U.S. survival rate of newborns - ranking 33rd with Slovakia - but better than Latvia, hell yes

msnbc: America may be the world's superpower, but its survival rate for newborn babies ranks near the bottom among modern nations, better only than Latvia.

Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 babies, according to a new report. Latvia's rate is 6 per 1,000.

"We are the wealthiest country in the world, but there are still pockets of our population who are not getting the health care they need," said Mary Beth Powers, a reproductive health adviser for the U.S.-based Save the Children, which compiled the rankings based on health data from countries and agencies worldwide. Read more

Tx to Daily Revolution

db: I hate to bring up that 'rambling' letter from President Ahmadinejad to President Bush, but I have to say that in it he makes one or two very reasonable points, such as:

In countries around the world, citizens provide for the expenses of governments so that their governments in turn are able to serve them. The question here is "what has the hundreds of billions of dollars, spent every year to pay for the Iraqi campaign, produced for the citizens?" Full text [translation] of letter pdf