News stories by Elizabeth Whitman, page 6

A staggering nine million people are still awaiting HIV treatment, yet the 22 billion dollars the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says is needed to give them access to medicine and care has far from materialised.

Moves by developed nations such as the United States to tighten intellectual property laws are threatening to limit production and distribution of generic drugs, which experts say have been and will remain key in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and currently account for 80 percent of HIV/AIDS treatment.

Officials underscored the importance of stepped-up action Friday to combat HIV/AIDS, the worst epidemic the world has seen since it began 30 years ago, ahead of a high-level meeting on the disease at the United Nations next week.

Forces loyal to Ivorian President Alessane Ouattara have carried out indiscriminate torture, rape, extrajudicial killings, and other acts of violence and abuse, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch.

'Few paths are more treacherous than the one that challenges an abuse of power,' warns 'A Handbook for Committing the Truth: The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide' - a primer not only for whistleblowers but for corporate leaders and citizen activists as well, say authors Tom Devine and Tarek Maassarani.

This month, Connecticut became the latest in a growing line of U.S. states to move toward ending capital punishment.

'It's bad to be rich at the height of fame with your morals a dirty shame,' says Valter pointedly as he bumps along in the back of a pickup towards Jardim Gramacho, the largest landfill in the world, located in Brazil.

In the past few years, United Nations headquarters in New York has undergone a transformation. Besides renovating the entire building, the U.N. is trying, as a leading international organisation, to take more responsibility and set an example for environmentally-friendly, sustainable practices by implementing such changes as cutting back on printing, posting more documents online, and creating water-saving measures.

A new report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released Thursday found progress in combating HIV/AIDS worldwide to be promising, yet inadequate to meet the needs of the 33.3 million people estimated to be living with HIV in 2009.

Protesters braved live ammunition from security forces Monday in the southern Syrian city of Dara'a, where rights groups say more than 60 people have been killed since pro-democracy activists took to the streets to demand greater freedoms from the government of President Bashar al-Assad.