News headlines in 2009, page 40

A paper mill that runs without fossil fuels and has a neutral carbon footprint? That's the goal for Flambeau River Papers in Park Falls, Wisconsin, and the company is already on its way, thanks to a switch to biomass fuel, plus a biorefinery in the works.

While most HIV-positive people in the Western world can gain decades of good health thanks to increasingly effective drug regimens, in the developing world, nearly a third of children born with HIV are still dying before their first birthday.

Nouv Srey Leab, 24, could not quite contain her excitement about the chance to participate in the just concluded regional arts and media festival held in this capital, believing it was one welcome occasion meet fellow artists from other countries in the Mekong sub-region.

In the wake of a meeting attended by the all-powerful military elite, Burma’s military regime is due to come under close scrutiny for concrete signs of change leading up to a promised general elections in 2010.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging a law that critics say treats human rights advocates as criminal terrorists, and threatens them with 15 years in prison for advocating nonviolent means to resolve disputes.

Contrary to the official portrayal of the Afghan National Army (ANA) as ethnically balanced, the latest data from U.S. sources reveal that the Tajik minority now accounts for far more of its troops than the Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group.

The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) has again suspended the observer status of a human rights watchdog it accuses of lying about mistakes on the voter’s roll.

While most U.S. public schools are responding to new high-stakes testing requirements by teaching more math and English to the neglect of social studies and civics, a very small minority of schools are pushing forward a different agenda.

On the heels of a new report by UNAIDS that the HIV virus is now infecting Caribbean men and women at an equal rate, activist groups are urging regional leaders to eliminate laws that further the stigmatisation associated with the deadly virus.

Canadians appear unlikely to get the entire story behind their military's transfer of Afghans captured in war to Afghan government authorities and possible torture.