Good news from Israel

·        Israeli scientists have made an important discovery in the fight against leukemia.

·        Ethiopian-born Miss Israel is a sensation on her US tour.

·        Israel now generates half of its electrical energy from home-produced natural gas.

·        Wake-up with WakeUp – Israel’s new award-winning natural, healthy beverage.

·        Israel’s unemployment rate is the lowest in two decades.

·        Only 5 shekels for any item bought at new Cofix Israeli kosher café takeaways.

·        Israel is uploading 1600 Italian historical Jewish manuscripts onto the Internet.

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Breakthrough in understanding leukemia.  A mutated gene RUNX1 inherited from one parent is responsible for producing leukemia stem cells. Researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute have discovered that the healthy copy of the gene from the other parent is also required otherwise the leukemia cells die.

Brain cancer breakthrough.  The media is reporting the discovery by Dr Regina Golan-Gerstl, of Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical School, of hnRNP A2/B1. The protein gene is key to the most common and aggressive adult brain cancer – glioblastoma.  Great news, as reported it in my 14th Aug 2011 newsletter.

 Laquinimod reduces brain damage in MS patients.  In Phase III trials, Israel’s Teva reported that its Laquinimod oral treatment for multiple sclerosis reduced neuro-degeneration, slowing the progression of locomotor disability in multiple sclerosis patients.  Laquinimod might also help treat Crohn’s disease, lupus nephritis, Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s.

Americans look to Israel for Parkinson’s treatment.  1.5 million Americans, including many Jews, suffer from Parkinson’s disease.  The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle highlights some of the many Israeli treatments.

DIY medical sensor.  (Thanks to NoCamels.com) Israel’s Elfi Tech monitors your pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, blood flow and much more, non-invasively at any time with the help of a sensor smaller than a dime.  It has just been selected as a finalist of the Nokia Sensing XChallenge.

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Israel hosts international conference on proteins.  160 leading biomedical scientists from Israel, Europe and the US attended the ninth Jakub K. Parnas Conference entitled “Proteins – from Birth to Death” at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  It is co-sponsored by the Biochemical societies of Israel, Poland and the Ukraine.

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Miss Israel wows black Americans.  Israel’s beauty queen, 22-year-old Ethiopian-born Yityish Aynaw,  was in Los Angeles as a guest of Christian preacher Rev. Ronald V. Myers. He said that everyone should know what Israel did to rescue Ethiopian Jews.

Another Syrian treated in Israel.  A 23-year-old Syrian was brought to Ziv (Sieff) Hospital in the central Galilee city of Tzfat, for treatment of moderate shrapnel wounds to the hand, suffered in his country’s civil war.  The hospital has treated 108 victims of the conflict.  Plus an article on the clandestine work that Israel is doing.

How do sick Arab children get to Israel?  (Thanks to Elaine) The Christian organization Shevet Achim works in places like Jordan, Iraq and the Gaza strip. It funds and transports children requiring heart surgery to Israeli hospitals such as Save A Child’s Heart’s Wolfson and at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.

Yad Vashem honors righteous Egyptian doctor.  Egyptian doctor Mohamed Helmy is the first Arab to be designated “Righteous Among the Nations” by Israel’s holocaust center Yad Vashem. Dr Helmy hid a Jewish family in Berlin from 1942 to 1944.  Dr Helmy died in Berlin in 1982.

Israeli security for India.  (Thanks to Size Doesn’t Matter) Around 500 Israeli-made hi-resolution cameras with nighttime vision have been installed on the Kolkata (Calcutta) subway.

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“Israeli water week” in Vietnam.  Israel brought its leading water experts to Vietnam to forge cooperation and bring advanced water technologies to Vietnam.  Israeli companies included Netafim, Amiad, Bermad and Odis.

Israel’s cleanest ever energy.  Half of Israel’s electricity now comes from natural gas – mainly from the new Tamar offshore gas field.  Israel Electric Corporation announced that this is its cleanest year ever for environmental quality and the production of clean, green electricity.

Gasoline from natural gas.  Israel Corporation subsidiary IC Green Energy has inaugurated a facility in New Jersey to produce gasoline from natural gas.  The plant can produce up to 100, 000 gallons (440, 000 liters) of gasoline a year.  Automobiles will be able to use the lower cost, less emissions fuel without any modifications.

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Recovering lost energy.  Israel’s Ormat Technologies builds Recoverable Energy Generators (REGs) that turn waste energy from industrial processes into usable electrical power.  It already recovers 160 megawatts in the USA and 595 MW worldwide.  It has just agreed to build a 5MW REG power plant for eBay in Utah.

Drink Israel’s wake-up beverage.  Israeli startup Inno-Bev’s all-natural WakeUp won “Best Functional Drink” at the Drinktec Beverage Innovation Awards.  Instead of a high caffeine energy drink, enjoy guarana, ginkgo biloba, elderberry and a unique apple sugar with a low glycaemic index that reduces sugar fluctuation.

$130 million to help build China’s Technion.  Israel’s Technion has received its largest ever donation.  The Li Ka Shing Foundation donated $130 million to establish the Technion Guangdong Institute of Technology, a joint venture with Shantou University in Guangdong Province in southern China.

Watching over them.  (Thanks to Yair) An Israeli company has made a watch to keep your loved ones safe.  The Foxiwatch has GPS, a mobile phone and an emergency contact button.  For children or at-risk adults.

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Israel – the next Silicon Valley.  (Thanks to Jacob) A long but very positive article on Israel’s technical prowess.  Covers cyber-security, UAVs (unmanned drones), computer processor chips, the Start-up nation, Be’er Sheva’s Advanced Technology Park, Negev agriculture and Ben Gurion University.

New tech campus for Tel Aviv.  A site for a new technology and engineering campus has been allocated in southeast Tel Aviv.  The 6.75-acre site will accommodate 5, 000 students, dormitories, the Afeka Academic College of Engineering, plus education institutions already in the area, such as the ORT Singalovksi School.

Israeli technology is up in the air.  Jerusalem is hosting the 61^st annual International Congress of Aviation and Space Medicine.  Israeli technology showcased will include an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and a robotic dog, both of which can evacuate wounded under fire.

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Israeli unemployment hits 20-year low.  Israel’s August unemployment rate fell to 6.1%, the lowest in two decades. At the same time, participation in the labor market continues to expand, reaching 64% in August.

Israel is still an A with S&P.  Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) affirmed its A+ foreign currency credit rating for Israel with a “Stable” outlook. It also reaffirmed its local currency A-1 sovereign credit rating.

Japanese investment boosts ReWalk.  Japan-based robotics manufacturer Yaskawa Electric Corporation has invested in and formed a strategic partnership with Israel’s Argo Medical Technologies. Argo manufactures the ReWalk exoskeleton that enables paraplegics to walk.  The investment will aid R&D to streamline manufacture.

Israeli agriculture expands into Serbia.  (Thanks to Atid-EDI) Israel’s Makhteshim Agan Industries supplies solutions to farmers that combat disease and increase yields.  It has purchased Magan Agrochemicals Serbia in order to expand into the Southeastern region of the European Union.

Look who’s talking?  Israeli communications integrator and social media solutions provider ITNavigator has just been bought up by US Networking giant Avaya and will be navigating its way to New Jersey.  ITNavigator spots comments (positive or adverse) about a company on the Internet, allowing a fast response.

Everything on the menu is 5 shekels.  All food and beverages at Israel’s new café chain, Cofix, will be kosher and just NIS 5 (under $1.5 or £1). Cofix plans 300 takeaway-only franchises.

China invests in Israeli collagen.  Israel’s Collplant has received a 10% investment from China’s Trauwin who will market Collplant’s products in China.  Collagen is the most abundant protein in mammals and is used to repair damaged muscles and wounds.

Israelis are Magic.  (Thanks to Joshua) An Israeli, 19-year-old Shahar Shenhar, is the 2013 Magic: The Gathering (MtG) world champion.  MtG is a trading card game, which is as popular as chess among young intellectuals.  The champion in 2007 was Israel’s Uri Peleg, who has five graduate degrees.

A star is born?  (Thanks to 12Tribe Films) Elementary teacher Elon Taub really won over the audience and the judges with his performance on Israel’s Cohav Nolad.

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Stevie TV – your personal TV channel.  (Thanks to Israel21c) Tel Aviv start-up Stevie TV takes feeds from Facebook and Twitter, your friends’ photos, “Liked” articles plus news stories, live sports and music etc. to give you the personal, interactive TV station of the future.  Bye bye BBC.

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Israel beams Russian ice hockey to Europe.  (Thanks to Atid-EDI) Synterra Media, the largest Media Content Logistics operator in Russia, has selected Israel’s RRsat Global Communications to distribute live broadcasts of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) games for the 2014 season to millions of Europeans.

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Israel to digitize Italian medieval manuscripts.  Israel’s National Library will be digitizing the Palatina Library’s collection of about 1, 600 documents dating to the Middle Ages.  Items to go online include one of the oldest existing copies of the Mishna – the Jewish Oral Law.

Israel’s fire scouts save lives.  (Thanks to Israel21c) About 1, 500 Israeli teens (often from problem homes) are involved in the fire scout movement. They learn to operate fire trucks, ladders, hoses, rescue techniques and all about fires.  In 2010 fire scouts helped save two 18-month-old babies from a burning apartment.

Flying with the birds.  Here is a beautiful Israel21c film about Israeli scientist and ornithologist Yossi Leshem. Yossi took advantage of Israel being the route for 500 million migratory birds to devise solutions that allow man and bird to share the same airspace in safety.

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Grandma has a baby elephant.  “La Petite”, an Asian elephant at Ramat Gan’s Safari Park has just given birth – two months after her daughter, “La Belle”, gave birth.  Zoo staff said the new “little one” appeared to be strong, healthy, and successfully nursing.  Stop press – park staff have named La Belle’s baby “Letangi”.

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