Switzerland

GENEVA, Oct 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Trade Organization said its member nations had again failed to agree to suspend intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, with some countries doubting a deal could be reached unless certain delegations make “real compromises”.

  South Africa and India have called for intellectual property rights to be temporarily lifted for coronavirus vaccines during the pandemic in order to boost production and address the gaping inequality in access between rich and
poor nations.

GENEVA, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation on Wednesday proposed 26 experts to form its new Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of novel pathogens, including several who served on its mission to Wuhan, China, to probe the source of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The statement named the 26 proposed members ahead of a two-week period of public consultation, including Marion Koopmans, Thea Fischer, Hung Nguyen and Chinese animal health expert Yang Yungui, who took part in the joint investigation this year.

GENEVA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday an initiative to vaccinate 40 percent of the population of every country against COVID-19 by the end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022, by prioritizing vaccine delivery to low-income countries, particularly those in Africa.

GENEVA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Bahrain, Russia and other members of the U.N. Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday to shut down the body's war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states who wanted to keep the mission going.

Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the independent investigators another two years to monitor atrocities in Yemen's conflict.

GENEVA, Oct 6 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Africa’s film industry is thriving and could create many millions of extra jobs if its potential was fully exploited, the United Nations said.

In a report, the UN cultural organisation UNESCO said that an estimated five million people currently work in Africa’s film industry, which contributes $5 billion to the continent’s GDP.

Nigeria’s film industry is the continent’s biggest, churning out 2,500 movies per year.

Despite the numbers, UNESCO said the industry has much potential that remains largely untapped.

ZURICH (AP) — Top diplomatic advisers to U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for talks in Switzerland’s largest city Wednesday in hopes of ironing out differences on a range of topics from trade to Taiwan.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi were holding morning and afternoon discussions in an upscale hotel next to Zurich’s airport.

GENEVA, Oct 05 (APP): Pakistan has called for redoubling efforts to halt and reverse the rising trend of Islamophobia and other forms of racial discrimination, emphasizing that “meaningful accountability of the perpetrators” must be ensured.

“Islamophobia is a dangerous form of contemporary racism, nurtured by decades of public rhetoric and policies against as well as stereotyping of Muslim communities and minorities,” Ambassador Khalil Hashmi, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN office in Geneva, told the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.

GENEVA, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Russian mercenaries in Libya killed detainees, among the possible war crimes committed by multiple sides in the conflict, U.N. human rights investigators said on Monday, adding that they had drawn up a confidential list of suspects.

GENEVA, October 2. /TASS/: Russia and the US discussed the issue of the mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccination certificates in Geneva on Saturday. American representatives "heard Russia’s arguments," Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told journalists at a briefing following talks.

"They heard the arguments, they realize that this is rational because the approval of a vaccine to be sold on the market and the approval of a jab for the prevention of the COVID-19 disease directly are different processes," the health minister noted.

GENEVA, October 2. /TASS/: All obstacles preventing the certification of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus by the World Health Organization (WHO) have been removed, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said at a briefing in Geneva in response to a question by TASS.