academic year. That grabbed the attention of the Toronto District Catholic School Board, and the startup hasn't looked back since.

The Knowledgehook platform was launched only seven months ago with 50 teachers. It was quickly adopted by thousands of others. The software is now used by about 4,000 teachers in Ontario at 11 school boards, including the Catholic and public systems in Toronto. It is being used at Jacob Hespeler Secondary School in Grade 9 applied math.

"And there are five more meetings coming up with other boards all over Ontario," Ratnam says.

Knowledgehook recently released free versions of its software to selected U.S. school boards as it seeds the market there, and prepares for major expansion. More than 1,000 teachers in the U.S. are using it now.

The rollout comes at a time when school boards across North America are under increasing pressure and scrutiny to improve education outcomes.

Essentially, Knowledgehook has gamified math teaching. The teaching tool includes individual and group assignments, homework and built-in rewards. Most important, the software helps teachers pinpoint the misconceptions students have about math, and helps them correct those misconceptions.

"If we can improve the quality of teaching we can improve outcomes," Ratnam says.

With ratios, students often confuse part-to-part and part-to-whole. They mix up the X and the Y axis on graphs. Understanding whole in fractions and per cents greater than 100 can be hard. Angles between arms are routinely confused with arm lengths. Area and perimeter get mistaken for each other.

There are about 2,000 misconceptions listed in teaching guides.

Experienced and specialized teachers often spot these misconceptions, but it is much more difficult for new teachers, or even math teachers who are teaching several different grades. Knowledgehook does that right away, for individuals and the entire class, and teachers then know exactly what areas need more explanation.

"You can actually pick up on patterns, the reasons why they are struggling," Ratnam says.

The 34-year-old University of Waterloo electrical engineering graduate actually struggled with math. Fortunately, his father was an experienced math tutor and patiently brought his son along. Eventually, Ratnam won the Governor General's Medal for his outstanding academic performance at Neil McNeil Catholic High School in Toronto.

After graduating from UW in 2006, Ratnam was offered jobs at Apple and Microsoft. He chose Microsoft and was assigned to the 2010 Microsoft Office team. While there, he solved the problem behind most calls to the support centre — recovering deleted work in Word, Office and PowerPoint.

"I read through a ton of customer complaints calls, I was obsessing over it, and I woke up one morning and it popped right into my head," Ratnam says.

Missing friends and family, he returned to Ontario and did his MBA at Queen's University. Ratnam wanted to create a startup that did a lot of social good. From his own experience, he knew about the impact a good tutor can have on a young person's life. So he was attracted to online tutoring.

He looked at tutoring apps for difficult university courses, but students were sharing accounts, so he scrapped that idea. After two more iterations, Ratnam made a pitch to the vice-principal at Loretto College, an all-girls school in Toronto. The vice-principal was intrigued, and approved the use of Knowledgehook.

That was the break Knowledgehook needed. Today, the startup is based out of the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo and the Communitech's Rev accelerator program in the Tannery building in downtown Kitchener.

The company's other founders are chief operating officer James Francis, product architect Arthur Lui and chief technology officer Lambo Jayapalan.

"It is really sophisticated," Ratnam says of the software. "Easy to use on the front, but a lot of code in the back end. The architecture is really complicated because when you start involving the principal, the board, the teacher, they are changing every year."

tpender@therecord.com

Kenya burns largest ever ivory stockpile to highlight elephants' fate

Kenyan president lights pyres in move some fear will drive further poaching by taking 5% of global stock out of circulation

Kenya burns largest stockpile of ivory

Dominic Smith-Saturday 30 April 2016

More than 100 tonnes of ivory has been set ablaze in Kenya, the largest ever such fire, in an attempt to shock the world into protecting endangered elephants.

Eleven giant pyres of tusks from around 6,000 elephants, a quantity seven times the size of any previous burn, were lit by the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, at a ceremony in Nairobi national park on Saturday.

Kenyatta, who was joined by other African leaders and foreign officials, has demanded a total ban on the ivory trade to protect the future of wild elephants on the continent. The move has been supported by a range of conservation groups.

On the bonfire were tusks, ivory sculptures and rhino horn confiscated by the Kenyan authorities and said to be worth up to $105m (£82m) on the black market.

Speaking to a large audience before opening the ceremony, Kenyatta said: “Kenya is making a statement that for us ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants. This will send an absolutely clear message that the trade in ivory must come to an end and our elephants must be protected. I trust that the world will join us to end the horrible suffering of our herds and save our elephants for future generations.”

The ceremony was designed to highlight the decline in Africa’s wild elephant population and the impact of poaching. Each year more than 30,000 elephants are killed for their tusks.

On Friday, Kenyatta said: “The future of the African elephant and rhino is far from secure so long as demand for their products continues to exist.” He will press for a ban at an international wildlife trade meeting in South Africa in September.

The director of the Kenya wildlife service, Kitili Mbathi, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The reason is to make a statement to the world that we are committed to conservation, and to underline the fact that we don’t believe that there ought to be any value attributed to ivory and rhino horn but on elephants and rhinos.”

The burn was not universally welcomed, however. Mike Norton-Griffiths, an environmental economist, told Today : “I am very worried about it. I think it’s almost reckless of the Kenyans. The problem is it’s a very large burn of ivory, 5% of the global stocks of ivory, and when you take 5% of stocks out of a market like this, a resource market, something is going to happen.

“The traders will see 5% less ivory available to be released to them. Their response will be: ‘They’re taking this seriously, they’re never going to release this ivory to us, we must go and collect more from elephants.’”

Campaigners are keen for investment to reduce costs and increase benefits for conserving elephants, and global efforts to cut the demand for ivory products.

Cambodia: 5 human rights workers detained over sex scandal cover-up

(File photo) Cambodia National Rescue Party's Vice President Kem Sokha. Pic: AP

 30th April 2016 

FIVE human rights workers have been detained in Cambodia after it was alleged that they had helped conceal a sex scandal involving a woman and an opposition politician.

Cambodian authorities arrested the workers on accusations they helped cover up the woman’s affair with the deputy leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party.

The action is the latest in a series by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government putting legal pressure on its critics and political opponents.

Anti-Corruption Unit director Om Yentieng told reporters Friday that four ADHOC officials and a National Election Committee member who formerly worked at the organization were detained on charges related to corruption.

He did not elaborate, but the five were among suspects questioned by his office this week over allegations they had sought to convince a woman to deny having had an affair with CNRP deputy leader Kem Sokha.

She denied having an affair before later asserting she did.

According to Cambodia daily, the hairdresser at the center of the scandal admitted last week that it was her voice calling Sokha “lover” in audio recordings leaked online over the past two months, during questioning from a prosecutor.

“Yes, she admitted that the voices on the recordings really belong to her and Kem Sokha,” Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutor Sieng Sok was quoted saying, alluding to 25-year-old Khem Chandaraty.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

Palestinian doctors train in Canada to help sick kids back home

Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship seeks to provide Palestinian doctors with specialised paediatric training, raise level of care in West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem

Amir Atawna has been training for almost two years to care for premature babies (MEE/Jillian D'Amours) 

Jillian D'Amours-Saturday 30 April 2016

Toronto, Canada – When Amir Atawna returns to Hebron in July, he will be one of only four Palestinian physicians specially trained to care for premature babies.

Atawna has spent almost two years as a fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, training with the best in neonatal health care. It’s an area of paediatrics that the doctor says is lacking in Palestine – and one he hopes to improve upon his return.

“The main mortality rates among children [are] in the newborn period, due to prematurity itself,” he told Middle East Eye at the cafeteria at Sick Kids, as the hospital is commonly known. “We need this specialty to improve.”

Atawna, 33, came to Canada in July 2014 to participate in the Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship, which seeks to provide Palestinian doctors with specialised paediatric training, and in turn, raise the level of care in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Atawna, who did his residency in paediatrics at Al Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem, said that while about five in 1,000 babies die when born prematurely in Israel, that number is four times higher in Palestine, at 20 deaths per 1,000 births.

He said he was drawn to neonatal care after meeting a mother at a hospital in Bethlehem in 2008 who had given birth to twins only 28 weeks (seven months) into her pregnancy. The newborns weighed around one kilogramme each.

“I liked the way [the doctors] managed to care for those babies. They got bigger and older and they became very healthy. It was something that pushed me towards [this specialty],” Atawna said.

“A lot of those premature babies who are born [at] less than one kilo die early on because of a lack of specialists, because of a lack of technical support [like] ventilators and incubators. When I go back, I hope that I can help.”

Making a ‘fundamental’ change

Dr. Rand Askalan, a Palestinian doctor who came to Canada in 1995, launched the fellowship program for Palestinian paediatric doctors six years ago after noticing a gap in services in the West Bank.

Both Askalan’s parents fled Nablus, in the West Bank, during the war of 1967.

She returned to the West Bank in 2002, during the height of the Second Intifada, with a group of volunteer doctors. At the time, she had just finished medical school at the University of Toronto and was in her first year of paediatric neurology at Sick Kids Hospital.

Askalan navigated Israeli checkpoints and closures to provide primary health care to Palestinians in the West Bank, many of whom were living under strict, Israeli army-imposed curfews and had no access to medical care.

“We went to villages where they hadn’t seen doctors for months … It was terrible,” she said.

“All the villages were under curfew. We had every day to negotiate our way with the Israeli army to enter the villages, despite the fact that our cars were very well-designated as [being from] a Canadian medical mission.”

That experience stayed with her, and when she returned to Canada, she began fundraising to bring Palestinian children to Toronto for treatment. When she finished her studies, she returned to Palestine more often to hold clinics and teach students.

“I realised how bad the situation was when it comes to sub-specialties in paediatrics. We have general paediatricians, but then when children need a specialised [treatment] … then things fall apart,” she said.

She told MEE that when children need specialised treatment, they either succumb to their disease because Palestinian paediatricians don’t have the needed expertise, or are forced to travel to neighbouring countries at a high cost to their family.

If Palestinian children secure permits to enter Israel for treatment, then they worry about having their treatment interrupted as a result of checkpoint closures or permit problems.

“I started thinking, ‘OK, we have to address this in a more fundamental way, which is basically invest in people,’ and train the Palestinian paediatricians so that they won’t depend on help from the outside,” she said.

‘A domino effect’

The first Palestinian doctor to come to Toronto on a Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship arrived in March 2011. “He was from Nablus,” Askalan said, laughing, “honestly by chance.”

The first two doctors to be trained were from the West Bank, but Palestinian physicians from Gaza have also taken part.

Generally, two doctors begin the two-year fellowship each year and it costs about $350,000 to support four fellows annually. That money is collected through donations from individuals, Askalan said.

Three new fellows will arrive this July. “They really work hard. They are very dedicated. They know this is a chance of a lifetime and they really take it seriously,” she said.

“You’re not just affecting the life of one individual. The impact is like a domino effect.”

Askalan said a past fellow from Hebron who returned to the West Bank has since expanded the intensive-care unit at the local Red Crescent Hospital. He also introduced a cooling system to aid infants that are born without oxygen to their brains.

“This was never done in Palestine,” she said about the cooling system. “When we see this, we say, ‘Yes!’ That is exactly what the program is aiming to do. You have invested in people and … they are making an impact when they go back.”

Askalan stressed, though, that the fellowship’s goal is to improve the lives of children in Palestine.

“If [the doctors] don’t go back, what’s the point? It’s great that you’re training Palestinians, that’s fabulous, but [if] then they go and work elsewhere, the Palestinian child living in Palestine didn’t benefit from this,” she said.

“The program is for the Palestinian child living in Palestine. These kids need their doctors to be there, to be with them in the community, and have access to them when needed.”

Bringing innovation home

Mahmoud Shbair is from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The 37-year-old father of two is finishing his Palestinian Healthy Child Fellowship at Sick Kids Hospital in paediatric haematology and oncology, the study of blood-based diseases and cancers.

Mahmoud Shbair is from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip (MEE/Jillian D'Amours)

He told MEE that the sector is severely under-developed in Gaza. As a result, Palestinian children diagnosed with these types of cancers are often forced to seek treatment in Egypt, Jordan or Israel, if they can leave the territory at all.

“Kids may need to wait for three or four weeks with leukemia, for example, without receiving any treatment,” he said.

Shbair said he wants to establish the first specialised unit for cancer treatments in the Gaza Strip when he returns home. But securing the necessary equipment to treat these diseases, including machines that diagnose blood cancer types and conduct genetic analyses, is crucial.

Despite the challenge, he said he’s hopeful about being able to provide better care for Palestinian children, and helping build a self-sufficient health-care system in Gaza.

“Here [in Canada], a child diagnosed with leukemia will start treatment the next day … It’s difficult for any [Palestinian] family to look at their kids having leukemia for three weeks, waiting for security approval to go wherever he can be treated,” Shbair said.

“It’s a great [amount of] suffering on the families and on the kids and everybody.”

14 people fatally overdose on ‘painkiller’ in California

This undated photo released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration shows seized counterfeit hydrocodone tablets from an investigation involving at least a dozen people in the Sacramento, Calif., area who have fatally overdosed on a pill disguised as a popular painkiller.-U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP

By Sudhin Thanawala-April 26, 2016 

SAN FRANCISCO – Fourteen people in the Sacramento, California, area have fatally overdosed on a pill disguised as a popular painkiller, and now the drug has turned up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bay Area hospitals have treated seven patients who ingested what they thought was the painkiller Norco in recent weeks, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The patients all survived, though at least some experienced nausea, vomiting and difficulty breathing.

The pills were adulterated with fentanyl, the powerful opioid.

READ MORE: Fentanyl, take-home antidote kits featured at opioid conference

Sacramento County health officials have reported 52 Norco-connected poisonings since late March, with 12 of those cases resulting in deaths. Neighboring Yolo County reported another two deaths.

Law enforcement officials investigating the source of the pills will be looking to see whether the Sacramento and Bay Area cases are connected, said Casey Rettig, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent based in San Francisco. She said she could not discuss details of the DEA’s ongoing investigation, but she noted that the Bay Area and Sacramento County illnesses occurred around the same time and that pills in the two areas had the same markings.

“It is our number one priority based out of San Francisco,” she said of the investigation. “We definitely want to connect the dots where we can.”

Rettig said she was not aware of other cases in California or elsewhere in the country in which fentanyl was sold as Norco.

Norco is a painkiller that contains acetaminophen and hydrocodone. Hydrocodone, also an opioid, is among the most abused prescription drug ingredients in the country.

Fentanyl abuse is also a problem around the country. On the East Coast, dealers have laced heroin with fentanyl and sold fentanyl as heroin, Rettig said. The drug is made in China, sent to Mexico and smuggled across the border, she said.

READ MORE: Could marijuana help treat painkiller and heroin addiction?

The pills ingested by the seven Bay Area patients also contained promethazine, said Kathy Vo, a medical toxicology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco who co-authored the CDC study. Promethazine heightens the high that an opioid can provide, Vo said.

Friends and street dealers were among the sources of the pills for the California overdose patients, officials said.

© 2016 The Canadian Press

Worsening depression 'may predict dementia risk'

A link between depression and dementia has been known for some time

30 April 2016

Symptoms of depression that steadily increase over time in older age could indicate early signs of dementia, scientists have said.

Other patterns of symptoms, such as chronic depression, appear not to be linked, a study found.

Dutch researchers looked at different ways depression in older adults progressed over time and how this related to any risk.

They concluded worsening depression may signal the condition is taking hold.

The research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, followed more than 3,000 adults aged 55 and over living in the Netherlands.

All had depression but no symptoms of dementia at the start of the study.

Dr M Arfan Ikram of the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam said depressive symptoms that gradually increase over time appear to be a better predictor of dementia later in life than other paths of depression.

"There are a number of potential explanations, including that depression and dementia may both be symptoms of a common underlying cause, or that increasing depressive symptoms are on the starting end of a dementia continuum in older adults," he said.

Only the group whose symptoms of depression increased over time were found to be at increased risk of dementia - about one in five of people (55 out of 255) in this group developed dementia.

Others who had symptoms that waxed and waned or stayed the same were not at increased risk.

For example, in those who experienced low but stable levels of depression, around 10% went on to develop dementia.

Prevention strategies?

The exact nature of depression on dementia risk remains unknown.

They often occur together, but the Dutch study is among the first to look at different patterns of depression symptoms.

Dr Simone Reppermund from the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, said more studies were needed to understand the link.

"A focus on lifestyle factors such as physical activity and social networks, and biological risk factors such as vascular disease, neuroinflammation, high concentrations of stress hormones, and neuropathological changes, might bring new treatment and prevention strategies a step closer," she wrote in a linked editorial in the journal.

Depression varies greatly from one person to another. Some experience depressive symptoms only briefly, others have remitting and relapsing depression and some people are depressed all the time.

Dr Simon Ridley, director of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said anyone concerned about either condition should seek help.

"The findings suggest that low levels of depression or fluctuating symptoms may not affect dementia risk but that a worsening of symptoms in the over-55s may be an early indicator of diseases like Alzheimer's," he said.

"It's important to remember that only a relatively small number of people experiencing symptoms of depression went on to develop dementia during this 11-year study, but anyone concerned about either condition should talk to their GP."