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The U.S. government worked closely with CNN and private U.S. medical groups to bring the 5-year-old Iraqi victim of an extremely damaging burning assault to the United States for medical treatment. Speaking of Jewell Evans, the U.S. diplomat who played a key role in helping the young boy, U.S. Embassy Baghdad consular affairs spokesman Steve Royster says: "Jewell made special efforts. Youssif's case is unique in that it is outside normal procedures. Jewell took this case and discovered a way to make this happen."

Trade and private capital flows are important economic engines for the developing world at a time when U.S. official development assistance to certain nations is being reduced. Jose Cardenas from the U.S. Agency for International Development tells USINFO that the U.S. relationship with the developing world, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean, should be viewed in the “totality” of the amount of trade, investment and private flows of capital between the United States and other countries.

With the first presidential nominating contests less than a month away, candidates in both parties are stepping up their attacks on opponents. The dynamics of the primary system drive candidates to appeal to the most aggressive voters, says Pietro Nivola, director of the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "The result is when the chips are down, the races are getting tight as they are now … it's just simply too tempting to go on the attack," he says. USINFO talks with several election watchers about the changes happening in the campaign.

Until recently, blind and visually impaired students found it extremely difficult to study certain subjects and pursue careers in science and technology because they could not see graphs and other visual representations. But now, a team at NASA has created easy-to-use software that allows students to graph equations, interact with the data and understand it all through text, tones and spoken language.

The world community has made progress in its response to avian influenza, according to a new United Nations-World Bank report whose results are announced at the New Delhi International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza. More than 600 delegates from 105 countries -- including 70 ministers from the public health and animal health sectors -- and 20 international and intergovernmental organizations convened in New Delhi to assess, review and exchange information on highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu in animals and people.

Many analysts are expressing surprise over the rejection of a referendum on a series of constitutional changes that were designed to increase Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s authority over his country, his first electoral defeat since assuming power in 1998. The setback to Chavez’s ambitions is not the first time a government has seen its quest for expanded authority defeated via referendum.

A new, joint effort by the U.S. government and private businesses will focus on creating new jobs for Palestinians, President Bush says. After welcoming Tahani Abu Daqqa, minister of youth for the Palestinian Authority to the White House, Bush says, “One of the things that interests me a lot is the fact that we are going to help the Palestinians develop youth centers, places where young Palestinians can come and learn new technical skills, or language skills, or have mentoring programs -- all aimed at saying, there is a hopeful future … a future where peace is possible.”

Although Americans feel politically divided today, this polarization is not necessarily a bad thing, political experts say. "There's no question that the partisan polarity between the Democrats and Republicans these days … runs deeper, certainly, than it did a generation ago," says Pietro Nivola, director of the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington. However, "[n]ot everything about political polarization is a bad thing."

As International Human Rights Day approaches on December 10, the world must be concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe -- where defenders of freedom are under attack and where the human rights situation is becoming worse every day, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer warns, adding, “Freedom loving … Zimbabweans that are trying to return their country to democracy deserve our support and our assistance and we certainly will provide it.”

On the eve of World AIDS Day, President Bush renews his pledge to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. “The pandemic of HIV/AIDS can be defeated,” he says, through international cooperative efforts such as his President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). “We continue to fund research and develop new methods of treatment and prevention,” he says, referring to PEPFAR’s five-year, $15 billion commitment to fight the disease. The 2007 message from AIDS experts is blunt, as they call for strengthening prevention programs and technologies.

In Cameroon, when 28 new buses moved from Douala, the port and commercial center, to the capital city of Yaoundé in August 2006, excitement was so high that people were lining the streets and the 200-kilometer highway connecting the two cities to cheer the convoy. The comfortable modern buses brought by Transnational Automotive Group, a Los Angeles-based company, were a harbinger of something new for Cameroonians.

The United States is embracing a new approach to international development that involves expanded use of information technology and more private-public partnerships. The Global Development Commons, launched by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will use technology to allow aid donors and recipients to communicate better and to find needed information online from such sources as libraries and databases. It will involve tools like computers connected to the Internet that are located in cities and rural areas and informal online interchanges and conferences, creating "a comprehensive network accessible to all," according to a USAID fact sheet.

As delegates gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, the stakes could not be higher. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it clear that global warming is an “unequivocal” reality whose effects now are being felt around the world. “Climate change is a serious problem, and humans are contributing to it. We are at a critical moment,” Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky recently told the U.S. Congress. “We are committed to doing our part.”

A new network of about 100 former government officials, academics and members of nongovernmental organizations aims to help Latin American and Caribbean nations deal with issues related to promoting and defending democracy in the region. The Democracy Practitioners Network will advise governments in the Americas on such subjects as electoral and constitutional reform, access to justice, good governance, citizen participation, transparency and efforts to combat corruption.

The Libyan government is courting U.S. businesses to open trade and investment links as the country works to rejoin the international community. "Many companies from around the world are arriving in Libya now. The Libyan government does not want U.S. businesses to lose a good opportunity," Libya Economy, Trade and Investment Minister Ali Al-Esawi tells a group of U.S. businessmen in Washington.

Ali Anabtawi is a man on a mission: to preserve the oil pressed from some of the most venerable olive trees in the Mediterranean at the pinnacle of its flavor.  Anabtawi is a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) partner and manager of Near East Industries and Trade, a company that blends and bottles virgin olive oil from West Bank groves and markets it internationally.  With USAID courses and technical assistance to farmers, cooperative mills and marketers, local olive oil can meet high export standards and bring in much more money to cash-strapped families in the West Bank.

Twenty-four hundred U.S. Marines and sailors are helping the Bangladeshi government provide clean water, medical aid, food and other relief supplies to victims of Cyclone Sidr, the most severe storm to hit the country since 1991.  The Marines and sailors are working to support the U.S. Agency for International Development and are filling requests of the Bangladeshi government, says Admiral Timothy Keating, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.

A fresh team of Supreme Court justices appointed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2006 is determined to build up the professionalism of the country’s judiciary, which has suffered from Afghanistan’s 30 years of war, destruction and instability.  "We are working on how to upgrade the knowledge of our citizens … and identify who can stay and continue" as judges, as well as those who should be removed, Afghan Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul Salam Azimi tells USINFO.

Strengthening procedures for sharing samples of potentially pandemic viruses and increasing developing-nation access to the resulting vaccines were the focus of an international meeting hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva November 20-23. The meeting drew an estimated 300 attendees, including about 100 member-state delegations, representatives from international organizations and invited experts. Attendees agreed that countries will share viruses with WHO while a detailed framework for sharing flu samples and benefits is developed.

To win primary elections in the United States, presidential candidates must convince members of their own political parties that they share the party’s political views. This means that during the nomination season, Democrats are discussing issues that matter to liberal voters, while Republicans are focusing on the topics that conservatives care about.