Secretary Clinton today launched an initiative that could save millions of lives around the world -- the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a public-private partnership to which the U.S. government is committing $51 million over the next five years.

Sounds a bit wacky, but this effort will improve health, empower women and girls, and mitigate climate change. For real. As Clinton explained in a speech today in New York at the Clinton Global Initiative, where she was escorted to the podium by her husband, Bill Clinton:

The World Health Organization considers smoke from dirty stoves to be one of the five most serious health risks that face people in poor, developing countries. Nearly 2 million people die from its effects each year, more than twice the number from malaria. And because the smoke contains greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, as well as black carbon, it contributes to climate change.

There are other consequences as well. In conflict zones like the Congo, the journeys that women must take to find scarce fuel [such as firewood] put them at increased risk of violent and sexual assault. Even in safer areas, every hour spent collecting fuel is an hour not spent in school or tending crops or running a business.

People have cooked over open fires and dirty stoves for all of human history, but the simple fact is they are slowly killing millions of people and polluting the environment.

The solution? Clean, efficient, afforable cookstoves that cost as little as $25. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves aims for 100 million households getting clean cookstoves by 2020. The initiative will involve research and development for improved designs and lower costs, an effort to create a market for the stoves (which will include lowering trade barriers and fostering public awareness), and weaving clean stoves into international development programs, including women-owned microfinance networks.

At the end of her speech, Clinton asked us to do the following:

The next time you sit down with your own family to eat, please take a moment to imagine the smell of smoke, feel it in your lungs, see the soot building up on the walls, and then come find us at the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Hearths, whatever they look like, and wherever we gather around them, where we tell our stories and pass down our values, bind families together. And the benefits from this initiative will be cleaner and safer homes, and that will, in turn, ripple out for healthier families, stronger communities, and more stable societies.

And, check out the video:

Secretary Clinton yesterday issued a statement condemning "in the strongest possible terms" the murder of 10 aid workers by the Taliban. Today at 3 p.m., she will be delivering another statement on this despicable tragedy. The last four paragraphs of yesterday's statement are below, with my bolding for emphasis:

We are heartbroken by the loss of these heroic, generous people. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this senseless act. We also condemn the Taliban's transparent attempt to justify the unjustifiable by making false accusations about their activities in Afghanistan.

Terror has no religion, and these acts are rejected by people all over the world, including by Muslims here in the United States. The Taliban's cruelty is well-documented. Its members have assassinated tribal elders and thrown acid in the face of young girls. Earlier this summer, they accused a 7-year-old boy of spying and hung him. With these killings, they have shown us yet another example of the lengths to which they will go to advance their twisted ideology.

The murdered medical aid workers, as well as the volunteers from many nations and the international coalition working to establish stability in Afghanistan, represent exactly what the Taliban stands against: a future of peace, freedom, opportunity, and openness, where all Afghans can live and work together in harmony, free from terror.

That is what we are working to achieve in Afghanistan, in partnership with the Afghan people. As we mourn the loss of these aid workers, we will continue with our own efforts, inspired by their example.

In the photo above, taken today, family and friends carry the coffin of Jawed, 24, seen at left, one of the two Afghans killed. According to the website of the International Assistance Mission, the aid group the 10 deceased were working with, Jawed served as the team's cook and also helped dispense eyeglasses. He was known for his sense of humor, and his survivors include his wife and three children, who are less than school age.

This is just so sad.

Last month, Secretary Clinton commended the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its $1.5 billion contribution toward women's and children's health, saying, "Focusing on women is not only the right thing to do, but it is also the smart thing to do, because investing in the health of women also improves the health of their families and communities."

I expect Clinton would thus be intrigued by a program in India that aims to reduce maternal morality by providing $30 cash incentives to poor women to give birth in hospitals, and not on the dirt floors of thatched-roof homes.

Why would any woman need to essentially be paid to give birth at a hospital, where the chances of death are much lower? Turns out, getting to a hospital is not so easy, for a variety of reasons. Last week's Washington Post article about the program mentions one rural woman for whom it would cost $4 to take a taxi to the hospital -- a long of money in a poor farming community where the $30 incentive is about three weeks of a family's pay. 

The hurdles aren't just economic, but also related to education, class divisions, and patriarchy. The articles says lack of education means a lot of people don't fully appreciate that medical care in a hospital setting can mean the difference between a happy, healthy mom -- and a dead one.

Also, in a society with sharp caste and class divisions, many poor, illiterate mothers-to-be don't have the assertiveness to set foot in the hospital, according to the article. Perhaps if you're from a marginalized, look-down-upon caste or social class, going to a relatively modern and clean hospital can be intimidating. One woman told the Post, "Before this [program], we didn't have a hint of what to do.… The hospital was very confusing. We weren't sure who to talk to or what we needed."  Another woman in the article said she was scared to go to the hospital.

The article also mentioned the patriarchal culture, stating that in rural India, many poor husbands don't let their pregnant wives to go to the hospital.

But money talks -- including in Indian languages. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, two of India's poorest states, the percentage of women delivering in medical facilities more than doubled from less than 20 percent in 2005 to almost 50 percent in 2008. Physicians say that's due to the incentive program.

India still has a long way to go on maternal mortality -- its rate of maternal mortality is around 10 times China's rate. Women's education and economic development are the long-term fix to the problem, but until then, it's the lure of $30.

FP blogger Daniel Drezner asked yesterday, "Should the Secretary of State be involved in domestic lobbying?" 

Drezner cites reports that Secretary Clinton made calls and attempted to persuade on-the-fence lawmakers to support the health-care reform bill that passed the House Sunday. Clearly, lobbying on domestic health-care reform is outside the job description of the position of U.S. secetary of state, but as Drezner mentions, Clinton isn't your typical secretary of state -- she's one who has special expertise in health-care reform.

Given that expertise, and the political capital she has, I suppose it's OK for Clinton to lobby for health-care reform as long as it doesn't conflict with her foreign-policy duties and doesn't take time away from the international matters that she must attend to.

What do you all think? Express your opinion in the FP poll above.

Secretary Clinton departs for Qatar and Saudi Arabia tomorrow, after a one-day delay due to her husband Bill's heart procedure yesterday. The former U.S. president was back at the Clintons' home in Chappaqua, N.Y., this morning, and he told the Associated Press, "I even did a couple miles on the treadmill today."

At this afternoon's press briefing, Assistant Secretary Philip Crowley said:

[I]t would appear the fact that he [Bill Clinton] was able to have the procedure quickly, is already home and probably already back at work -- [laughter] -- would tell you that I think she [Secretary Clinton] is confident enough that she can go on this trip as originally planned, with just kind of squeezing the travel time."

When asked yesterday about allegedly being sidelined by the White House, Secretary Clinton put the issue to rest, responding wittily:

"I broke my elbow, not my larynx," she said, referring to the fractured elbow that kept her out of the limelight for a month.

Speaking with reporters at the State Department after meetings with the foreign ministers of Canada and Mexico [in above photo], Clinton delivered the line with a straight face, seeming miffed at widespread speculation that she has lost influence in the Obama administration.

"I have been consistantly involved in the shaping and implementation of our foreign policy and I am off to India and Thailand tonight," Clinton said stonily.

For more about this issue, check out The Cable for the details from Laura Rozen's exclusive talk with Secretary Clinton herself.

Photo: Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

Unfortunately, due to her broken elbow, Secretary Clinton won't be traveling to Russia next week with President Obama. Last week she was unable to go to Greece and Italy as planned. Her late-July trip to India still seems to be in place, though.

This fractured elbow must be quite painful -- and more serious than originally thought. On the day after Clinton's fall, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley told reporters, "[M]y impression is it was a fairly simple, straightforward fracture."

On Tuesday, however, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters, "She had a very serious break in her elbow. … She's energetic, she's fully engaged, but we need to make sure that she heals and then can get back to a full schedule where she can come in every day."

Since her June 17 fall, Clinton has worked from home a lot and has had six days with no public appointments on her schedule. Yesterday, though, was an exception. Shaking with her left hand, she met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, as seen above. Additionally, at yesterday's swearing-in ceremony for U.S. ambassador to Ireland, Daniel Rooney (owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers), she joked, "I came off the injured reserve list in order to officiate at this ceremony."

Please send healing thoughts in the direction of Clinton's right elbow!

Photo: TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images

London's Sunday Times ran an article this weekend saying that Democratic insiders are worried that U.S. first lady Michelle Obama might end up with a "Hillary Clinton-style debacle" as she ventures out of her White House vegetable garden "in search of a meatier political role."

From the article (with my emphasis in bold):

Despite denials from White House officials that Michelle Obama is suffering from "Hillary-itis" -- a burning desire to help her husband run the country -- her long-running interest in healthcare has raised painful memories of 1994, when Hillary Clinton presided over a political debacle as her health reform proposals collapsed in Congress.

Healthcare reform is badly needed in the United States, so whatever the first lady -- a former hospital administrator -- might attempt, I hope it leads to outcomes that help the uninsured and underinsured get the healthcare they need at prices they can afford. Meanwhile, at least she's pushing the veggies.

Photo: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images

Following four weekdays without any public appointments on her schedule after breaking her right elbow, Secretary Clinton is back in business today! With her arm in a cast, she's back to bilateraling, though shaking hands and taking notes will probably be limited.

10:00 a.m. Bilateral with His Excellency Rashid Meredov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan

Hillary Clinton had a two-hour surgery on her broken right elbow Friday at 7:30 a.m. and spent the weekend with her family at her Washington home.

Some of the details revealed during Friday's press briefing with State Department spokesman Ian Kelly:

• --Doctors expect Clinton to make a "full recovery without lasting damage to her arm."
• Clinton "remains the secretary of state and fully engaged."
• --Clinton will be in a cast for "some time."
• --During the surgery, she was "out for a couple hours" under general anesthesia. She didn't have to formally transfer power to her deputy, James Steinberg, while she was under anethesia.
• Kelly said he didn't have details on what medications Clinton has been prescribed.
• When it comes to her schedule and planned trips to Italy and Greece for this week, Kelly said those decisions will be made "in due course." (Officials have privately suggested that Clinton will probably make those trips, the Washington Times reported.)
• When a member of the press said, "We'd love to get a photo of her," Kelly replied, "I understand that. … [We'll] see what we can do."

Photo: iStockphoto of generic fractured elbow

The New York Times has more details about Secretary Clinton's unfortunate fall and the state of her fractured elbow, which was treated at George Washington University Hospital (seen above on June 10, the day the shooter and security guard from the Holocaust museum tragedy were brought in). Some excerpts from the Times:

The mishap occurred just before 5 p.m. when Mrs. Clinton was walking from an elevator to her car in the basement of the State Department. She was headed to a meeting with President Obama, accompanied by the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke.

… Still lying on the ground, she instructed Mr. Holbrooke to go without her … .

“She said, ‘Go to the meeting, that’s an order,’ ” said Mr. Holbrooke, who told Mr. Obama about the accident.

Mrs. Clinton returned to her 7th floor office before deciding to get treatment at George Washington [University Hospital], a few blocks from the State Department. She was at the hospital for several hours. …

Former President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton flew to Washington together on Wednesday evening to be with Mrs. Clinton.

Photo: TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images