By Katherine Miller, Executive Director of Communications, UN Foundation

So we've been trapped at the Rockefeller Center at Bellagio for three days now talking about mHealth. While it may seem like an easy job -- who doesn't want to spend a week in Italy, after all -- it isn't. Some of the most experienced global health professionals are here and everyone is trying to figure out what their role, their project, their initiative is.

But after nearly a full day of brainstorming, something very exciting happened: our groups came up with five unique yet complimentary projects to help improve health care in the developing world. While its too early to talk specifics, these projects include using hand-mobile devices to deliver health care in rural areas; control and ultimately prevent disease outbreaks; improve the quality of life for patients with chronic diseases; and could lead to greater collaboration among some of the world's biggest and best technology companies.

At least I hope so. The best part of the day was listening to the groups run through their nascent business plans and take questions from their colleagues. Not an easy thing to do but they all did it and tomorrow, on Day 4, we're going to try and figure out how to make these projects real.

The other thing happening here is a true recognition that partnerships and working together will actually help us to move mHealth into the developing world more quickly. In the beginning, the developers sat with the developers and the corporates with corporates but by day three each of the groups had representatives from each sector and they we're all excited to share expertise, advice and ideas.

A really interesting partnership that I have learned about here is the Millennium Villages Project. This project, which is active in more than 20 villages is looking at how to provide education, health care and other services from the ground up. Included in the project are Gates, Ericsson (which is providing the hardware for the villages) and numerous other groups. While still in the early stages, Earth Institute (Jefrey Sach's group) is leading it and it shows great promise as a way to make a big difference in people's lives.

>>Pakistan - Members of Pakistan's intelligence agency were involved in planning the July 7 bombing of India's embassy in Afghanistan, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, which recently intercepted communications relating to the bombing. The U.S. agencies also said that there was new information showing an increase in the amount of intelligence that the members of Pakistan's intelligence agency are providing to militants targeted by the U.S.

>>Israel - According to the most recent polls in three major newspapers, Israel's foreign minister Tzipi Livni has a clear lead (8 to 18 points) over transport minister Shaul Mofaz in the campaign to replace Ehud Olmert as leader of Kadima. Olmert retired on Wednesday. However, two of the three papers show Livni running even with Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu were snap parliamentary elections to be held.

>>China - In the lead-up to next week's Olympics, China has partially lifted the great firewall, allowing greater access at the main press center for the Games after scrutiny by Olympic officials, journalists, and Western officials. President Hu has also suggested that China might be primed for greater economic and politic reforms after the Games, if the actual event is not politicized.

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