hidden world of doctors cuba sends overseas

Fidel Castro described the medics as Cuba's `army of white coats`. Absolutely it was proved in many ongoing occasions. Cuba has long been renowned for its medical diplomacy- thousands of its doctors work in health care missions around the world, earning the country billions of dollars in cash. But according to a new report, some of the doctors themselves say conditions can be nightmarish - controlled by minders, subject to a curfew and posted to extremely dangerous places said press reports. Dayli, now 31 years old, wanted to be an intensive care specialist. She says that after graduating, she was told that if she went on a medical mission to Venezuela, she would gain experience in her chosen field and that it would count as her three years of obligatory social service, which all graduates have to complete in Cuba before gaining full-status posts.`I studied medicine out of vocation. I used to sleep between three and four hours because I studied so hard. I worked hard in my first year of practice, I took on a lot of extra shifts. And now here I am. I cannot be a doctor in Cuba. It's very frustrating.` In October 2011, the young doctor was posted to a clinic in the Venezuelan town of El Sombrero. `There were many criminal gangs,` says Dayli. `When they fought, they brought their injured to us, because the local Venezuelan hospital had a police presence, and we didn't. These kids would bring in a patient with 12 or 15 bullets in his body, point their guns at you and say you had to save him. If he died, you would die. That kind of thing happened on a daily basis. It was routine.` The wages on offer were another strong incentive for Dayli, who is originally from the small Cuban city of Camagüey, to join up. Going from a doctor's salary on the island of just $15 a month in 2011, she says she was paid $125 monthly for the first six months in Venezuela, a figure that rose to $250 after six months and $325 during her third year. Her family in Cuba also received a bonus of $50 a month. According to a report by Prisoners Defenders, a Spain-based NGO that campaigns for human rights in Cuba and is linked to the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU) opposition group, doctors on average receive between 10% and 25% of the salary paid by the host countries, with the rest being kept by Cuba's authorities.With more than 30,000 Cuban doctors currently active in 67 countries - many in Latin America and Africa, but also European nations including Portugal and Italy. Cuba's authorities draw up strict rules in an attempt to prevent citizens defecting once abroad.

chinese dad trains pet dog to watch his daughter do homework

A good dog is now going viral in China after being taught by the family’s father to watch over his daughter as she does her homework. The dog was trained by the girl’s father, surnamed Xu, to put its front paws up on the table and watch over her so that she doesn’t get distracted when she does her homework every night, according to press reports. Xu decided to train the dog when he noticed that his daughter often played on her smartphone instead of doing her homework.In this particular video that’s been circulating on Chinese social media, the good dog can be seen patiently watching over the girl. `I trained it to guard food from the cat when it was young," says Xu Liang of southwestern China's Guizhou province. "Then one day, I found my daughter was naughty when she was doing her homework. I came up with an idea to let Fantuan watch over its sister, supervise her to do her homework.`

UN chief meets NZ mosque victims, decries online hate

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited the Al Noor mosque, one of two Muslim centers in the New Zealand city where a self-described white supremacist killed 51 people in a March 15 shooting that the attacker live-streamed on Facebook. He warned hate speech was spreading online `like wildfire` at a meeting with victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings Tuesday, vowing the world body will lead efforts to extinguish the problem.Guterres The UN chief is traveling the South Pacific to highlight the impact of climate change but said he also wanted to show his support for Christchurch’s Muslim community during Ramadan.`I know there are no words to relieve the hurt and sorrow and pain, but I wanted to come here personally to transmit love, support and total and complete admiration,` he said.He told victims of the worst mass shooting in modern New Zealand history that there had been `a dangerous upsurge in hatred` as social media was exploited to promote bigotry.`Hate speech is spreading like wildfire in social media. We must extinguish it,` the Portuguese diplomat said.`There is no room for hate speech — online or offline.`He highlighted a previously announced plan for his special adviser on genocide prevention Adama Dieng to combat online extremism.He said Dieng’s mission was to `bring together a United Nations team to scale up our response to hate speech and present a global plan of action.`His remarks come as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who hosted Guterres when he arrived in Auckland on Sunday, embarks on her own quest to tame social media in Paris this week. She has been highly critical of social media giants in the wake of the Christchurch killings, saying they should be `taking ownership and responsibility over their platforms.`Ardern will co-host a meeting of world leaders and tech firms to promote a `Christchurch call` aimed at curbing online extremism.

argentine lawmaker olivares dies from injuries after mafia style shooting

Argentine lawmaker Hector Olivares died on Sunday after he was shot in what authorities called a `mafia-style` attack outside Congress in downtown Buenos Aires on Thursday, according to state-run news agency Telam. Olivares underwent surgery after being shot and had been listed in “serious condition,” officials said. But he died at Ramos Mejia hospital in Buenos Aires, Telam reported, citing police and judicial sources. Argentine lawmaker Héctor Olivares and his adviser and friend Miguel Marcelo Yadón, were walking side-by-side on a sidewalk near Argentina’s National Congress in Buenos Aires on Thursday morning when gunmen ambushed them.Government aide Miguel Yadon was also shot in the attack and died at the scene.Argentine authorities announced the arrests of members of a mafia gang on Friday. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said that all members of the group had been detained, including one who had fled across the border to Uruguay.Local officials and media have indicated the motive was personal, rather than political, and that the gang had targeted Yadon specifically.