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/ 13 January 2004
The estate of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien has won the rights to the use of the domain name www.jrrtolkien.com in a United Nations ruling. The World Intellectual Property Organisation ordered the name handed over to the company that holds the rights to the British author’s works.
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/ 16 December 2003
The worldwide Red Cross launched its 2004 appeal on Tuesday, earmarking the largest-to-date slice of its budget to fight diseases such as HIV/Aids that kill millions more people than natural disasters every year. More than 40% of the appeal will help the 13-million people who die annually from infectious diseases.
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/ 12 December 2003
Africa, the instigator of the world’s first information technology summit, wanted rich countries to put their money where their mouths are to develop its nascent technology, but its delegates were leaving the three-day meeting on Friday with only vague promises.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=38626">WSIS special report</a>
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/ 11 December 2003
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday lashed out at the ”hegemony” of the north, attacking rich nations at a UN summit for imposing their views on access to information and freedom of the press on Zimbabwe.
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/ 10 December 2003
The world’s first information summit opened in Geneva on Wednesday, hoping to help bridge the technology gap between rich and poor countries and devise a new framework to govern the unruly internet. Delegates from 175 countries are attending — including Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=38626">WSIS special report</a>
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/ 18 November 2003
The World Health Organisation confirmed on Tuesday that 11 people who died recently in northwestern Congo had been infected with the Ebola virus and 105 more people are under surveillance in case they develop the highly infectious disease, for which there is currently no cure.
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/ 12 November 2003
Swiss aviation authorities launched an investigation on Wednesday after radar screens monitoring flights in the area of Switzerland’s busiest airport went blank for 20 minutes. The air traffic controllers on duty responded quickly and immediately adopted emergency working procedures.
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/ 11 November 2003
Fake drugs, which can be useless, harmful or deadly, are on the rise as they are easy to make and sell cheaply, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday as it launched a campaign to fight the problem. Up to 25% of medicines consumed in developing nations are believed to be counterfeit or substandard.
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/ 11 November 2003
European and Asian countries joined together on Tuesday to demand that the United States drop its duties on imported steel or face the possibility of billions of dollars in retaliatory measures against products ranging from oranges to Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
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/ 30 October 2003
Finland was ranked the most competitive country in the world by the World Economic Forum on Thursday, edging out the United States from the top spot in its annual survey thanks to a healthy Finnish economy, efficient public institutions and technology-driven industry.
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/ 22 October 2003
A polio outbreak spreading from Nigeria to neighbouring countries is putting 15-million children at risk and undermining efforts to eradicate the disease worldwide, the United Nations health agency said on Wednesday.
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/ 20 October 2003
An unacceptable number of women in developing countries die giving birth compared with the rest of the world and the imbalance must be corrected with better access to health care, three UN agencies said on Monday.
The United Nations’s aid agencies will resume operations in Liberia on Friday after suspending their work following a fresh outbreak of violence that left at least 13 dead. ”We were forced to suspend our humanitarian mission and restrict our movements because of the unrest,” a spokesperson said in Geneva.
World Trade Organisation members on Friday failed to reach a deal on ensuring patent rules do not bar access to cheap medicines for poor countries, after problems prevented a deal at the eleventh hour.
The International Red Cross on Friday expressed disgust at the disastrous humanitarian situation in Liberia, saying it had rarely seen an African country that had been as neglected as the war-ravaged west African state.
Negotiators at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said a deal on providing poor countries with cheaper drugs to treat major diseases such as HIV/Aids was taking shape, as top trading nations prepared to wind up a round of meetings on trade liberalisation talks on Friday.
Acting on a United Nation’s (UN) request, Switzerland has frozen two million Swiss francs (â,¬1,3 million, ,5-million) in the bank accounts of two associates of Liberian President Charles Taylor, the Swiss justice ministry said on Wednesday.
International aid and refugee agencies on Tuesday voiced growing concern about a brutal surge in fighting in Liberia in recent days, warning that the humanitarian situation in the west African state was catastrophic.
The new director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Jong Wook Lee of South Korea, took office on Monday, vowing to provide three-million HIV/Aids patients in poor countries with key anti-retroviral drugs within two years.
A rescue ship is making its way to Liberia to evacuate thousands of Sierra Leonean refugees who have been caught up in the fighting in the country, the United Nations (UN) refugee agency said on Thursday.
United Nation’s chief Kofi Annan on Monday called for countries to show greater flexibility in global trade talks to overcome difficulties two months ahead of a key World Trade Organisation meeting.
They troop in by the thousands, many with colourful clothing and loud music, and announce their message: the rich countries of the world are hogging the goods of the earth, ignoring the needs of impoverished millions.
The top United Nations human rights body on Wednesday ducked discussion of a resolution that condemned violations in Zimbabwe.
The new head of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) top negotiating body, the General Council, on Thursday warned that there was little chance of meeting a March 31 deadline on guidelines for crucial agriculture negotiations.
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/ 25 February 2003
Fifty non-governmental organisations from around the world on Monday condemned a draft plan for WTO negotiations on farming trade reform, saying it ignored promises to place development issues at the heart of the talks.
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/ 6 February 2003
Negotiations aimed at improving opportunities for international trade cannot succeed unless nations also tackle the abuse of rules on goods that are dumped in foreign markets, a group of 15 nations said on Wednesday.
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/ 21 January 2003
The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos started out in 1970 as a cosy gathering for a handful of European business executives in the Swiss Alps, but has since turned into a key annual event for more than 2 000 business and world leaders.
New World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand pledged on Monday to work to ensure that global trade underpinned development and brought benefits to the poor as well as the rich.
Switzerland has denied it leaked information to a French newspaper about the alleged involvement of Angola’s president in a -million embezzlement of his government’s loan repayment to Russia.
Developing countries on Monday rejected a US call at world trade talks to abolish tariffs on industrial and consumer goods by 2015, saying it would hurt poorer states.