The latest survey from the March of Dimes finds only one-third of women of child-bearing age are taking a multivitamin daily that contains folic acid, a vitamin that can prevent serious birth defects of the brain and spine.

The supplement is so essential the U.S. government requires all enriched grain foods to be fortified with 140 micrograms of folic acid per 100 grams of grain

The U.N. children's agency reports about 1.4 million children under the age of five die unnecessarily each year from measles, whooping cough and other diseases preventable by vaccines.

According to the report, about 130 million children are born each year, and since 1990, about 70 percent have received the vital immunizations - up from some 20 percent under the age of 1 in 1980

The latest survey from the March of Dimes finds only one-third of women of child-bearing age are taking a multivitamin daily that contains folic acid, a vitamin that can prevent serious birth defects of the brain and spine.

The supplement is so essential that the U.S. government requires all enriched grain foods to be fortified with 140 micrograms of folic acid per 100 grams of grain

According to a new U.N. Children's Fund, UNICEF, report 1.4 million children under five years of age die unnecessarily each year from measles, whooping cough or tetanus.

"Everybody thought that we were progressing so well that we would just continue to progress. But in fact that did not happen," Dr Peter Salama, UNICEF's chief of immunization, told a news conference

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle plans to veto a ban on human cloning. The ban was approved Wednesday by the state legislature.

The proposed measure would prevent both reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning