About 15,000 to 25,000 children - nearly half of them in Brazil and Thailand - are currently receiving treatment against the virus that causes AIDS, Clinton said. The William J. Clinton Foundation, UNICEF and other organizations aim to expand the program to reach more than 60,000 children by the end of 2006.

Working with countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, the Clinton Foundation provides technical assistance and access to HIV/AIDS drugs and diagnostics at 50 to 90 percent below market rates. Approximately 40 countries are purchasing medicines and tests under the Clinton Foundation's agreements.

Student, see the detailed profile of Mexico. The country's rankings, top and bottom, in different areas provide especially interesting information.

Abigail, Ditto to you. The detailed profile of France, the country's rankings in different areas, top and bottom, and the articles at the end of the page on the Profile, would provide interesting information. Other links on the opening page of the Profile lead to various details.

'Me', ditto to you too. See the detailed profile of Senegal, its rankings in various areas, top and bottom; the history of Senegal may be especially interesting to read.

A study of 40,000 women from three generations and all across Australia, showed that those who consumed up to two drinks were better-educated, exercised more often and had fewer weight problems than those who never drank alcohol.

Non-drinking women across all age groups were in poorer overall health, though this statistic included women don't drink because of medications they were taking.

Women who drank more than three drinks per day were more likely to smoke, to suffer mental illness and to use illegal drugs, researchers say.

The research is part of a 20-year research project being conducted by Newcastle and Queensland universities since 1996.

Over five years, health care workers in those four states accounted for 16 percent of confirmed cases of work-related asthma but only eight percent of the total workforce. Health care was the first or second most frequently reported industry in work-related asthma cases from 1993 to 1997.

The most common exposures among health care workers with work-related asthma were to latex and disinfectants that can cause asthma. Other things they were exposed to can worsen asthma, including cleaning products, renovation materials, mold and poor indoor air quality.

Obesity is already lowering life expectancy by nine months according to the study, more than homicide, suicide and fatal accidents combined. As millions of overweight children age, obesity could reduce overall life expectancy by two to five years, the study predicted.

Federal statistics show that 15 percent of Americans aged six to 19 were obese in 2000, triple the number 30 years earlier. Ten percent of children aged two to five were obese that year, twice as many as three decades before. Two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, an increase of about 50 percent since 1980.

Unhealthy lifestyles, emotional stress and environmental pollution were cited as causes of the early aging. ,p>Last year, a hospital survey in Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing found that 47.5 percent of about 1,000 men suffering from erectile dysfunction were under 40 years old. Many of these patients also had high blood pressure, diabetes and heart diseases. And only 79 out of 1,360 men who came to Shanghai’s sperm bank last year were deemed fully qualified to donate sperm, said a hospital official.

The United States is certainly one the most successful countries ever in both the summer and winter Olympics, having won the most and third-most medals all-time, respectively.

An interesting way of comparing countries with vastly differing populations would be to look at the ratio of Olympic medals won per dollar of athletic program funding.

There may be more English speakers than that in the Philippines, but they may not have identified theie mother tongue as English in the census, which could explain why the number of English speakers given for the Philippines is so low.

Staff Editor on 2965 days 18 hours 34 minutes 50 seconds ago

In the U.S., 71.4 percent of electricity generation is < a href=http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_ele_pro_by_sou_fos_fue>by fossil fuels, 20.7 percent is by nuclear generation, 5.6 percent is by hydro and 2.3 percent is by other sources, such as solar, geothermal and wind.

Canada generates 57.9 percent by hydro, 28 percent by fossil fuels, 12.9 by nuclear and 1.3 by other means.

America’s reliance on fossil fuels to produce electricity contributes to air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions and depletes a non-renewable resource. But the reason people point their fingers at the Americans is likely because of the sheer amount of electricity they consume, more than China, Japan, Russia and Germany combined.

The DVD-Forum, which includes companies like Philips, Sony, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Pioneer and Toshiba, prefers the DVD-R and DVD-RW formats. The DVD+RW Alliance, consisting mostly of hardware and media manufacturers such as HP, Yamaha, Ricoh and Verbatim, backs DVD+R and DVD+RW formats.

Computer-based DVD burners can use any of the formats, but stand-alone DVD players/recorders are either one or the other. Currently, DVD-R has 42 percent of the market share for one-time writable media and DVD+R has 41. For re-recordable discs, DVD+RW leads DVD-RW by a margin of 58 percent to 33 percent.

The industry is also divided on the future format for recording high-definition video. The DVD-forum and several Hollywood studios prefer the HD-DVD format, while other industry players argue for the Blu-Ray Disc format, which offers 50 gigabytes of capacity compared to HD-DVD’s 30.

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)grew out of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), which was set up in 1947 with support from the United States and Canada to co-ordinate the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.

Today, the OECD consists of 30 member nations who are committed to work together to address issues realted to the challenges of the globalising world economy including economy, the environment, human development, trade, taxation, education, employment and governance. The OECD also provides data needed for future planning.

In addition to the member nations, more than 70 developing nations have a working relationship with the OECD.

Mexico ranks fifth in the world for diversity in fauna; it ranks second for diversity of mammal species. Given such diversity, it's natural the number of endangered species should be high, overall and especially for mammals and birds. It has organized protection for more than 87% of the endangered species of its fauna.

The ADB delivered its post-tsunami analysis at an international meeting of donor countries, regional governments and aid agencies in Manila.

The earthquake-propelled waves that slammed coastlines in Asia damaged 700 kilometers (430 miles) of road in India, robbed 44 percent of Indonesia’s Aceh province residents of their livelihoods, and destroyed 100,000 homes and 65 percent of the fishing fleet in Sri Lanka.