The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria said on Wednesday that it has frozen financing for Uganda after uncovering ”serious mismanagement” in the organisation overseeing its programmes there. The fund said the halt on its grants — which total -million — is temporary.
Belgian jazz pianist and composer Francy Boland died on Friday in Geneva, aged 75, a statement from the Jazz Labo society of Fribourg said. Born in Namur on November 6 1929, Boland began learning piano at the age of eight and studied at the Music Conservatory in Liege.
About 4 000 people have fled to Chad in the past eight days because of attacks by unidentified armed groups in the Central African Republic, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. The new arrivals told members of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that they were fleeing from violence in the northwestern Paoua region.
Increasing numbers of exiles are returning to Burundi, as confidence seems to be growing that peace has returned to their homeland, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. Last week alone, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees helped 4 200 Burundians go home from Tanzania and Rwanda.
About 5 000 displaced Sudanese have completed an epic 700km trek through dense forests and swamps, returning home after four years in exile, the aid agency that helped them said on Tuesday. The International Organisation for Migration said the group’s members were overjoyed to be back after their four-month journey.
A United Nations human rights expert on Monday sharply criticised major African leaders, saying their failure to condemn President Robert Mugabe’s housing demolition campaign in Zimbabwe is tantamount to a ”cover-up”. ”The silence of major governments in Africa continues to be shocking,” Miloon Kothari told journalists.
The aid agency Médécins sans Frontières (MSF) on Tuesday partly shut down operations in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) because of ”limitless” violence, leaving more than 100 000 displaced people virtually without aid.
Incoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy, who takes over as director general on September 1, named his four deputies on Friday, setting his sights on rejuvenating the Doha round of trade talks ahead of a crucial December summit in Hong Kong.
Ter de Villiers made a strong claim for inclusion in the South African team to the 2005 World Championships when he defeated his main rival for the third spot in the 400m hurdles, Ockert Cilliers, at the International Association of Athletics Federations Super Grand Prix meeting in Lausanne on Tuesday night.
Two employees of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) kidnapped in Ituri in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are in good health but are still being held hostage, the organisation said on Friday. MSF ”again appeals for the immediate and unconditional liberation of its co-workers and is concerned about this prolonged captivity”, it said in a statement.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) on Thursday decided to start membership talks with Iran after the United States lifted its long-standing opposition to Tehran’s bid, Iran’s ambassador said. The move came just a day after negotiations in Geneva resulted in a diplomatic deal to continue the talks on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.
The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany met the top Iranian negotiator in Geneva on Wednesday in a final bid to stop Iran pressing ahead with plans to resume its uranium-conversion activities. Iranian negotiators warned that the meeting was heading for deadlock amid plans to reopen a nuclear plant in central Iran.
The number of people killed by the rare Marburg virus in Angola has passed 300, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. By May 17, the total number of cases — mainly in the northern province of Uige — had climbed to 337, the United Nations health agency said on its website. Of these, 311 died.
Adidas and other sports manufacturers will have to scale down their logos for the 2006 Winter Olympics in order to conform with International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules. The IOC regulations ban brand logos larger than 20 square centimetres on uniforms starting at next year’s Olympics in Turin, Italy.
Despite advances made in the prevention and treatment of malaria around the world, the disease continues to represent a major challenge in Africa, where the overwhelming majority of deaths now take place. The 2005 World Malaria Report, released on Tuesday by the World Health Organisation and United Nations Children’s Fund, notes that the efforts made in recent years have begun to bear fruit.
Iran warned that talks with the European Union could collapse as negotiators met in Geneva on Wednesday to discuss EU demands that the Islamic republic abandon nuclear fuel work, in order to guarantee it will not make atomic weapons. Iran expects Europe to accept its proposal to allow uranium enrichment.
Human rights activists on Friday pressed members of the United Nations Human Rights Commission to back a resolution condemning widespread abuses in Nepal.
If the 53-nation body fails to do so, it risks discrediting itself further as a group committed to stopping human rights abuses, said Loubna Freih, spokesperson for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan sought to drum up support for his reforms of the world body on Thursday, by warning member states that human rights have entered a ”new era” focusing on their actions to respect fundamental freedoms. ”Nobody has a monopoly on human rights virtue,” Annan said.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho faces a Uefa hearing on Thursday for bringing the game into ”disrepute” and ”making false declarations”. If he is found guilty, Mourinho could face penalties ranging from a fine to a match ban, or even see Chelsea expelled from Europe’s richest club tournament, the Champions League.
Governments should pass laws on the responsible use of sun beds and ban their use by people under the age of 18, the United Nations health agency said on Thursday. The increased popularity of artificial tanning machines is a key reason for the rapid increase in skin cancer, the World Health Organisation said.
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/ 18 February 2005
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday it is rushing an emergency team to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to tackle an outbreak of highly fatal pneumonic plague that is thought to have killed dozens of people. The outbreak occurred in an unidentified northern mining town riven by conflict and cut off from humanitarian aid.
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/ 2 February 2005
Fifa is launching its first-ever Beach Soccer World Cup this year, world football’s governing body said Tuesday. Twelve countries are expected to compete in the competition, which is likely to take place in Brazil later this year. A new Fifa subsidiary is being set up in Barcelona, Spain, to work alongside the existing beach-soccer federation.
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/ 28 January 2005
The world’s richest countries need to make a ”quantum leap forward” in helping Africa in 2005, Tony Blair said as he announced that Britain would spend £45-million on mosquito nets to prevent malaria. The prime minister said he was expecting to see a fundamental shift on aid, debt relief and trade in the next 12 months.
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/ 26 January 2005
Troubled by the limp dollar and facing calls to do more to curb poverty and climate change, more than 2 000 political and business leaders have convened on Wednesday in the Swiss resort of Davos to talk, network and ponder the world’s pressing problems at the World Economic Forum, a corporate schmoozer’s dream nestled in the Swiss Alps.
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/ 24 January 2005
The world’s leaders are breaking their solemn promises to tackle global problems from poverty and peace to environmental protection, a new report issued on Monday by the World Economic Forum indicates. The report by the forum’s Global Governance Initiative assesses the efforts of the world’s governments and corporations over the past year.
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/ 19 January 2005
Fifa’s player of the year Ronaldinho and European player of the year Andriy Shevchenko head a list of 52 players invited to play in a charity match next month to raise money for victims of the tsunami, Fifa said on Tuesday. The FC Barcelona midfielder and AC Milan striker will captain the two sides, which will include Brazil’s Ronaldo, England’s David Beckham, and Frenchman Zinedine Zidane of Real Madrid.
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/ 14 January 2005
After the revelation of a grilled-cheese sandwich allegedly bearing an image of the Virgin Mary in Florida last year, a bar manager in Switzerland said on Thursday he is ready to sell a Christ-like oyster shell. Matteo Brandi, who runs a bar in the western Swiss village of Roche, came across the shell while he was opening a batch of oysters.
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/ 17 December 2004
The United Nations said on Friday it recently found a bugging device at its European headquarters in Geneva, while a UN source hinted that similar devices may have been discovered in the past. A UN source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it is the first time the world body has acknowledged such a discovery.
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/ 10 November 2004
A 77-year-old woman in the Swiss city of Lausanne who illegally fed pigeons starved by Switzerland’s legendary cleanliness has been fined 8 000 Swiss francs (about R42 000), a local newspaper reported on Wednesday. ”The street sweepers do their job so well that the birds can’t find anything to eat,” she told a magistrate’s court.
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/ 1 November 2004
It’s official — Swiss cheese is the best in the world. Cheeses from Alpine Switzerland won 37 of 60 medals available at the third annual Mountain Cheese Olympics, including 13 gold medals, the organisers said. More than 400 mountain cheeses from around the world competed in the four-day event.
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/ 20 October 2004
Worldwide sales of industrial robots surged to record levels in the first half of 2004 after equipment prices fell while labour costs grew, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said on Wednesday. In an annual survey, the UNECE said the number of robots in operation in industry exceeded the 800 000 mark for the first time at the end of 2003.
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/ 14 October 2004
Three hippos attacked and killed a zebra they had lived alongside for 12 years in front of shocked visitors at Basel Zoo in Switzerland, authorities said on Thursday. Kalungu, a 17-year-old male zebra, was knocked into the water and mauled after he bit the lip of hippo Wilhelm during the animals’ daily ritual to establish territory.