The Clinton Global Initiative's (CGI) 2009 meeting, which begins Tuesday in New York, has added a new theme to its agenda - "investing in women and girls to narrow the gender gap," Bloomberg reports in an article examining the conference. [More]

Republicans are planning to counter Democratic health reform proposals with a call for an incremental approach. [More]

Leaders of the world's five biggest developing economies (G5) - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa - joined the G8 summit on Thursday in an effort to get international financial institutions to use their "multi-billion dollar government bailouts to help developing countries emerge from the economic crisis," AFP/Google.com reports. [More]

The Wall Street Journal examines how a "rainwater harvesting project," called Aakash Ganga is delivering water to India's northern state of Rajasthan - one of the driest states in India - and expanding into China's Guiyang Municipality. The original project, supported by the World Bank, is set to expand from six villages in Rajasthan to "70 villages, to provide water security to 200,000 people," the newspaper writes. [More]

President Barack Obama joined world leaders in Italy on Wednesday for "three days of intense talks on threats to global security and stability" at a G8 summit "where climate change, the continuing global economy crisis and world hunger got top billing," AP/Google.com reports (Babington, 7/8). [More]

Pollution from the world's wealthiest countries is spreading disease and hunger in developing countries, according to a new Oxfam International report, which calls on developed countries to address global warming when G8 leaders meet in Italy, the Globe and Mail reports. [More]

The global economic downturn has "reversed a 20-year decline in world poverty" and could "add up to 90 million to the ranks of the hungry in 2009, an increase of six percent over current totals," according to a U.N. report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched in Geneva on Monday, Reuters reports (Evans, 7/6). [More]

Researchers from Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Germany, develop new method for better diagnostic of diarrhea causing bacteria. [More]

Reuters reports that "President Barack Obama's drive to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system may be back on track thanks to Senate efforts to cut the price tag to $1 trillion, but a bipartisan deal on the sweeping proposal still is far from certain ... Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was upbeat last week after announcing that panel members had found ways to bring the price tag to about $1 trillion over 10 years, down from an earlier estimate of a staggering $1.6 trillion ... Instead, the core group of negotiators -- three Democrats and four Republicans -- issued a tepid statement on Thursday merely affirming their commitment to continue negotiations." [More]

USAID announced on Thursday a $1 million commitment to a Red Cross project aimed at helping those "living along southern Africa's Zambezi River cope with worsening natural disasters because of climate change," the AP/Washington Post reports. [More]

Instead of responding to natural disasters after they happen, aid should be dedicated to helping countries prepare for future disasters, John Holmes, the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, said Friday, Reuters reports. [More]

WHO and UNICEF today called on governments to strengthen risk reduction measures in four key areas so that health and education systems are able to cope with disasters, including the risks from climate change. These areas are: [More]

Despite the current global economic crisis, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called for a continued international commitment to investing in health, Xinhua/People's Daily reports. [More]

A Warwick Business School professor and one of the founders of global risks specialist, Maplecroft, has released three new maps and indices revealing the countries most at risk from an influenza pandemic. [More]

President Barack Obama is ramping up his efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system, including devoting his Saturday radio and video address to health reform. [More]