(2003) A census is inevitably a blend of politics and science — politics because power and money are linked to how many people live where, science because the technically complex undertaking draws on many scientific disciplines.
(2002) The past century witnessed a revolution in health care, yet millions of women still endure the risks of pregnancy and childbirth under conditions virtually unchanged over time. Maternal complications take a serious toll on women.
(2010) The idea of intentionally harming—let alone mutilating—healthy young girls stirs feelings of anger and injustice. The fact that thousands of girls are mutilated daily in the name of culture, religion, or gender is difficult to imagine.
(2001) Europe has the lowest fertility rates in the world. In 2000, the average for the region was 1.4 children per couple, and it ranged from 1.1 children in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to 2.2 children in Albania.
(2008) The U.S. population is aging: The ratio of elderly to the working-age population in the United States will roughly double over the next few decades, straining the finances of the U.S. Social Security system and other government programs.
(2010) Perhaps the greatest satisfaction for a journalist is to see one's reporting produce positive change. Journalists are the link between policymakers and the public, and their role as watchdog is to monitor the actions of government and hold those in charge accountable.
(2010) A new study conducted in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has revealed that perpetrators and victims of high rates of sexual gender-based violence in the region include large numbers of both men and women and are associated with increased post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, as well as physical health outcomes.
(2009) As many as 140 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), and more than 3 million girls are at risk for cutting each year on the African continent alone.
(2009) Speculation has been rife in the media on the possible effect of the current recession on the U.S. birth rate. In January of this year posed this same question but now, at mid-year, unemployment is approaching 10 percent for the first time in over a quarter century, the housing "bubble" has truly burst, banks and industries that have been pillars of the economy have gone bankrupt, and consumer confidence has reached one of its lowest points in the past 50 years.