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Although it has taken a long time in U.S. history, today women commonly serve on the highest courts in the country.  Many of these women overcame great obstacles to achieve their positions.  The composition of the American judicial system is "very different than when I joined the court and there were all white men," said Leah Ward Sears, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. "That is not the America I know today."

Two young inventors are perfecting a device that gives back the power of speech to people who suffer from diseases or disabilities that have taken away their ability to talk. The device, called the Audeo, translates thoughts -- or, more precisely, brain signals sent to the vocal cords -- into synthesized speech.  Using the same technology, inventors Michael Callahan and Thomas Coleman also have created a mechanized wheelchair that moves, turns and stops in response to intercepted brain signals.

As the number of deaths in Iraq declines and the coverage of the issue in the news media decreases, polls indicate that Americans are as concerned or more concerned about economic issues.  Economic concerns commonly dictate voters' choices in American elections, says NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd. And presidential candidates are paying attention and adjusting their campaign strategies.

American professors of medicine at Columbia University in New York quietly have been repairing facial deformities in Honduran children for nearly two decades, giving thousands of youngsters a chance to lead normal lives.  Dr. Howard Smith, 88, and Dr. Joseph Haddad, 50, go beyond performing the delicate procedures of repairing cleft lips and cleft palates.  Largely at their own expense, the two humanitarians also are training Honduran doctors to do the operations and providing them with financial support during apprenticeships.

Vaccinating its highest-risk populations of chickens and ducks has been an expensive and logistically complex effort for Vietnam’s central government, but animal health officials say it has slowed deadly outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza among birds in the Southeast Asian nation and, critically, among people.

Campaign committees for both major political parties in the United States spend substantial time and effort recruiting the best potential candidates for key election districts around the country. Their drive to recruit winning candidates comes against the background of a 2006 congressional election in which the Democrats took over 30 previously Republican seats in the 435-member House of Representatives, moving into majority status after 12 years of Republican control.

The U.S. House of Representatives values the efforts of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi so highly that it votes to award her the United States' highest civilian honor. The moves by the House, along with new proposals to tighten further U.S. economic sanctions, are a small part of a wider U.S. policy to join with the international community to urge the military government in Rangoon to end political crackdowns, release Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and enter into talks with democracy movement leaders.

In the four years since highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu began infecting and killing the chickens, the ducks and eventually the people of Vietnam, the government has made changes on the ground and across the animal and human health infrastructure that will serve the nation far beyond the threat of avian flu. In this serious venture, the Vietnamese government has had help from many international donors. In addition to international assistance, the government of Vietnam has put great commitment, time and resources into efforts to stop the spread of avian flu. USINFO talks with health officials in Hanoi and surveys the government’s bird flu efforts.

American congressional districts come in all sizes and shapes. While each of the 50 states gets two at-large senators, House of Representatives’ districts are apportioned by population. The geographically smallest district covers only a few square blocks of Harlem in New York City. The largest covers the entire state of Alaska, which, despite its enormous size (nearly as large as Iran), has so few inhabitants that it is entitled to only one representative. USINFO looks at one district, Oregon’s 1st, and examines how demographic and economic changes over the years have transformed its political landscape.

Amy Jaffe is surprised that only very few people think she and her colleagues are crazy. What the Massachusetts Technology Institute senior, about 400 other students and 30 faculty members from around the world want to do is not a small feat.  The group plans to build, in just three years, a hyperefficient, supersafe four-passenger to six-passenger car called VDS Vision that will be produced and used with 95 percent less energy and toxic materials throughout its lifetime than an average existing vehicle.

The political season has kicked off in southwest Texas as those seeking election announce their candidacies, raise funds and take the pulse of the region. Texans say health care and Iraq are their top domestic and foreign concerns, and candidates are responding. “Health care continues to be the main issue, with the exception of those international issues such as Iraq,” says Representative Ciro Rodriguez, incumbent Democratic Party congressman of the Texas 23rd Congressional District. USINFO talks with district voters and political leaders about the election issues in the district.

More than 250 members of the Jewish, Islamic and Christian communities in Frederick, Maryland, share a meal together at the second annual Hanukah, Christmas and Hajj Festival. Dinner was served potluck style -- families contributed their favorite dishes of the season and placed them side by side with those of their neighbors on long banquet tables. There was something for everyone -- from green bean casserole and homemade saffron bread to matzoh ball soup, keema kabob and vegetable pilaf.

From product safety to financial sector reform, energy and the environment, tensions between two of the world’s largest economies make frequent headlines. The United States and China have a complex relationship -- increasingly connected, occasionally at odds.  Managing that relationship and addressing the wide array of related issues requires the top-level, multifaceted approach found in the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, which held its third meeting December 12-13 near Beijing.

With the presidential election primary season beginning -- and possibly ending -- earlier than ever before, candidates face many new challenges, political experts say.  With the first race in the 2008 presidential contest just two days after New Year’s Day, in Iowa, the candidates’ final days of campaigning in that state will coincide with the holiday season, which could pose a challenge for those who are running behind. The scheduling of nominating contests in 22 states on the same day in 2008 also will require that candidates carefully allocate their advertising resources and campaign staffs to win party votes.

The climate change mitigation plan adopted by a U.N. conference in Bali, Indonesia, is “a good set of elements … on mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance to guide important considerations,” lead U.S. negotiator Paula Dobriansky says, adding it is a first step “in beginning an important discussion about how to achieve a truly global solution.”

To enhance the evolution of democracy in Afghanistan, the United States launches a public-private partnership to help improve the fledgling Afghan justice system by funding low-cost, high-impact projects that promote women's rights, access to justice, legal aid, professional legal development and other justice-related programs. "It is imperative that Afghanistan develop a well-trained, educated, and demographically representative cadre of judges to serve in courts across the country," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says.

Nations must match their commitments to Middle East peace made at the November 27 Annapolis Conference with financial contributions for creating a future Palestinian state, says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “Words and promises of support are helpful, but that alone is insufficient.  Progress requires action, and it requires tangible financial assistance,” Rice says during a high-level international donors' conference in Paris, during which nations and organizations pledge $7.4 billion in assistance to the Palestinians.

Delegates to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference see more than an international wrangle over a document intended to set the pace for mitigating and adapting to climate change. They also get a glimpse of American political dissent as U.S. politicians and environmental activists troop to the meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to have a say. The United States is committed to developing a post-2012 arrangement that will slow, stop and reverse global emissions in order to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system,” U.S. Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky says. The Kyoto Protocol, ratified by all major developed nations but the United States, expires in 2012. The purpose of the Bali meeting is to negotiate a new framework for action.

Young American Muslims, many professionals in their 20s, are traveling to the Middle East to perform the Hajj, according to travel industry experts in the United States. This is a new trend, according to one Seattle tour operator. “The Hajj is an arduous undertaking that requires physical strength, endurance and stamina,” says award-winning documentary filmmaker Anisa Mehdi, who follows three pilgrims in her film Inside Mecca. “Traditionally, older people do it because there is great motivation to complete the transcendental journey, but it is easier for people in good health and strong,” Mehdi says.

Casualties from land mines worldwide have dropped from around 26,000 a year four years ago to a little more than 3,000 a year today, counting both land mines and other target-activated explosives. The United States long has been the largest financial contributor to humanitarian mine action -- a broad category that covers clearance, funding for prosthetics, training of mine removers, mine risk education, and research and development for better mine removal equipment and techniques -- and since 1993 has provided more than $1.2 billion to some 50 countries in this effort.