No image available
/ 18 October 2007
A malaria vaccine currently under development can be safely given to young infants and appears to offer strong protection against the disease, according to the results of a study conducted in Mozambique. The finding clears the way for final-stage testing of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine, known as Mosquirix.
No image available
/ 18 October 2007
On April 27 1968 the vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, announced his presidential candidacy. It was a particularly troubled moment in the United States’s recent history. Just three weeks after Martin Luther King’s assassination, the cities were still scarred by riots while the country as a whole was deeply divided over the Vietnam war.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
Oil prices surged above a barrel on Monday for the first time after the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said crude production by non-Opec countries is falling even as global demand for oil is rising. Prices were also supported by concerns Turkish forces will pursue Kurdish rebels into Iraq.
No image available
/ 15 October 2007
Victims who filed suit for $400-billion against United States businesses allegedly complicit with the former South African apartheid regime have found new hope following a federal court ruling in the US. "The appeal court decision is a major victory," said Michael Hausfeld, a lawyer for the victims on the heels of Friday’s decision by a Manhattan federal court.
No image available
/ 13 October 2007
A United States appellate court on Friday allowed claims brought by victims of apartheid against dozens of major companies to go forward, saying a lower court erred in ruling it did not have jurisdiction over the matter. The plaintiffs include South Africa’s non-profit Khulumani Support Group.
No image available
/ 11 October 2007
Sample addresses in nearly a dozen languages will be added to the internet’s central directories as early as this week, paving the way for web surfers around the world to get online without knowing any English. At this point, the 11 domain names are meant primarily for software developers and website designers to test the new system.
No image available
/ 11 October 2007
The ultra-high-speed Internet2 network just got 10 times faster, partly in anticipation of rising demand for capacity when the world’s largest particle collider opens near Geneva next year. Until recently, the Internet2 had a theoretical limit of 10 gigabits per second (Gbps).
No image available
/ 11 October 2007
Boeing ran into turbulence on its highly touted 787 Dreamliner programme, announcing a six-month delay for the new jet seen as the future profit driver for the United States aviation giant. Boeing said the first deliveries will not come until December 2008.
Worsening violence in Darfur risks spreading the conflict further in Sudan and shows the need for advanced equipment a planned United Nations peacekeeping force does not yet have. UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno said the situation had deteriorated with an attack late last month by armed men on an African Union base.
In spite of its global popularity, internet telephony (voice-over-internet protocol, or VoIP), which is almost free for users, has not become a gold mine for its pioneers such as Skype and Vonage. Popular online auction firm eBay, which bought Skype two years ago for ,6-billion, affirmed that message in a costly way on Monday.
No image available
/ 29 September 2007
Rwanda joined other countries on Friday in appealing for a global moratorium on executions, saying that if its government could abolish the death penalty while perpetrators of the 1994 genocide still await sentences, no country should use it. About 500 000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were massacred in 100 days of frenzied killing led by radical Hutus.
No image available
/ 28 September 2007
Israel and the Palestinians could sign a peace deal within six months of an international peace conference scheduled for November, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday. ”The meeting in November should define the principles settling the questions over the final status [of the Palestinian territories],” Abbas said.
No image available
/ 27 September 2007
Social networking site Facebook, which signs up more than a million new fans every month, has changed tack and begun to list publicly members’ profiles on search engines such as Google and Yahoo!. It is, in fact, aiming to get in early in the race to build a global — and potentially lucrative — online people directory.
No image available
/ 26 September 2007
South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize-winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressed concern about the situation in Burma on Wednesday, describing the country’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as his only pin-up. ”I think we ought to celebrate the incredible courage of our sisters and brothers in Burma,” he said.
No image available
/ 26 September 2007
World governments vowed on Wednesday to hold Burma’s military rulers to account for a bloody crackdown on mass street protests, as the United Nations Security Council prepared to meet in emergency session and European Union officials began drawing up new sanctions.
No image available
/ 25 September 2007
Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Monday that the United States government must be more open to discussions with Iran if it wants peace between the nations. Tutu criticised the George Bush’s administration for refusing to engage in more negotiations with Iranian officials.
No image available
/ 25 September 2007
Microsoft began its midnight sales of Halo 3, the acclaimed alien shooter game that it hopes will widen its lead over Sony in the battle for industry dominance. Microsoft is backing the game with a marketing blitz that includes celebrity-studded sales events at about 10 000 retailers across the United States.
No image available
/ 25 September 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with an United States university president who called him a ”petty and cruel dictator” at a forum on Monday where Ahmadinejad criticised Israel and the US and said Iran was a peaceful nation. Ahmadinejad also said in an appearance at Columbia University that Iran’s nuclear programme was purely peaceful.
No image available
/ 25 September 2007
President George Bush is set to announce new United States sanctions against Burma over human rights as the annual United Nations General Assembly gathering of world leaders gets under way on Tuesday. Bush will advocate supporting groups in Burma that are trying to advance freedom and announce new sanctions directed at key members of the military rulers.
No image available
/ 23 September 2007
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met ministers from world powers and neighbouring countries on Saturday after telling the United Nations secretary general he could guarantee security for a broader UN role in Iraq. Ministers from Iraq, its neighbours and world powers met at UN headquarters.
No image available
/ 22 September 2007
A small amount of extra peacekeeping troops for Sudan’s troubled Darfur region could be in place by October, officials said on Friday after a high-level meeting on Darfur at the United Nations. Nigeria and Rwanda are considering sending ”a few battalions” to the region next month, according to Britain’s secretary of state for Africa.
No image available
/ 21 September 2007
Born 10 years ago, the Google internet search engine has grown into the electronic centre of human knowledge by indexing billions of web pages as well as images, books and videos. On September 15 1997, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two 24-year-old Stanford University students, registered the domain name of ”google.com”.
No image available
/ 21 September 2007
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on Thursday challenged the United Nations and its members to break their silence on two men he charged with war crimes in Darfur. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said too little attention had been paid to his arrest warrants, an issue not on the agenda of the talks.
No image available
/ 20 September 2007
The Reverend Frank Wade, a veteran of the brawling theological debates in the Episcopal Church, said the denomination was once filled with people like him: ”old white men.” It was the church of the establishment, the spiritual home of more United States presidents than any other denomination.
No image available
/ 20 September 2007
A United Nations-backed Africa communications summit in Rwanda next month will seek to boost high-speed internet access to match the continent’s explosive growth in cellphones, officials said on Wednesday. In Africa, cellphones overtook fixed lines six years ago and now outnumber them nearly five to one.
No image available
/ 20 September 2007
France on Wednesday called for a joint force of United Nations and European Union peacekeepers to protect civilians in parts of Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) bordering Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region. It tabled a resolution at the UN Security Council for a mixed force in eastern Chad and the north-east of the CAR.
No image available
/ 18 September 2007
The New York Times said on Monday it will end its paid TimesSelect web service and make most of its website available for free in the hopes of attracting more readers and higher advertising revenue. TimesSelect will shut down on Wednesday, two years after the Times launched it, which charges subscribers ,95 a month or ,95 a year.
No image available
/ 13 September 2007
Fuelled by last year’s Nobel Prize for a man nicknamed ”banker to the poor”, microlending to small businesses in the world’s poorest countries is booming as individuals discover they can be their own mini World Bank. And you don’t have to be Bill Gates to get in on the act.
No image available
/ 13 September 2007
YouTube, online job applications and homework help sites have boosted demand and contributed to lines for internet access at United States public libraries, yet a new survey finds the majority have no immediate plans to add computers. For many library systems, the buildings simply do not have enough room, for example.
No image available
/ 12 September 2007
New York crude oil prices reached a barrel on Wednesday for the first time as the market fretted over declining United States reserves and a new tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Prices shot higher after news that US crude reserves fell by a sharper-than-expected 7,1-million barrels over the past week.
No image available
/ 12 September 2007
Americans stood in silence to remember the nearly 3 000 people killed in the September 11 attacks on Tuesday as Osama bin Laden resurfaced to praise the suicide hijackers who carried them out six years ago to the day. New Yorkers observed silent moments at the very times jets crashed into the World Trade Centre towers and when each tower collapsed.
No image available
/ 11 September 2007
New Yorkers are doing all they can to preserve the way September 11 is commemorated, and with it falling on a Tuesday for the first time since 2001, the day is another trigger of tragic memories. New York City will mark the event as it has for the past five anniversaries with a ceremony punctuated by the reading of names of the 2 750 innocent people who died at the World Trade Centre.