The World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) ousted a record number of cybersquatters from websites with domain names referring to trademarked companies, foundations and celebrities in 2007. Wipo, a United Nations agency based in Geneva, received 2 156 complaints alleging "abusive registration of trademarks on the internet" last year.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Robin Williams's latest film,The Night Listener makes for engrossing viewing, especially as it gets increasingly noir in flavour, writes Shaun de Waal.
A transgender man who is six months pregnant said in an interview aired by Oprah Winfrey on Thursday that he always wanted to have a child and considers it a miracle. "It's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human desire," a thinly bearded Thomas Beatie said.
Exhausted White House hopefuls launched one last frenzied day of campaigning before the 24-state Super Tuesday -- the biggest one-day White House nominating contest in history. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting neck-and-neck in the Democratic showdown, while John McCain looked set to take a firm grip on the Republican contest.
"They said this day would never come," said United States Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama at the outset of his barnstorming victory speech on Thursday night. But as he arrived in New Hampshire early on Friday, Americans woke up to the historic possibility that the day when they might have a black president was closer than they thought.
Bill Clinton has never been one to avoid the limelight. Or stay on message. Last week, as he spearheaded a mission to rejuvenate his wife's troubled presidential campaign, he showed that old habits die hard. In a publicity stunt at a grocery store in the vital first battleground state of Iowa, the ex-president caused brief chaos by breaking away to chat to the public.
Celebrity political endorsements do not get much bigger than Oprah Winfrey's. But political experts say it is doubtful the popular United States talk-show host can sway votes to fellow Chicagoan and first-term Illinois Senator Barack Obama in the way she persuades viewers to turn books into instant bestsellers.
Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama once electrified the United States by preaching a "politics of hope". Unfortunately Obama then found himself outsmarted and outfought by his chief rival, Senator Hillary Clinton. Now Obama has, in effect, relaunched his campaign, coming out fighting against Clinton.
About 1 700 people asked to be reimbursed for buying James Frey's largely fabricated best-selling memoir, A Million Little Pieces, a lawyer said as a judge approved a settlement with disgruntled readers. United States District Judge Richard Holwell said on Friday that the settlement was "most fair, adequate and reasonable".
"Tell me, why this nasty war?" asks a character in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. Almost 140 years after first publication of the epic novel, a nasty duel has broken out between rival versions of the weighty tome published in the United States. The argument between the two new translations is, fittingly, one of weight.
United States actress Drew Barrymore donated $1-million of her own money on Monday to the World Food Programme (WFP) that the United Nations agency said would be used to feed thousands of schoolchildren in Kenya. Barrymore (33) a WFP ambassador against hunger, announced her pledge on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
Veteran rockers Queen, along with Razorlight and Simple Minds, will top the bill at an Aids benefit concert in London next month to mark Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, organisers announced on Tuesday. Precisely 46 664 tickets will go on sale for the three-hour gig in Hyde Park on June 27, which is in support of the former South African president's 46664 campaign against HIV/Aids.
United States television magnate Oprah Winfrey said on Monday that abuse charges at her all-girl academy in Johannesburg was one of the most devastating experiences in her life. "This has been one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating, experiences of my life," she said in a video news conference from Chicago.
South African police are investigating alleged abuses at billionaire United States television magnate Oprah Winfrey's all-girl leadership academy, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. Rapport newspaper has reported a matron at the school allegedly fondled one of the pupils, and grabbed a girl by the throat and threw her against a wall.
Oprah Winfrey has met with the family of the first pupil to complain of abuse at her elite school for disadvantaged South African girls, and invited the girl to return to the academy. The United States magazine People quoted the father of the pupil as saying they met for two hours with Winfrey on Sunday.
A dormitory parent at Oprah Winfrey's school has been suspended for misconduct, the school announced on Wednesday. The school said the person had been "removed" from the campus and immediate action had been taken to ensure the safety and well-being of the pupils.
The Sebokeng Magistrate's Court on Friday postponed until July the trial of a former dormitory matron of United States talk-show host Oprah Winfrey's girls academy, who has been charged with abusing minors. Virginia Makgobo (27)appeared court to face charges of indecent and common assault, and soliciting a minor to perform indecent acts.
A court on Wednesday postponed the case of abuse against a former dormitory matron of United States talk-show host Oprah Winfrey's girls academy. Virginia Mokgobo (27) appeared in the Sebokeng Magistrate's Court to face charges of indecent and common assault, soliciting a minor to perform indecent acts and verbal abuse.
