As we mark International Women's Day on March 8, an increasing number of women around the world find themselves and their families in dire economic circumstances. While we as a nation focus on the economic realities here in the US, we must not let global starvation, violence, trafficking, and the lack of health care, clean water, and basic necessities fall lower on our priority list.

About 300 chefs and other food professionals have signed a letter to the Obamas praising their commitment to healthy, sustainable food, a press statement by the Chefs Collaborative, a non-profit culinary organization, announced last week.

Taking his first bold steps to reverse the Bush administration's budget priorities, President Barack Obama released his administration's initial budget outline last week, which proposes to end Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, create a reserve health care fund, curb growth in military spending and dramatically improve funding for the needs of working families.

In the middle of one of the worst economic crises in American history and with massive spending projected to create new jobs and loosen the credit markets, the Obama administration has called a "fiscal responsibility" summit for this Monday, Feb. 23.

ATLANTA – "The system we have for taking care of our veterans is more hostile than the IRS," journalist and author Aaron Glantz used to describe the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs during a talk at The Carter Center Tuesday night, February 17, 2009.

It was the passage of the landmark Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the same year that Medicare and Medicaid were enacted, that marked the birth of America's Community Health Centers (also known as Federally Qualified Health Centers).

Cuba and South Africa look forward to expanding bilateral cooperation in the field of biotechnology, as revealed during the current working visit to that nation by the director of the Cuban Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center.

Despite intense and expensive propaganda campaigns against "government-run" health care programs, more than seven in 10 Americans believe that a public health insurance plan should be among the choices available to people.

Thousands of GIs have suffered preventable hearing loss because they were not supplied with earplugs to reduce the din of battle. Many have a permanent ringing in their ears they will suffer throughout their lives.

I believe today we face one of the most important decisions in our Nation's history – how to address the insolvency of our health care system that threatens to decimate our country's budget, stability, and overall wellbeing.

Chile's President Michelle Bachelet attended the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Cuban authorities to foster biotechnological collaboration between the two countries, during a visit Wednesday to the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center in Havana.

Progressive Democrats of America will take to the phones on Lincoln's Birthday to call all U.S. representatives and senators and encourage their support for HR 676, The National Health Insurance Act, reintroduced last week by Rep. John Conyers.

The German Multinational company, Bayer, had been granted a patent for its drug, Sorafenib tosylate (marketed as Nexavar by the company), in India a few months back.

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 30 (acn) Over 4,000 Cubans infected with AIDS taking mostly Cuban-produced antiretroviral drugs, have noticeably improved their quality and expectation of life.

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 28 (acn) Cuba has extended the therapeutic use of stem cells to several of its provinces after 511 patients have been successfully treated since 2004.

Coal miners are now suffering from black lung disease at a higher rate than in the previous decade. In fact, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the prevalence of black lung disease has doubled over the past five years.

St. Louis – More than 150 union leaders from 31 states gathered in St. Louis last weekend to step up a grassroots campaign to enact comprehensive national healthcare reform. The group is promoting a single-payer plan, which would work like an improved and expanded Medicare program to cover everyone.

No links connecting specific human illnesses to chemicals oozing out of baby bottles have been proven definitively. Nonetheless, many parents are heeding the call of scientists to switch to products with less risk.

It is important to include in our thinking about the US Health Care system that private health insurers are often multi-million dollar investors in some of the worst health-damaging industries, cigarette manufacturers most notably, but also tobacco pesticides, pesticides in general, chlorine, polluting smokestack industries, oil, unhealthy foods, mountaintop removal coal mining, and even military weaponry.

About 40 activists representing numerous local, state, and national organizations gathered Thursday, December 18, 2008, at Grady Memorial Hospital to express opposition to a proposal they said could leave thousands of uninsured citizens without a safety net.