Health experts are calling for action to expand cancer care and control in the developing world. A paper published by the medical journal Lancet says cancer was once thought of mostly as a problem in the developed world. But it says cancer is now a leading cause of death and disability in poor countries.
Experts from Harvard University and other organizations urge the international community to fight cancer aggressively. They say it should be fought the way HIV/AIDS has been fought in Africa.
Cancer kills more than seven and a half million people a year worldwide. The experts say almost two-thirds are in low-income and middle-income countries.
They say cancer kills more people in developing countries than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. But they say the world spends only five percent of its cancer resources in those countries.
Felicia Knaul from the Harvard Medical School was one of the authors of the paper. She was in Mexico when she was found to have breast cancer. She received treatment there. She says the experience showed her the sharp divide between the rich and the poor in treating breast cancer.
FELICIA KNAUL: "And we are seeing more and more how this is attacking young women. It's the number two cause of death in Mexico for women thirty to fifty-four. All over the developing world, except the poorest-poorest, it’s the number one cancer-related death among young women. And, I think we have to again say that there is much more we could do about it than we are doing about it."
Professor Knaul met community health workers during her work in developing countries. She says they were an important part of efforts to reduce deaths from cervical cancer. They were able to persuade women to get tested and to get vaccinated against a virus that can cause it.
The experts say cancer care does not have to be costly. For example, patients can be treated with lower-cost drugs that are off-patent. This means the drugs are no longer legally protected against being copied.
In another new report, the American Cancer Society says cancer has the highest economic cost of any cause of death. It caused an estimated nine hundred billion dollars in economic losses worldwide in two thousand eight.
That was one and a half percent of the world economy, and just losses from early death and disability. The study did not estimate direct medical costs. But it says the productivity losses are almost twenty percent higher than for the second leading cause of economic loss, heart disease.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver with Vidushi Sinha. I’m Barbara Klein.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Sunday, October 5th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Protesters rally in defiance in Hong Kong. An international presence against Ebola in Sierra Leone. I'm Vincent Bruce reporting from Washington.
Late Saturday, leaders of Hong Kong's main student union conditionally agreed to new negotiations with authorities.
Earlier in the day, it was Leung Chun-ying, chief executive of city's business district, declaring the city streets must be reopened by Monday morning.
That was soon followed by 1000s of defiant pro-democracy protesters staging a huge rally in the business district.
The health ministry of France says a French nurse who contracted Ebola in Liberia while working for Doctors Without Borders has recovered. She was treated at a hospital near Paris.
Also Saturday, a hospital in the German city of Hamburg says it has successfully treated and discharged a Senegalese scientist who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone.
In Sierra Leone, Anthony Banbury of the United Nations talked about some of the emergency support offered by the world body.
"UNMEER will be focusing on supporting a logistics response, will be bringing in helicopters and cars and motorcycles so community mobilizing, mobilization workers can have better transportation access.”
The World Health Organization says the current outbreak of the disease-- the worst on record-- has infected more than 7,400 people in West Africa.
A suicide bomber has killed at least 4 people in a predominantly Shiite area of the Pakistani city of Quetta.
Police say the man detonated his explosives in a busy bazaar.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the Hazara neighborhood.
This is VOA news.
The United States says the Swedish government's newly announced recognition of a Palestinian state is premature.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki: "We believe international recognition of a Palestinian state is premature. We certainly support Palestinian statehood, but it can only come through a negotiated outcome, a resolution of final status issues and mutual recognitions by both parties.”
Psaki said Israelis and Palestinians must be the ones to agree on the terms on how they live in the future two states.
Fighting in northern Syria continued Saturday as Islamic State militants continued closing in on a Kurdish town near the Turkish border.
Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes are trying to defend the town of Kobani from the militant advance.
The parents of U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig threatened in the Islamic State group's latest beheading video have appealed to his captors to "show mercy" and let him go.
Ed and Paula Kassig of the U.S. state of Indiana made their plea in a video statement released Saturday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to do everything possible to defeat the Islamic State militant group a day after the video surfaced showing the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning.
After meeting with his security team, Cameron said in a broadcast message that the Islamic State group must be held responsible for Henning's murder.
"As a country what we must do with our allies is everything we can to defeat this organization in the region, but also to defeat it at home. And we must do everything we can to hunt down and find the people responsible for this.”
North and South Korean officials have agreed to resume high-level talks sometime in late October and early November. The talks have been stalled for several months.
The new agreement to hold talks follows a rare and sudden visit to South Korea by a delegation of 3 senior North Korean officials.
West African leaders hope to contain the spread of the Ebola virus by December of this year, but say it can only be done with a robust international help. Countries most hit by the deadly virus, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, are appealing to the international community to join the effort. They met at a U.S.- African forum in Washington DC.
U.S. officials say they do not believe a sick passenger removed from an international flight that landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in the northeast U.S. state of New Jersey is infected with the Ebola virus.
Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dressed in hazmat suits met United Flight 998 from Brussels Saturday and escorted a man who had been vomiting and his daughter off the plane. They are believed to have come from Liberia.
There is more on all of these stories at our website voanews.com. I'm Vincent Bruce reporting from Washington.
Weekly Address: We Do Better When the Middle Class Does Better
WASHINGTON, DC — In this week’s address, the President highlighted that six years after the Great Recession, thanks to the hard work of the American people and the President’s policies, our economy has come back further and faster than any other nation on Earth. With 10.3 million private sector jobs added over 55 straight months, America’s businesses have extended the longest streak of private-sector job gains on record. But even with this progress, too many Americans have yet to feel the benefits. The President reiterated the vision he set out earlier this week for steps that can lay a new foundation for stronger growth, rising wages, and expanded economic opportunity for middle class families.
The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, October 4, 2014.
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Princeton, Indiana
October 4, 2014
Hi, everybody. I’m at Millennium Steel in Princeton, Indiana, to have a town hall with workers on National Manufacturing Day. Because in many ways, manufacturing is the quintessential middle-class job. And after a decade of losing jobs, American manufacturing is once again adding them – more than 700,000 over the past four and a half years.
In fact, it’s been a bright spot as we keep fighting to recover from the great recession. Last month, our businesses added 236,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate fell to under six percent for the first time in more than six years. Over the past 55 months, our businesses have added 10.3 million new jobs. That’s the longest uninterrupted stretch of private sector job creation in our history. And we’re on pace to make 2014 the strongest year of job growth since the 1990s.
This progress has been hard, but it has been steady, and it is real. It is a direct result of the American people’s drive and determination, and decisions made by my administration.
During the last decade, people thought the decline in American manufacturing was inevitable. But we chose to invest in American auto industry and American workers. And today, an auto industry that was flatlining six years ago is building and selling new cars at the fastest pace in eight years. American manufacturing is growing almost twice as fast as the rest of the economy, with new factories opening their doors at the fastest pace in decades. That’s progress we can be proud of.
What’s also true is that too many families still work too many hours with too little to show for it. And the much longer and profound erosion of middle-class jobs and incomes isn’t something we’re going to reverse overnight. But there are ideas we should be putting into place that would grow jobs and wages faster right now. And one of the best would be to raise the minimum wage.
We’ve actually begun to see some modest wage growth in recent months. But most folks still haven’t seen a raise in over a decade. It’s time to stop punishing some of the hardest-working Americans. It’s time to raise the minimum wage. It would put more money in workers’ pockets. It would help 28 million Americans. Recent surveys show that a majority of small business owners support a gradual increase to ten dollars and ten cents an hour. The folks who keep blocking a minimum wage increase are running out of excuses. Let’s give America a raise.
Let’s do this – because it would make our economy stronger, and make sure that growth is shared. Rather than just reading about our recovery in a headline, more people will feel it in their own lives. And that’s when America does best. We do better when the middle class does better, and when more Americans have their way to climb into the middle class.
And that’s what drives me every single day. Thanks, and have a great weekend.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Saturday, October 4th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. A British hostage is executed by the Islamic State terrorists. The White House insists no ban on travel to and from West Africa. I'm Vincent Bruce reporting from Washington.
The group calling itself the Islamic State group says it has executed British hostage Alan Henning. The terrorist group released a video late Friday purportedly showing Henning being beheaded.
If confirmed, it will be the Islamic State's 4th beheading of captive foreigners in recent weeks.
The Islamic State said the man will be beheaded in retaliation for strikes by a U.S.-led coalition on their positions in Iraq.
The terror group continued their advance on the northern Syrian town of Kobane near the Turkish border Friday. There, Turkish fighters have been struggling to repel them for weeks.
The assault has forced more than 160,000 Syrians to flee into Turkey.
Turkey has vowed to do whatever it can to keep Kobane from falling to the Islamic State fighters.
Also, Australia's cabinet Friday approved airstrikes and the deployment of special forces to fight against Islamic State fighters in Iraq.
The White House says that a ban on travel to Ebola-affected countries in West Africa would be counter productive.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki at a Friday briefing: "WHO and CDC have not recommended that we cut off travel from these countries, because it remains essential that the world community engage in order to help the affected countries address and contain this ongoing health crisis.”
Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco also said airport screening procedures are keeping ill people off their planes.
For more on all these stories, visit us at our website voanews.com. This is VOA news.
In Hong Kong, pro-democracy protest leaders have called off talks with the government after threatening to do so if action was not taken to protect demonstrators.
In a joint statement Friday, protest groups said "organized attacks" on demonstrators must stop.
At the same time, Hong Kong police have urged protesters to remain peaceful. In a news briefing Friday, chief superintendent of police Public Relations Branch Hui Chun-tak said they do not want to use force. "I stress that the police will exercise the greatest tolerance, but I ask the protesters to cooperate with the police.”
Hong Kong police said they were forced to intervene Friday when street fights broke out between pro-democracy protesters and frustrated residents who oppose the week-long protests.
In Mali, 9 United Nations peacekeepers from Niger have been killed and others wounded in an ambush on Friday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called it the deadliest attack committed against members of the peacekeeping mission. He has called on armed groups in northern Mali to abide by their declaration of September 16th in Algiers to restrain from attack against peacekeepers.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged support for Afghanistan's new President and the country's new unity government, but says the country can defend itself now.
Cameron issued his statement Friday during a surprise visit to Kabul, where he met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Mr. Cameron said an Afghanistan free from al-Qaeda is in Britain's best interest.
"Britain has paid a heavy price for helping to bring stability to this country. But this is where al-Qaeda trained their terrorists. This is where 9/11 and countless terror plots were hatched. An Afghanistan free from al-Qaeda is in our national interest as well as Afghanistan's. And now, 13 long years later, Afghanistan can and must deliver its own security.”
Britain currently has 3,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force.
At least 32 people are dead in eastern India after a stampede Friday at a Hindu festival.
Bihar state officials say the stampede occurred in the state capital of Patna as groups were leaving the festival, known as Dussehra.
It's unclear what triggered the panic.
U.S. unemployment rate fell to a 6-year low 5.9% in September.
The report Friday from the Labor department also says the economy had a net gain of 248,000 jobs.
Both figures stronger than most economists had predicted.
And across the board in the U.S., the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ Indexes were all up.
This week in our Foreign Student Series, we talk about military education programs in the United States. There are public and private colleges and universities that offer military educations. But international students can also attend the nation's 5 service academies.
Three of these come under the Defense Department. The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, prepares officers for the Army. The Air Force Academy is located at Colorado Springs, Colorado. And the Naval Academy is in Annapolis, Maryland; it prepares officers for the Navy and the Marine Corps.
Nominees for these academies must be 17-to-23 years old, unmarried and with no children. Candidates are usually nominated by members of Congress. International candidates are nominated by their home governments, which pay for their education.
Each government has its own requirements for military service after students graduate. Americans who attend these 4-year colleges must serve at least 5 years of active duty.
The Defense Department chooses more than 100 countries every year and invites them to nominate students to the academies. As many as 60 foreign students may attend each school at any one time.
For example, the next class at the Naval Academy will include 18 foreign students, 4 of them female. This will bring the total number of foreign students at the Naval Academy to 53.
Tim Disher, head of international programs, says those interested should contact the agency that includes their own naval department. Plus, all of the academies have admissions information on their Web sites.
International students can also attend the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York. The Coast Guard Academy can have 35 international students at any one time; the Merchant Marine Academy, 30.
These schools have their own entrance requirements. The Coast Guard Academy says interested students should contact the defense attache at their local United States embassy. Foreign students interested in the Merchant Marine Academy must request application forms directly from the admissions office.
And that's the VOA Special English EDUCATION REPORT, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our Foreign Student Series is online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Friday, October 3rd, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, the Hong Kong protests are continuing. We'll also have the latest on the Ebola outbreak. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman.
Hong Kong student leaders spearheading days of mass protests have agreed to 11th-hour talks with the pro-Beijing government aimed at easing the crisis that has brought much of the city to a standstill.
The agreement announced early Friday came just hours after the territory's embattled chief executive offered to have his Chief Secretary Carrie Lam meet with protest leaders. In extending the offer, however, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying refused a key student demand that he step down.
As the resignation deadline passed, there were no reports of violence.
Federal and state health officials are looking at as many as 100 people who may have had direct or indirect contact with the 1st Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States.
But the head of the Centers for Disease Control, Tom Frieden, says he is confident the spread of the disease can be contained.
Officials say none of the 12 to 18 people who had close contact with the patient show any signs of the disease.
They are being monitored for 21 days. That's the Ebola virus incubation period.
The patient has been identified as Liberian national Thomas Duncan. He is in serious but stable condition in isolation at a Dallas hospital.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond is calling for "decisive action" to fight the Ebola outbreak that's killed more than 3,300 people in West Africa.
"We are behind the curve in the sense that the disease is increasing faster than the international response. We now need to step up the international response in a really meaningful way.”
Secretary Hammond spoke at a conference Thursday in London.
This is VOA news.
Nigeria's military is standing by its assertion that the self-proclaimed leader of militant group Boko Haram is dead.
The military's comments Thursday came after the insurgents released a new video that shows the purported Abubakar Shekau asserting he is alive and that his group is running an "Islamic caliphate" in territory it controls.
The Nigerian Defense Headquarters insisted the man in the video, who it says actually is a militant named Mohammed Bashir, was killed last month during a battle in the town of Kondunga.
Turkish lawmakers have authorized military forces in Syria and Iraq in a vote that could allow the country to battle Islamic State militants near Turkey's border.
The law also allows foreign forces to operate from Turkey against the Islamic State.
And 100s of protesters took to the streets in the central Syrian city of Homs on Thursday after a double bombing killed dozens of children outside a primary school a day earlier.
Protesters called for the resignation of the Homs governor.
Syrian state media also said at least 25 children and 8 adults were killed. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 47 children were killed.
Shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Thursday killed a Swiss employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Western journalists in Donetsk and Russian news agencies reported the building housing the local office of the Red Cross in the center of the rebel-controlled city was hit during the shelling.
At least 7 people were killed when a bomb exploded on a passenger bus in northwest Pakistan. 4 people were also injured in Thursday's attack, which took place on the outskirts of Peshawar, the region's main city.
No one claimed responsibility for that attack.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launching a massive nationwide cleanliness drive to spruce up the country. Anjana Pasricha has a report.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi literally wielded the broom Thursday in a poor colony housing sanitation workers in New Delhi before administering a pledge to 10,000s of school children and government officials to spend 2 hours every week in cleaning up the country.
He asked people to make a beginning with themselves, their families, neighborhoods, workplaces and villages.
Ministers, lawmakers and school principals also picked up brooms and trash cans to sweep streets and clear garbage to raise public awareness of better sanitation in a country where cleaning is considered a task to be done by lower castes.
Anjana Pasricha, New Delhi.
And get more on that story and the rest of the hour's news. Check at our website at voanews.com.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Thursday, October 2nd, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. U.S. Secret Service chief resigns. Hong Kong protesters threaten to seize buildings. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.
The director of the U.S. Secret Service, Julia Pierson, has resigned after 2 major security lapses that could have put President Obama in danger.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest says Pierson met with the President, who accepted her resignation.
"Over the last several days, we've seen recent and accumulating reports raising questions about the performance of the agency, and the President concluded that new leadership of that agency was required.”
Pierson faced tough questions from Congress this week after 2 serious breaches in security last month.
Iraq War veteran Omar Gonzalez, who was armed with a knife, jumped a White House fence and ran into the Presidential mansion after eluding security. He was arrested inside 1 of the rooms. The President and his family were not in the building.
Three days earlier, an armed security guard with a criminal record got on an elevator with Mr. Obama and his security detail in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia.
Hong Kong protesters are raising the stakes in anti-government demonstrations gripping the city, warning that students will occupy government buildings if the Chinese territory's chief executive does not resign.
Protesters issued their ultimatum Wednesday, saying pro-Beijing Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying must step down by the end of the day Thursday, or they will storm the buildings.
Texas Governor Rick Perry says health officials are keeping watch on as many as 18 people who came in contact with the 1st patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. They include 5 schoolchildren.
The Ebola patient from Liberia, identified as Thomas Eric Duncan, is in isolation in a Dallas hospital. He was listed as serious but stable condition.
This is VOA news.
U.S.-led airstrikes hit near a key Syrian border town for a 2nd straight day as Kurdish fighters defend the area from Islamic State militants.
The U.S. military confirmed 3 strikes Wednesday near Kobane, destroying an Islamic State tank, artillery and an armed vehicle.
In neighboring Iraq, the U.S. military says aircraft targeted 5 Islamic State positions, including an occupied building in Mosul. British jets were busy carrying out their 2nd day of strikes, hitting ISIS vehicles west of Baghdad.
Twin car bomb explosions in the central Syrian city of Homs Wednesday killed at least 32 people and wounded scores of others.
Syrian state media says 10 children died in the bombings at a car near a primary school. Edward Yeranian reports.
Amateur video showed people scattering after a car bomb exploded in front of a school in Syria's third largest city of Homs. It remains unclear who carried out the attack.
In northern Syria near the Turkish border, Kurdish fighters battled the Islamic State militants on the outskirts of the besieged Kurdish town of Kobane.
Edward Yeranian, for VOA news, Cairo.
President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House Wednesday for their 1st face-to-face talks since Israel's war with Hamas militants in Gaza in July and August left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians.
Mr. Obama said Israel and the Palestinians have to find ways to change status quo to resolve issues that led to the fighting.
Mr. Netanyahu praised the U.S. leader for unflinching support during the conflict, but said the possibility of Iran developing a nuclear weapon is even more critical.
At least 10 people were killed Wednesday when shells hit near a school and a minibus in eastern Ukraine's rebel-held city, Donetsk.
The prime minister of the separatists' self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, says the rebels now control 90% of the Donetsk airport.
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic began his closing argument at his trial in the Hague, maintaining his innocence of wrongdoing during the 1990 Bosnia War and admitting only "moral responsibility.”
He is charged with 11 crimes, including genocide for Srebrenica, where almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in 1995 by Serb forces under General Ratko Mladic's command.
Prosecutors are seeking the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
And a death toll from last Saturday's massive volcanic eruption in central Japan is now at 48 after rescuers found 12 more bodies Wednesday.
Hundreds of police and soldiers aided by helicopters continue searching the mountain.
Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014
From Washington, this is VOA news. Beijing warns against foreign interference in Hong Kong protests. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says Iran bigger threat than Islamic State. I'm Ray Kouguell reporting from Washington.
Tens of 1000s of pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong are defying government demands to leave the streets of the Chinese territory even as Beijing warns against foreign interference.
Police fired volleys of tear gas at the protesters in the financial district of the city before pulling back at midday Monday because they said the protest appeared to be weakening. But the crowds grew again in the evening as people got off work.
In Washington, the White House says it is closely watching the situation in Hong Kong, urging authorities there to show restraint and calling for the protesters to remain peaceful.
Kurdish militias in northern Syria continued clashing with Islamic State militants Monday as coalition forces capped off their 1st week of airstrikes with fresh attacks on militant positions in Syria and Iraq.
U.S. Central Command says Jordan and the United Arab Emirates participated in the most recent coalition strikes in Syria.
The joint forces hit ISIS vehicles, weapons and compounds in several parts of the country.
The United Nations opened the headquarters of its new mission to combat Ebola Monday, assembling a team in Ghana's capital, Accra, to coordinate the international response.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the mission will help to unify the response to the Ebola outbreak, coordinating international aid and providing support to the affected countries.
The World Health Organization says the Ebola death toll in West Africa has now surpassed 3,000.
This is VOA news.
The United States is giving an additional $83,000,000 in emergency aid for refugees fleeing the fighting in South Sudan.
The U.S. State Department says the conflict there threatens to create a famine and that more than 2,000,000 people are already facing crisis levels of food insecurity.
Afghanistan has a new President. Ashraf Ghani took the oath of office Monday in the country's 1st democratic transfer of power. Ayaz Gul reports from Islamabad.
The inauguration ceremony at Kabul's Presidential palace took place before a large number of foreign dignitaries, including neighboring Pakistan's President Mamnoon Hussain and senior U.S. Presidential adviser John Podesta.
Moments after taking the oath, President Ashraf Ghani swore in election rival, Abdullah Abdullah, as chief executive of his so-called national unity government.
In his inaugural speech, President Ghani urged the Taliban and other anti-government insurgents to join peace talks to put an end to bloodshed in the country.
President Ghani said security is a main demand of all Afghans and he will go to any extent to restore peace in the country.
Ayaz Gul, Islamabad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accusing Iran of trying to bamboozle the world into a deal to end sanctions while still allowing it to build a nuclear bomb.
Mr. Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly Monday that Iran is on a mission to spread an Islamic revolution around the world.
He said a nuclear-armed Iran would be more dangerous than the Islamic State group.
He grimly warned that Islamic militants believe in a master faith as the Nazis titled a master race in the 1930s.
The prime minister said all Muslim militants, including Islamic State, Hamas, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, share the same fanatical idealism and that Iran could be their power base.
News reports say the intruder who climbed a fence at the White House ran across the lawn and into the building earlier this month, getting farther inside than U.S. Secret Service has publicly acknowledged.
The New York Times, The Washington Post and network TV news programs all cite unidentified sources, who say the intruder rushed past a guard at the front door and ran down a hallway past a staircase leading to the Obama family living quarters before he was subdued.
The Secret Service had said the man, 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez, was arrested just inside the main entrance to the White House.
The Service also initially said he was unarmed, but it was later revealed that he was carrying a knife.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine killed at least 12 soldiers and civilians in another blow to an already shaky cease-fire.
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists exchanged shells and gunfire over the past 2 days near the rebel-held city of Donetsk.
A Ukrainian spokesman says a rebel shell hit an armored vehicle near the Donetsk airport. 3 civilians were killed.
Today we will tell about the brain disorder known as epilepsy. Many people do not understand epilepsy. Medical experts are working to understand it and improve the lives of those who suffer from it. There is no cure for epilepsy. But we will tell you about new treatments for the disorder. Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces seizures. A seizure happens when a sudden increase of electrical activity interferes with normal operations in the brain.
Nerve cells use electrical particles to communicate with each other. Millions of electrical particles pass between nerve cells in the brain. When the brain has a sudden burst of electricity, the body experiences physical changes called epileptic seizures. Victims can shake uncontrollably for brief periods. They also can temporarily lose the ability to think clearly or communicate. Most seizures can last anywhere between 30 seconds and two minutes. These seizures do not cause permanent damage. However, a seizure is considered a medical emergency if it lasts more than five minutes. One in 10 adults will have a seizure during their life.
Different kinds of seizures result when different parts of the brain are affected. If electrical activity increases in only one area of the brain, the person has what doctors call a partial seizure. Many times, people may suffer a partial seizure and do not know it. They might note strange feelings in an arm or leg. They also might hear noises or look straight ahead for a few minutes. Sometimes the individual will have an uncontrolled movement, like turning the head to one side. Most partial seizures last less than 90 seconds. So it is not always possible for others to recognize them as signs of a disorder. When people hear the word seizure, they often think of what doctors call a grand mal seizure. A person experiencing this kind of seizure will fall to the ground. His or her body will become firm and start to shake. After a few minutes, the individual will stop moving and go into a deep sleep, one that may last an hour or more. When they re-awaken, they will not remember what just happened. Some grand mal seizures start with partial seizures and become worse.
The World Health Organization estimates that about 50 million people around the world have epilepsy. The WHO says the highest number of cases are in developing countries. It says many people in the developing world suffer from epilepsy because of local conditions. In such areas, people have a greater chance of experiencing a medical condition or disease that can lead to permanent brain damage. The World Health Organization says many people with epilepsy receive no treatment. And for those who do receive treatment, a medical operation may be too costly. There is no cure for epilepsy. Generally, medicine is used to treat patients with the disorder. The Epilepsy Foundation of America says different kinds of medicines can stop or control different kinds of seizures. There are many different kinds of anti-epileptic medicines on the market. These drugs work best only after they reach what experts call a desired level in the body. It might take months to identify the right drug to control the disorder because each one may cause side effects. These include weight gain or loss, eye or stomach problems, sleepiness and loss of balance. Some people may suffer depression, or have problems thinking or talking after taking some drugs. And the WHO says anti-epileptic drugs work only 70 percent of the time.
Some people with epilepsy may be able to control their seizures by controlling what they eat. The ketogenic diet was developed in the first part of the 20th century. It is very high in fat and low in carbohydrates. It makes the body burn fat for energy instead of sugar. This diet requires family cooperation if the patient is a child. It also requires trained medical supervision. The patient must be in a hospital for the first part of the treatment. The amount of food and liquid the patient can have at meal time must be carefully weighed for each individual. The patient should obey the dietary restrictions for at least one month before experts know if the treatment is successful. The Epilepsy Foundation says that about one third of children on the ketogenic diet become seizure-free or almost seizure-free. Another third improve but still experience some seizures. The others cannot continue with the diet or it has no effect on their seizures.
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com | http://facebook.com/voalearningenglish
Russia's Pavlovsk Experimental Station houses one of the oldest seed and plant collections in the world. But in August a court agreed to let the Russian Housing Development Foundation take control of the land. The Russian government established the foundation in two thousand eight. The foundation wants to build housing on the land near Saint Petersburg that the collection now occupies. Russian officials could still decide to rescue the station. If not, it could be gone within months. The station would not be at all easy to move, even if enough land could be found quickly. Most of the collection grows in the ground. Agricultural specialists say trying to transplant it would take years. The Pavlovsk Experimental Station is part of the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry. The institute already existed as a research center when plant scientist Nikolai Vavilov reorganized it in the nineteen twenties. The institute was named in his honor in nineteen thirty. The experimental station includes plants that are not found in any other seed bank. It also has Europe's largest field bank for fruits and berries. More than one hundred varieties each of raspberries and gooseberries grow on its many hectares.The Global Crop Diversity Trust has been working to save the collection since it first appeared threatened. The trust, a food security group, has been urging people to appeal to Russian officials.An order from President Dmitri Medvedev or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin could stop the housing development. President Medvedev has started an investigation. The collection has been threatened before. During World War Two, German troops surrounded Saint Petersburg, then called Leningrad. Scientists protected the seeds and plants even as people starved. The Pavlovsk Experimental Station is one of an estimated one thousand four hundred seed and plant preservation centers worldwide.Some have been damaged or destroyed by war, natural disasters and theft. In two thousand eight Norway opened a so-called doomsday vault designed to be secure from any threat -- even an asteroid strike. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is in the side of a mountain. The huge, icy space holds extra copies of seeds from other seed banks. In February, it received its half-millionth seed variety to keep safe. And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. You can read and listen to our programs and get podcasts at voaspecialenglish.com.
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