The new year is here and with it comes International Living’s report, The Best Places to Retire in 2015. The report, targeting North American expats, features 25 countries all of which offer advantages to retiring expats. We will take a look at which countries offer the best healthcare options for retirees.

The countries making up the top five retirement havens are all in Latin and South America apart from one. Ecuador comes in first place, followed by Panama, Mexico, Malaysia, and Costa Rica. Of these five destinations, Malaysia scores the highest in the healthcare category with 94 points out of 100.

The countries are scored across eight categories including climate, housing and rentals, cost of living as well as healthcare. All 25 countries in the report scored above 70 for healthcare, we’ve mentioned Malaysia, the top scorer with 94 points. The other high scoring countries in terms of healthcare were Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay, and Thailand, all with 89 points. Read More>

SOURCE : Expathealth.org

Stress is the reason why we find it hard to empathise with someone we do not know, researchers suggest.

In separate tests in mice and people, empathy towards strangers increased when stress hormones were blocked by a drug.

Playing a fun video game with a stranger was found to have a similar effect to the drug.

The Canadian and American research team published their findings in Current Biology.

Previous studies have shown that the ability to feel or share someone else’s pain is not something unique to humans. Mice can feel empathy too.

But in both species, empathy is stronger between those that recognise each other and all but absent between those unfamiliar with each other.

Stress levels have also been shown to rise in both mice and people in the presence of strangers.

BBC News

Two volunteers have been transferred to the UK after potential contact with the Ebola virus in separate incidents.

Public Health England said the patients’ risk of having the virus was low and the measure was a precaution.

Authorities said the individuals – one of whom is Australian – had not been diagnosed with Ebola and did not currently have symptoms of the disease.

Experts emphasised the risk to the public was low and said the volunteers would be monitored for 21 days.

Australian authorities confirmed an Australian nurse was flown to the UK after a low risk clinical incident while working in Sierra Leone.

SOURCE : BBC News