Israel’s Kibbutz movement is looking to a burgeoning international appetite for marijuana from the holy land, particularly in the U.S., to reinvigorate their communities after decades of stagnation. The so-called “green rush” has gained momentum since February, when the Israeli government threw its weight behind legislation allowing the export of medical marijiuana. The law is expected to pass before the end of the summer with some insiders indicating a vote in August, the Times of Israel reported. With medical marijuana legal in 28 U.S. states, and the drug approved for legal recreational use in  Colorado, Alaska, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington,…

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam   was a prominent Indian scientist who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Renowned for hispivotal role in the nation’s civilian space programme and military missile development, he was known as the Missile Man of India. He made significant contributions to India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998 which established him as a national hero. An alumnus of the prestigious Madras Institute of Technology, Kalam began his career as a scientist at the Aeronautical Development Establishment of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). He was later transferred to the Indian Space Research Organisation…

Julian Paul Assange (/əˈsɒnʒ/;[1] born Julian Paul Hawkins, 3 July 1971) is an Australian computer programmer and the founder of WikiLeaks, an organization which he founded in 2006. He has won accolades including the Sam Adams Award and Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006, but came to global prominence in 2010, when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks provided by Chelsea Manning. These leaks included the Collateral Murder video (April 2010),[2][3] the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), and CableGate (November 2010). Following the 2010 leaks, the United States government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks and asked allied nations for assistance.[4] In November 2010, a request was made for Assange's…

The anti-Russian McCarthyism that has spread out from the United States to encompass the European Union, Canada and Australia has at its core an implicit recognition that neoliberal economics and neoconservative foreign policy have failed. When I recently asked a European journalist why this anti-Russian hysteria had taken root among mainstream European political parties, he answered with a question: “Do you think they can run on their success in handling the recession and the refugees?” In other words, European voters are angry about the painful economic conditions that followed the Wall Street crash of 2008 and the destabilizing surge of…

Two randomised controlled trials from Goa, India, in today's Lancet assess brief psychological treatment delivered by lay counsellors in primary care for depression (the Healthy Activity Program; HAP) and for harmful drinking (Counselling for Alcohol Problems; CAP). Although WHO recommends psychological interventions for mental health disorders, evidence comes largely from high-income countries. These trials from the PRogram for Effective Mental health Interventions in Under-resourced health systeMs (PREMIUM), show feasibility, outcomes, and cost in a developing country. Depression and alcohol misuse are common problems with huge treatment gaps in low-income and middle-income countries. In India, for instance, suicide is the leading cause of…