Half a million women die each year during pregnancy or childbirth. Reducing the maternal mortality rate is one of the UN's Millennium Development goals, but experts say not enough is being done to safeguard the lives of mothers.

Warren Buffett's pledge to give more than 30 billion dollars to the Gates Foundation has enormous implications for promoting global health. This year's portion of the donation alone is roughly equal to the amount UNICEF spends annually.

Pope Benedict XVI has requested a report on the use of condoms in cases involving HIV. The issue divides church traditionalists and pragmatists, and could signify the first major crossroads of Benedict's papacy.

Twenty years ago, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which spread radioactivity over Europe, seemed to be the death knell of the industry. But a renaissance of interest in nuclear power is underway, driven by higher energy prices, global warming, new technologies, and, some argue, short memories.

The deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus has now crept well into Europe—infecting birds in Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, and Denmark—and now also threatens Africa. Experts are at a loss over how to best tackle what could be an imminent global pandemic.

Read Yanzhong Huang's chapter titled "Global Health,Civil Society, and Regional Security," in the book A Growing Force for Good: Civil Society's Role in Asian Regional Security, edited by Rizal Sukma and James Gannon.

Jagdish Bhagwati argues that growth can reduce poverty and that slow economic growth will hurt social development, which he also argues in his new book with Arvind Panagariya, "India's Tryst with Destiny: Debunking Myths that Undermine Progress and Addressing New Challenges."

Laurie Garrett reviews the complex social, political, and financial issues at play ahead of the U.S. presidential election and their implications for domestic and global health programs.

Laurie Garrett reviews Peter Piot's No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses.

Laurie Garrett discusses the issue of how to save millions of people from toxic, substandard, contaminated, mislabeled, and dangerous drugs, medicines, and vaccines.

Tikki Pang and Laurie Garrett argue that the World Health Organization is facing an unprecedented crisis that threatens its position as the premier international health agency, and to ensure its leading role, it must rethink its internal governance and revamp its financing mechanisms.

Yanzhong Huang discusses efforts toward universal health coverage in emerging economies.

Laurie Garrett says that as recent events have put the future of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in doubt, a critical, dangerous moment has emerged for all of global health.

Laurie Garrett discusses the public policy implications of bird flu and bioterrorism.

Thomas Bollyky examines strategies to improve access to neglected disease treatments and sustainably meet the treatment needs of the world's poorest people.

Laurie Garrett discusses the FRONTLINE documentary, "The Anthrax Letters."

Yanzhong Huang says countries need to work together to deal with food safety challenges in the era of globalization.

Laurie Garrett and El'Haum Alavian discuss the challenge, for the world's richest nations, of assisting emerging economies in their transition to self-reliance in obtaining public goods, and finding solutions that guarantee equitable access to health for the entire family of nations.

Yanzhong Huang examines the different strategies with which the United States and China responded to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

An e-newsletter produced by CFR's Global Health Program looking at the Obama administration's Global Health Initiative, the swine flu backlash, and the dangers ahead for Haiti, as well as a number of other timely issues.