More people are dying from hepatitis(肝炎) than AIDS and tuberculosis, warns World Health Organization. The World Health Organization(WHO) has urged for action to wipe out hepatitis as ongoing illness worsens.

    In its first global report on the infection, it said the number of people dying from treatable forms of the disease, often caused by alcohol and drug abuse, is rising. Viral hepatitis is believed to have killed 1.34 million people in 2015, and amount similar to that of tuberculosis.

    But while those are both falling, hepatitis deaths are on the rise—increasing by 22 per cent since the turn of the century.

    However, most of the 325 million people infected are completely unaware they have the virus and some lack life-saving medicines. As a result, millions of people are at risk of a slow progression to chronic liver disease, cancer and even death, the WHO warned, Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, said: “Viral hepatitis is now a major public health challenge that requires an urgent response.”

    The two most common forms, which are responsible for 96 per cent of deaths from the disease, are hepatitis B(HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV)

    HBV can be passed on through unprotected sex and bodily fluids(液体). It requires life-long treatment with a drug commonly used to battle HIV. New infections of this type of the disease are falling, thanks to a vaccine given to 84 per cent of newborns across the world. However, just nine per cent of sufferers know they are infected, meaning many go under the radar and miss out on treatment.

    HCV, usually spread through blood-to-blood contact with an infected person, can be cured relatively swiftly, but many patients across the world are unable to afford the medication. Around 1.75 million people were newly infected with HCV in 2015, bringing the global total to 71 million, figures suggests. But four fifths of those infected with this type of the disease are unaware they are suffering, the WHO warned.

    Experts looking at the cases have identified unsafe healthcare procedure and injection drug use as the top causes. Gottfried Hirnschall, director of WHO's Department of HIV and the Global Hepatitis Programme, said the WHO was working with governments, drugmakers and diagnostics companies to improve access.

    He added: More countries are making hepatitis services available for people in need—a diagnostic test cost less than $1 (78p) and the cure for hepatitis C can be below $ 200 (￡156). But the data clearly highlight the urgency with which we must address the remaining gaps in testing and treatment.

    Charles Gore, president of the World Hepatitis Alliance, said: “For the first time in the history of viral hepatitis, we have an understanding of the true impact of the disease.”

    My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations' and is hesitant to try new things. When with close friends, she becomes a leader who laughs loudly and chants, “Girls rule, boys drool.” But when that comfort zone is not around her, she is shy and nervous.

    This has been challenging for me at times. “Shy” is not a word that I think has ever been used to describe me. But this has been a year of firsts for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of confidence. This year she moved to lap lane in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she completed her first kids' triathlon (三项全能).

    On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son's birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to participate in her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to bike to run with her, we got all the equipment she'd need, and we kept talking about the race. But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her turn, she held my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep it together.

    And then it was her turn. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart soared. My daughter transformed into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the finish with the biggest smile on her face.

    I can honestly say that I never felt so proud of someone in my entire life. It wasn't because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and conquered that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn't seen before.

    All day I would find myself just looking over at her and smiling. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I won that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.

Shine on, sweet baby.

    When I was a little girl, I remember that when my dad was repairing something, he would ask me to hold the hammer, so we would have time for a conversation with each other. I never saw my dad drinking or taking a night out. All he did after work was taking care of his family.

    I grew up and left home for college and since then, my dad had been calling me every Sunday morning. And when I bought a house several years later, my dad painted it by himself in the fierce summer heat. All he asked was to talk to him, but I was too busy in those days.

    Four years ago, my dad visited me. He spent many hours putting together a swing for my daughter. He asked me to have a talk with him, but I had to prepare for a trip that weekend.

    One Sunday morning we had a telephone talk as usual. I noticed that my dad had forgotten some things that we discussed lately. I was in a hurry, so our conversation was short. Several hours later that day I received a call. My father was in the hospital. Immediately I bought a plane ticket and on my way I was thinking about all the occasions I missed to have a talk with my dad. By the time I arrived at the hospital, my father had passed away. Now it was he who did not have time for a conversation with me. I realized how little I knew about my dad, his deepest thoughts and his dreams.

    After his death I learned much more about him and even more about myself. All he ever wanted was my time. And now he has all my attention every single day.

    "Don't answer it," I said to Sam. Our door in the inner city is constantly knocked on; our previous door in the suburbs rarely so. Sam has a full-time job and cannot spend his days answering requests to fix leaking baths or carry cash to the bank.

    Sam opened the door and it was Mervin.

    "There's a bird on the second floor," he said. "It's in trouble."

    Sam followed Mervin upstairs. Mervin pointed and turned to let Sam look. It was a pigeon, the most common of all birds, the bird most likely to foul (弄脏) your newly washed car. And it wasn't flying away. It was stamping in circles. As Sam bent to look, Mervin coughed, "Number two."

    Sam asked him to repeat that. "Number two," Mervin said. "The pigeon has been sitting in his own number two, and now it's stuck to his foot."

It had rained for five days, and the bird was young. It could have been sheltering in a     wet nest of its own waste, which had then dried on its foot, preventing it from flying away. The pigeon moved in a few more circles. Sam bent to take another look. Mervin said, "All right, then." and walked away.

    "Why does everyone think you must solve the problems around here?" I said to Sam when he returned with his story. "It's a bird. Just leave it on the stairs, and let nature take its course." Sam didn't agree. Then he went to the garage and emptied the cardboard box containing our imported camping mats. He returned with the gray pigeon in the box. He showed the bird to our children and they decided to keep it.

    They put its foot in the warm water bath and got rid of its waste. Immediately the pigeon erupted in a bomb of feathers and began flying.

    When I was a boy, my parents and I traveled from New York City to the Pennsylvania countryside for a weeklong taste of rural life. We stayed in a guesthouse on a farm, joining the daily routines and eating meals with the farmer and his family. We got up early to see the cows as they were milked. I even tried my hand at milking one, and then joined the farmer as he released the cows into the field afterward.

    Decades later I still have vivid memories of that trip which made me realize the value of a vacation, of seeing new things, meeting new people and sharing memorable experiences with family members. To this day, I still consider that family trip when I plan to take time off with my wife and kids. Vacations are a time for resting and connecting. As a bank manager, I spend much of my workday encouraging my customers to save their money. One of the reasons I give is that we should all have enough for a family vacation every year. In our busy lives, family is what we should be saving our money and time for.

    For my family, our vacation starts when we begin planning the trip. We talk about destinations and our budget (预算) ahead of time. Among the things we discuss: Can we save money by renting a house instead of spending six nights in a hotel? Would it be better to buy groceries and cook for ourselves rather than eat out every night? Involving (使参与) the kids in planning the vacation makes sure that they have a great vacation too. I prefer to visit historical sites and museums while they love to fish and swim. So I build in some relaxation time for us all so that the vacation can work for everyone.

    Each year, setting aside vacation time to spend together is especially important to us. A relaxing environment opens the doors to all kinds of conversations—deep, silly or meaningful. There's no pleasure from the usual everyday tasks. What matters is that everyone is having a great time.

    A home science experiment recently took the world by storm. Two teens from Toronto, in Canada, sent a Lego man rising above the Earth and captured their tiny astronaut's trip on film.

    Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, both 17, used a weather balloon to launch their plastic lego model 16 miles above the Earth. This is inside a part of Earth's atmosphere.

    The two teens were inspired by a similar project performed by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT). The MIT students had launched a weather balloon with a camera into near space and taken many unusual images of the Earth. Mathew and Asad then spend four months figuring out how to launch their own spacecraft into the space.

    Travelling to space is expensive for NASA, but Mathew and Asad worked hard to keep their costs down. They bought much of their equipment used and even sewed the Lego man's parachute by hand. In total, the project cost only$400.

    "We had a lot of anxiety on launch day because there were high winds when we were going up," Mathew told reporters. They had to pump extra helium(氦)into the balloon so that it would rise quickly and avoid being blown too far off course by the strong winds.

    The toy astronaut's journey lasted 97 minutes before the balloon broke and he fell back to Earth. Mathew and Asad then spent two weekends looking for their spacecraft. It had landed 76miles away from the launch site.

    The student scientists are currently finishing up their final year of high school and applying for colleges. They are also looking into more do-it-yourself space projects.

    "I guess the sky is not really the limit anymore," Mathew told reporters. "We never knew we'd get this far. It's been a lesson for us that hard work pays off."