Japan's suicide rate is among the highest in the industrialized world.

More Japanese workers than ever claimed and received compensation for mental-health problems caused by workplace stress last year.
A similar trend was seen for families of employees who died from work-related suicides.
A government study found the number of employment-related suicides hit a record 65 in 2006, compared to 42 the previous year, Health Ministry official Junichiro Kurashige said, reported AP.
The number of workers who received compensation for work-induced mental illness was 205, also a record and up 61 percent from a year earlier, he said. The number of applications for compensation for mental illness or suicide also rose sharply, to 819 cases, a 24 percent jump.
The numbers reflect a push by the government to get more workers or their families to seek compensation if they are legitimately entitled to it, and Kurashige said the recorded cases probably reflect only a tiny fraction of the overall problem.
Japan’s suicide rate is among the highest in the industrialized world. More than 32,000 Japanese killed themselves in 2004, the bulk of them older Japanese suffering financial woes as the country struggled through a decade of economic stagnation.
In response, the Japanese government has earmarked substantial funds for programs to help those with depression and other mental illnesses and is more actively involved in encouraging those affected to come forward.
The figures are also seen as reflecting a change in social attitudes toward mental illness.
Though once seen as shameful, more Japanese are willing to acknowledge they suffer from depression or stress-related illnesses now than in the past, and the government has begun easing its compensation restrictions to allow more people to qualify.
“Before, people tried to hide that they were suffering from depression,“ said Mikio Mizuno, a lawyer specializing in death from overwork. “Now, it has become more widely known that people suffer and commit suicide from work-related depression, leading to more applications for workers’ compensation. The psychological burden from work is also increasing.“
Financial worries have been a problem since the world’s second-largest economy stagnated in the early 1990s after a burst of high growth, leading to bankruptcies, layoffs and an increased focus on jobs with fewer benefits and long-term security.
The economic has been growing again, but more slowly, and Japanese workers often face long overtime hours with little or no compensation and must make long commutes to work.

Cuba’s population declined in 2006 for the first time in 25 years due to fewer births, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said. The Cuban population dropped last year by about 4,300 to 11,239,536 inhabitants, according to official statistics.
The number of births dropped to 111,084 in 2006 from 120,716 a year earlier, an 8 percent decline, the country’s top demographic expert, Juan Carlos Alfonso, told Granma, reported Reuters.
Cuba’s populace is aging fast and there is a marked rise in the number of people aged 60 and over compared to other age groups, Alfonso said.
Women are deciding to have fewer children, said Alfonso, director of population studies at the National Statistics Office.
On average, Cuban families tend to have only one child. The country has faced economic hardships and overcrowded housing since it lost the support of the Soviet Union 15 years ago.
Rising life expectancy--now at 77 years--has given Cuba the demographics of the industrialized First World even though it is a Third World nation, officials say.
Today, 16.2 percent of the Cuban population is 60 or over, according to the National Statistics Office. The agency estimated that about one-quarter of the Cuban populace will fall into that category by 2025.
That is a worrying statistic for any society because it means a smaller working population and escalating costs for the state in health care and social security.
Wealthier countries solve the problem with immigration. In Cuba’s case, emigration has been a constant since Fidel Castro’s revolution in 1959 steered the country to Communism.

Adras, 24, is one of the scores who sit here listlessly in small groups, at the base of trees lining the shore, or in scrappy dinghies, longingly looking toward the United States, far over the horizon to the northwest, beyond Cuba.
“There has to be death to bring life,“ said the young husband and father. “I’ll die one day or another; I can sit here and wait for something that will never come, or, better, I can go find a life,“ he said.
The odds are only one in ten, some say. But Adras is among thousands of Haitians so desperately mired in poverty and surrounded by violence that they are willing to risk everything aboard rickety vessels to get to US shores, wrote AFP.
At least 61 perished when their overloaded vessel capsized near the Turks and Caicos north of Haiti on May 4, ending the hopes of as many as 150 people aboard seeking to make their way to a new home.
The boat was intercepted by the local navy and foundered while being towed into port, according to the US Coast Guard, with 78 people rescued.
Last week an official of the northern Haitian island of La Tortue said another boat carrying 137 had left there for the United States at the end of April. No word has been heard of its fate.
But without jobs, without money, without hope, the people in this small port town 66 kilometers (miles) south of Port-au-Prince don’t see any future in staying at home.
“With the cost of life, the joblessness and misery, people don’t have a choice,“ said Dully Chardonette, a student in Petit-Goave. “But the whites watch the coast and don’t let anyone get past,“ he added, referring to the US Coast Guard’s vessel Hamilton keeping watch off Haiti’s coast, each week turning back hundreds of hopeful emigrants.
“Everything in life is about luck,“ said Ronald, 40 and jobless. Decades of corruption, political instability and mismanagement have left Haiti’s 8.5 million people in grinding poverty.
Eighty percent live on less than two dollars a day and 70 percent of the working-age population lack jobs.

Young boys create handicrafts in IranÕs Juvenile Correction Center. (Photo by Alireza Jalilifar)

Some 9,831 attacks injured more than 5,500 medical workers in China.

China’s Health Ministry has called for police to be posted at local hospitals to protect medical workers from violent attacks by disgruntled patients and their relatives, state media reported.
China Ministry of Health spokesman Mao Qu’nan appealed to police and hospitals to cooperate to “halt the violent trend“ and provide better service to patients, the China Daily said, Reuters reported.
“Bringing about a harmonious medical service environment is not just down to hospitals,“ the paper quoted Mao as saying.
“The police should be more involved in safeguarding hospital staff and the facility itself.“
Disputes between patients and hospitals are common in China, where market reforms of the 1980s ended cradle-to-grave healthcare and where lax supervision has lead to overcharging, bogus treatments and corruption.
Some 9,831 attacks stemming from disputes caused more than 200 million Yuan ($26 million) worth of damage to hospital property and injured more than 5,500 medical workers, the paper said, citing health ministry figures.
In December, doctors and nurses at Shanxia hospital in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, were forced to wear hard hats on their rounds after being jostled and spat at for days by relatives seeking compensation over a patient’s death.
A number of hospitals had hired police to patrol wards and maintain order, the newspaper said.

People who feel they are treated unfairly, including in the home and community, may have a higher risk of developing heart disease, a study says.
University College London researchers studied 8,000 people, says the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
They found those with a profound sense of injustice had a 55% higher chance of suffering serious heart disease.
Experts believe a sense of unfairness engenders negative emotions which may prompt biochemical changes in the body, reported BBC.
I understand that this is a long shot, but the key message is that we must try to promote fairness in society Roberto de Vogli However, lead researcher Dr Roberto de Vogli said more research was needed to confirm the mechanism linking unfairness to health.
The team looked at a study of 8,000 senior civil servants working for the UK government.
However, they were not assessing unfairness experienced at work and used statistics to remove the effects of this factor, and of risk factors such as obesity and smoking, from their tests.
The results showed that unfair treatment in other aspects of life was linked to increased risk of heart disease.
The civil servants were asked how strongly-on a scale of one to six-they agreed with the statement: “I often have the feeling that I am being treated unfairly.“
Their mental and physical health was then tracked for an average of almost 11 years.
The results showed the more unfair treatment people reported, the greater their risk of suffering a heart attack or angina.
Dr de Vogli said perception of unfairness in all areas was important.
“I understand that this is a long shot, but the key message is that we must try to promote fairness in society.“
Neil Poulter, professor of preventive cardiovascular medicine at Imperial College London, said: “I would think that if you are treated unfairly by society then that would be a likely stress factor which could adversely affect your health.“
But he warned it was difficult to separate the effects of unfairness from other risk factors.

A study of US crash data found that air bags were effective for people of medium stature, but may be harmful for people of short or tall stature.
Body weight was not a contributing factor to injury rates, since many “smart“ air bags use body weight to determine how the air bag deploys, according to Dr. Craig Newgard of Oregon Health and Science University, who analyzed crash data for more than 65,000 front-seat occupants, said Upi.com.
Newgard’s study found that air bags may actually be harmful to people smaller than 4 feet 11 inches and taller than 6 feet 3 inches.
“In this 11-year sample of drivers and front passengers, occupants of small and large stature appeared to be at risk of serious injury from an air bag,“ Newgard said in a statement.
The findings are scheduled to be presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine annual meeting Friday in Chicago.

Groups of elderly Australians are reportedly setting up backyard laboratories to manufacture an illegal euthanasia drug so they can kill themselves when they have had enough of life.
One group has already succeeded in producing the drug nembutal, which is used by vets to put down animals, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
At least four other backyard factories were planned for major cities across the country, with a total of some 800 elderly people prepared to become involved in producing the drug, reported AFP.
Dozens of older Australians were also engaged in illegally importing nembutal from the Mexican border town of Tijuana, close to the US city of San Diego, according to the report.
Illegal possession of the prohibited drug carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
One of the illegal manufacturers, Bron Norman, said the drug should be available for those who wish to commit suicide when they have outlived their useful life.
“It’s outrageous that we’ve been forced into this position because we can’t legally obtain a drug that will give us a peaceful death when we want one,“ she told the ABC. “It’s not illegal to end your life. Why is it illegal to have the drug that will do it?“
Philip Nitschke, who founded the pro-voluntary euthanasia group Exit International, said he knew of dozens of elderly Australians who had smuggled nembutal from Mexico.
“We’ve got a lot of experience now. We had over 100 people last year go across to Mexico and come back with this drug successfully to Australia,“ he said.