Daily News Digest

The latest news on Veterans, Child care, China, Iran, Zimbabwe, Global poverty, and Solzhenitsyn.

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Veterans. Troops' stress, trauma studied "The Pentagon is spending an unprecedented $300 million this summer on research for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, offering hope not only for troops but hundreds of thousands of civilians." Violations rife in hospital's studies on veterans "An investigation of research conducted at an Arkansas veterans hospital has uncovered rampant violations in its human experiments program, including missing consent forms, secret HIV testing and failure to report more than 100 deaths of subjects participating in studies." For veterans home from Iraq, sleep is now the enemy "Sleep and wakefulness issues were the most common health problems described by recently returned soldiers, researchers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center found in a study published last year."

Child care. Child care costs rising faster than inflation rate, report says "A new report by a national child care advocacy group shows what parents have known for a long time: High-quality child care, especially for babies, is expensive and hard to find."

China. Bush Says It's 'Important to Engage' China "Three days before he is set to arrive in Beijing for the Olympics, President Bush offered a mixed assessment of China's role in the world, praising its efforts to curb the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, expressing disappointment about its recent move to help scuttle global trade talks." China fails to keep promises it made to win Olympic Games "With four days left before the start of the 2008 Summer Games, Chinese officials have not lived up to key promises they made to win the right to host the Olympics, including widening press freedoms, cleaning up their capital city's polluted air and respecting human rights." Beijing under lock down "In a city well-used to high levels of surveillance, Big Brother has his eyes on you more than ever at the Beijing games this summer."

Iran. Iran ambiguous on nuclear offer "Iran has sent a message to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, but not a response to the latest proposals on its nuclear programme, officials have said." Iran Set to Respond to Offer of Incentives in Nuclear Dispute "Iran will present a formal response today to an offer of incentives by world powers in exchange for suspending its nuclear enrichment program, U.S. and European officials said. But they expressed little expectation of a positive reply." Iran Issues New Warnings After Defying a Deadline "Iran warned Monday that it could easily close a critical Persian Gulf waterway to oil shipments and said that it had a new long-range naval weapon that could sink enemy ships nearly 200 miles away."

Zimbabwe. Rivals resume Zimbabwe talks "Talks have resumed between Zimbabwe's ruling party and the main opposition on a possible power-sharing deal."

Global poverty. Ethiopia faces a new food crisis "Ethiopia has been grappling with a double whammy: drought in its traditional breadbasket and a global food crisis that has pushed prices sky high." Children still dying despite Asian boom "The growing gap between rich and poor in booming Asian economies has left behind "vast numbers of mothers and children", putting millions of lives at risk, according to a report by Unicef, the United Nations children's agency." UN warning on India child health "The world will fail to reach millennium development goals unless India improves its record on health and child protection, a UN report says. Unicef, the UN children's agency, says India is failing to provide basic healthcare for its poorest children - despite robust economic growth."

Solzhenitsyn. Russia pays Solzhenitsyn respects "The open coffin of Solzhenitsyn, whose books revealed the horrors of Stalin's regime, is lying in state at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow." Reverence for Solzhenitsyn, but No National Mourning "On Monday, national leaders expressed admiration for Mr. Solzhenitsyn, but there did not seem to be the kind of outpouring that arises when a beloved figure dies."