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In ranking the 100 best public high schools in the United States, the magazine U.S. News and World Report found a common denominator in their unwavering commitment to excellence -- but widely divergent ways in which they achieved their outstanding results in the classroom.

After a White House meeting with Nigerian President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, President Bush praises the Nigerian leader for being “committed to democracy and rule of law.” Bush describes Yar’Adua as “very articulate in his desire to make sure that the people of Nigeria understand that their government will be fair and transparent, and will be a government of the people.” The two presidents describe their Oval Office meeting as a “good visit.”

The December 17 international, high-level donors' conference in Paris is an opportunity for the global community to reinforce its support for a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and an opportunity for the Palestinians to show their genuine desire for statehood, according to senior U.S. officials.

Nongovernmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund are realizing they cannot address problems such as climate change, deforestation and diminishing biodiversity without the involvement of companies that have an impact on the environment. At the same time, corporations are becoming more likely to cooperate with conservation groups because of increasingly tough environmental and biodiversity standards in their host and home countries. USINFO talks with some participants in these public-private partnerships.

Argentina’s new president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is sworn in as the country’s first female leader, calling for new government reforms and an acceleration of human rights investigations into abuses carried out during former military leader Jorge Videla’s regime. In Washington, U.S. officials call for Argentina to resume its active role in international organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of American States and Interpol. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon tells reporters that Argentina’s involvement in global efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation and terrorism and resolve the Middle East conflict is welcome and very important. “[I]n the region, a successful Argentina is an anchor for democracy and a promoter of stability.  It can play a very important role in the Andean countries,” Shannon says.

A comprehensive approach that includes better education for at-risk young people is needed to cut high crime rates in Central America and the Caribbean, according to experts, who say crime in Central America and the Caribbean has become worse, despite anti-crime programs by the region’s governments. Attendees at a conference in Miami share information and strategies for addressing income inequality, easy access to guns and a young underemployed or unemployed population -- all triggers to the region’s increasing crime rates.

Kiva.org, a nonprofit microlending Web site, has enabled people to make small loans that can make a big difference to other individuals.  Thanks to Kiva, Chiyenure Uwobodo, a Nigerian mother of four, was able to borrow $250 to expand her beauty salon business.  Grace Ayaa, a mother of four in Uganda, borrowed $475 for a refrigerator to store the peanut butter she was making until she could sell it, and to buy packing materials.  Kiva is “all about connecting people” and “connecting lenders with microbusinesses online,” says Matt Flannery, the chief executive officer and one of the co-founders of the Web site.

With the first primaries and caucuses in the 2008 presidential race right around the corner, the candidates are focusing on states that hold the earliest contests. USINFO surveys the political terrain in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

The visit of Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua to the White House represents the beginning of a “new relationship” that will signal closer bilateral relations between Nigeria and the United States on a broad range of important issues. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Todd J. Moss previews the visit and considers the U.S.-Nigeria relationship in an interview with USINFO.

A plan by the United States, Brazil and other countries to develop alternative fuels from organic matter is said to be at a “turning point” that will help the participating nations lower their dependence on foreign oil. State Department official Dan Sullivan tells USINFO that “major diplomacy” at a recent conference helped push forward a broad U.S.-Brazil biofuels partnership with these other countries and organizations.  A second element of the plan, he says, involves the United States, Brazil, the European Union, China and India developing industrywide standards and codes that could lay the groundwork for a global biofuels market.

Cyclone Sidr’s deadly landfall wreaked havoc in southern Bangladesh November 15, killing thousands, displacing hundreds of thousands, and adding pain and desperation to a nation whose population of 133 million already struggles with poverty and disease. To help with the latest crisis and meet longer-term health challenges, the U.S. Agency for International Development has committed $19.5 million to relief efforts since the cyclone, Kent Hill, the agency’s assistant administrator for global health, tells reporters in Dhaka, Bangladesh.  The agency also plans to contribute $115 million for health programs in fiscal year 2008 -- an increase of $39 million over fiscal 2007.

Food security in Mozambique and the nutrition of people affected by HIV/AIDS are improving, thanks to close cooperation between U.S. and U.N. agencies, says U.S. diplomat Gaddi Vasquez. The collaboration also is helping establish an early flood warning and response system, Vasquez, the U.S. representative to United Nations food agencies, tells USINFO at the end of a four-day December visit to the country. Mozambique frequently is hit by Indian Ocean cyclones that cause severe flooding. The coordinated responses of agencies to Mozambique's problems "is some of the best I've seen," says Vasquez, a former Peace Corps director.

Visitors to U.S. consulates and embassies soon will be able to watch a short film, I Am America, that introduces them to America’s people and landscapes, conveying the simple message that America is a diverse, interesting and friendly place.  “People overseas think we’ve been barricading ourselves” since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, “but it’s not true,” says Cari E. Guittard, executive vice president of the nonprofit organization Business for Diplomatic Action, which commissioned the film as a gift to the U.S. government.  “We want people to come here.”

She may not have had the power to stop the brutality of the Burmese regime against peaceful demonstrators, but Shari Villarosa, chargé d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, ensured that the world, as well as the citizens of Burma, was aware of the injustices against pro-democracy demonstrators in late August and September. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice notes Villarosa’s efforts at a ceremony December 10 at the State Department in Washington, where Villarosa was named runner-up for the first Diplomacy for Freedom Award. The award honors U.S. diplomats for outstanding efforts to advance human dignity, end tyranny and promote democracy.

U.S. embassies around the world organized 16 days of activities focused on the problem of violence against women to draw a symbolic link between the International Day Against Violence Against Women -- November 25 -- and International Human Rights Day -- December 10.  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in her directive to all U.S. embassies, called for engagement with host country governments, civil society and media. Unfortunately, violence against women is accepted in many cultures that regard such behavior as “a private family matter,” says Andrea Bottner, the senior coordinator for the U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Women’s Issues.

A group of dedicated Zimbabwean lawyers that defends victims of politically motivated persecution in Zimbabwe is honored by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with her first Freedom Defenders Award. Lawyer Arnold Tsunga, who fled his country after learning that he was on a government hit list, accepts the award on behalf of the nongovernmental organization Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights at a special ceremony in Washington.

Expect continued intensive diplomacy from Washington as Palestinian and Israeli leaders build on the success of the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis Conference, says a top U.S. diplomat. "There are a lot of historical reasons to be skeptical, but we see this as an unprecedented moment of hope and opportunity for Israelis and Palestinians," Thomas Goldberger, director of the State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, says in a USINFO webchat.

Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders in the United States join together in an interfaith peace-building effort to condemn terrorism and the violence it causes.  In supporting this initiative, the Fiqh Council of North America -- the highest judicial body in the Muslim community in the United States -- issues a fatwa, or religious edict, saying "there is no justification in Islam for extremism or terrorism."

For many who live in rural areas throughout the world, the basic technologies necessary for education, public health and economic development are not feasible because of a lack of electricity.  But in Nicaragua, a U.S.-based nonprofit company, blueEnergy, is developing a model for low-cost, sustainable electrification of remote rural communities that can be replicated around the world.

A comprehensive economic dialogue has helped the United States and China broaden their perspectives on bilateral relations and deepen their understanding of each other’s concerns, according to U.S. experts. The U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) was launched in 2006 by President Bush and President Hu Jintao to deal with the complexity of the U.S.-China economic relationship. The SED is conducted through twice-a-year, Cabinet-level meetings and follow-up engagement. “There is no question the dialogue has provided a mechanism for much more serious, high-level consideration of big issues than ever before,” Nicholas Lardy, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, tells USINFO.