Iraq, Darfur, global warming, crooked congressmen, Paul McCartney's nasty divorce. ...

There are lots of reasons to remember the year ending tonight without much fondness or nostalgia, and there are lots of year-end roundups to help you do that.

But not here.

Every year we try to balance the ledger a little, setting out to prove that the last 12 months produced their share of good news as well.

So add these to your lasting impressions of 2006, and here's hoping your balance sheet is all positive in 2007.

TRAILBLAZERS

Michelle Bachelet became the first female president of Chile.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became president of Liberia, Africa's first elected female head of state.

Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, became the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress.

The same election lifted the number of women in the U.S. Senate to 16, an all-time high.

Nancy Pelosi was the first woman to become speaker of the House of Representatives.

MEANWHILE, IN SPACE ...

After years of lobbying from scientists and astronomy fans, NASA announced it will launch a shuttle mission in 2008 to save the Hubble Space Telescope, hopefully keeping it snapping amazing pictures until at least 2013.

A capsule from the seven-year, 2.88-billion-mile Stardust mission returned to Earth with comet particles and interstellar dust, the first materials collected from beyond the moon.

MEANWHILE, IN NATURE ...

Scientists discovered dozens of new species of marine life in an area called Bird's Head Seascape in Indonesia. These included reef-building coral, colorful fish and an epaulette shark that "walks" on its fins.

Wildlife officials in Wisconsin celebrated the birth of two whooping crane chicks, the first time in more than a century that a whooping crane has hatched in the wild in the Midwest.

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

Some of the best new inventions of 2006, courtesy of Time and Popular Science magazines:

Remember all the way back to 2005 when you couldn't post your own video for the whole world to see or look at millions of others at the click of a mouse? Neither can we, which is why Time anointed YouTube as the year's best new invention.

A San Diego company bred a hypoallergenic cat that doesn't produce the protein that makes humans sneeze.

Merck introduced Gardasil, a vaccine against the human papilloma virus, a major risk factor for cervical cancer.

A new inflatable pool lounger comes with two propellers and two joysticks, so you can zip around the pool without getting your hands wet.

With cupholder, of course.

Combine amazing cameras, computers and sensors with $61,000 from your bank account, and the Lexus 460 parallel parks by itself.

A team at MIT produced the XO laptop computer, designed for developing countries, that costs $130 and uses so little energy that a hand-cranked power source can run it.

If you don't want to wait for bad news, the new CardioChek lets you test your cholesterol instantly at home.

COOL SHOES, NOT COLD CASH

Stephon Marbury, star guard of the New York Knicks, introduced a line of Starbury basketball shoes priced at $14.98 — one-tenth the price of some fancy sneakers that many kids can't afford but just have to have anyway.

"Kids shouldn't have to feel the pressure to spend so much to feel good about the way they look," he said. "I'm blessed to be in a position to do something about it."

ODDSBEATER OF THE YEAR

Valerie Wilson, who works at a Long Island deli, won $1 million in a New York state lottery scratch-off game, four years after she won $1 million in a lottery scratch-off game. "The first time I couldn't believe it," she told Newsday. "This time I said, 'God's on my side.' "

Number-crunchers put the odds of winning twice at 1 in 3.67 trillion.

GRANDPA OF THE YEAR

Financier Warren Buffett announced he would give away most of his estimated $44 billion fortune to charity, including about $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The decision ensured that Buffett's descendants would be comfortable, but not uber-wealthy.

"There's no reason why future generations of little Buffetts should command society just because they came from the right womb," he said. "Where's the justice in that?"

LIFT US UP WHERE WE BELONG

Australian miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell were rescued after two weeks trapped in a collapsed mineshaft more than half a mile underground.

The men, who walked out of the mine in remarkably good shape, became national heroes for their survival skills and good humor. Among other things, they called their surroundings a two-star hotel, with themselves as the two stars, and asked for iPods loaded with Foo Fighters songs while they awaited rescue. A few hours after he emerged, Russell went to his favorite pub for a drink.

SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT

Police recovered Edvard Munch's priceless paintings "The Scream" and "Madonna" in a raid in Oslo, Norway.

The artworks had been stolen from Oslo's Munch Museum in an audacious daytime robbery in 2004.

HARD-WON LEGAL EXPERIENCE

Christopher Ochoa served 12 years in Texas prisons for a rape and murder he didn't commit, until lawyers from the University of Wisconsin's Innocence Project presented evidence exonerating him. Freed from prison in 2001, he earned a college degree, then enrolled in UW's law school.

At his graduation this year, he said, "I don't want to be angry. I wouldn't have got this far, to get a law degree, by being angry."

LET'S MAKE A DEAL

How do you turn a paper clip into a house? Start trading. Kyle MacDonald moved into a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan, a year after he traded a paper clip for a pen. He kept trading up, from doorknob to camping stove to recording contract to a day with rock oldie Alice Cooper, before landing a house on Main Street, where he's living while he writes a book about the swaps.

"I knew it was possible," he said. "You can do anything if you put your mind to it."

STORM BLOWS OVER, FOR NOW

After the horrible hurricanes of 2005, forecasters predicted another tough year. But the season ended with only nine storms worthy of names, five of which developed into hurricanes.

MR. BASKETBALL OF 2006

Jason McElwain, the 17-year-old student manager of the Athena High School basketball team in Greece, N.Y., suited up for the team's last game of the season. With four minutes left, the coach put him in for the first time ever.

Jason, who is 5-foot-6 and autistic, amazed everyone by hitting six three-point shots, scoring 20 points and becoming the star of a home video that quickly flashed around the world. Look for the Disney movie soon.