Approximately 2.6 million pregnancies worldwide end in stillbirth – most commonly defined as death in the final trimester – each year, “with the poorest nations worst affected,” according to a series of articles published Thursday in the Lancet, BBC reports (4/14).

Financial support for population-related activities worldwide has not significantly increased since 2008, according to a report (.pdf) from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the U.N. Commission on Population and Development (CPD), Inter Press Service reports. The CPD is meeting this week.

“Congress late Friday narrowly averted a government shutdown after Democrats and Republicans agreed to cut” nearly $39 billion in spending over the next six months, Roll Call reports.

High Rates of Cardiac, Psychiatric Illnesses In New Orleans Show Implications For Other Post-Disaster Areas The health effects of major natural disasters can continue to affect populations years after the occurrence, according to a study showing New Orleans residents continued to experience a threefold increase in heart attacks and increased…

India Census Data Reveal Gender Imbalance India’s child sex ratio declined to 914 females to 1,000 males, which is the lowest level since 1947, census data released on Thursday show, Agence France-Presse reports (3/31). “Despite laws banning expectant parents from doing prenatal tests to determine the gender of their unborn child,…

Main Take-Aways From GHME: Reflections on last week’s Global Health Metrics & Evaluation (GHME) conference in Seattle, Washington appeared in several blogs and a Lancet column: Lancet: Offline: Where was Europe? (Horton, 3/26) Karen Grepin’s “Global Health Blog”: A trip to the inside of the Global Health Sausage Factory (3/22)…

USAID Needs Time, Resources To Succeed During these tight fiscal times, “we need to modernize our International Affairs programs with a greater emphasis on transparency, accountability and effectiveness” in order to “be fiscally responsible and still make the critical investments we need in our International Affairs Budget,” former Rep. Mark…

The following is a sampling of blog posts published this week marking International Women’s Day : PEPFAR’s Gender Challenge Fund:  At the Intersection of Gender and HIV (Goosby, 3/11). A Conversation in Afghanistan: Perspectives on International Women’s Day (Ehsaas, 3/9). The Best Investment in Global Women’s Health (Sturchio/Barnes, 3/8). Why…

First Lady Michelle Obama joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to mark International Women’s Day on Tuesday by honoring recent gains in addressing global women’s issues while reflecting on the scope of the task of achieving gender equity in the future, the Associated Press reports.

The Importance Of Investing In Adolescent Girls: A Lancet editorial examines the challenges adolescent girls living in developing countries face and the work of the U.N. Adolescent Girls Task Force (UNAGTF) to help young women overcome these barriers. “This International Women’s Day, we recognise that investment in today’s population of…