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(HealthDay News) -- Many doctors ask their patients to provide a blood sample to test for a specific disease or condition, or to help gauge the patient's overall health.

Modern blood tests are very safe procedures, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation says. You are at no risk of catching a disease, such as AIDS or hepatitis, or getting an infection from having your blood drawn. The people who draw your blood should always wear gloves and use one-time, disposable needles.

Side effects from having blood drawn typically are quite minor, and may include:

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In the week of June 25, the House will debate fiscal 2008 spending bills and possibly energy legislation, while the Senate will take up bills on union organizing and immigration reform.

Here's how members of Congress from Illinois voted on major roll calls in the week ending June 22.

Foreign operations budget

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CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- Fighting malaria as well as AIDS is on First lady Laura Bush's agenda as she tours Africa. While the former doesn't grab the same headlines, it far outstrips AIDS as the continent's biggest child killer, claiming one young life every 30 seconds. The malaria toll is numbing: between 300 million to 500 million cases and 1 million deaths each year. In some African countries, it accounts for up to half of all hospital admissions. Its economic cost is an estimated ...

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(AP) SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil’s government has added "morning after" pills to its newly expanded birth control program in hopes of helping poor people reduce unwanted pregnancies and dangerous illegal abortions.

Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao announced the addition a month after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the government would provide cheap birth control pills at 10,000 drug stores across Latin America’s biggest country.

Speaking at a round-table discussion Monday sponsored by the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Temporao called the morning-after pill "an important tool for the prevention of unwanted pregnancies that will definitely be part of our strategy" to help Brazil’s poor have the same access to birth control as its rich elite.

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The Google Earth Outreach program represents a formalization of ad-hoc partnerships with organizations using the free software to publicize their works.

Already, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has been using Google Earth to call attention to atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. When users scan over Darfur, they see icons of flames representing destroyed villages and of tents for refugee camps. Clicking on one opens a window with details and links on how to help.

The U.N. Environmental Program, meanwhile, has used the software to show areas of environmental destruction. The Jane Goodall Institute shows locations of its research on chimpanzees and African deforestation. A Brazilian Indian tribe is working on ways to stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold.

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