EU, ASEAN stage antipiracy meeting
EU, ASEAN stage antipiracy meeting
THAILAND: The European Union will host a meeting for lawyers, judges and academics from across Southeast Asia to encourage tougher enforcement of antipiracy laws in the region, an EU spokesman said in Bangkok on Friday.
The conference in Bangkok on Monday and Tuesday will focus on the protection of rights to intellectual property such as patents, industrial designs, product trademarks and copyrights and geographic names.
"It's not just EU countries telling the ASEAN countries to not sell fake watches, it's for them to improve their infrastructure so they can undertake these things themselves," an EU spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
The meeting is part of an EU-funded program to help ASEAN member countries draft laws against counterfeiting and meet standards outlined by the World Trade Organization. --AP
;AFP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Malaysia-Islam-women Malaysian state to stop using women in tourism ad campaign JP/9/ASEAN
Women banned in tourism ads
MALAYSIA: A Malaysian state ruled by the opposition Islamic party has decided to stop using women and other "hedonistic influences" in its tourism campaigns, a report said on Friday.
Hassan Mohamad Ramli, state youth, sports, culture and tourism committee chairman, said the new policy was to ensure advertisements did not distort the image of the north eastern Terengganu state.
"The use of women and sex as well as other hedonistic influences are against Islamic guidelines and will be omitted from such promotions and advertisements," he was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.
Hassan said Terengganu had drawn up its own program of activities this year to make the state, controlled by Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), a destination that offered various choices of activities. --AFP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-S'pore-exotic pets Number of Singaporeans keeping exotic, smuggled animals as pets JP/9/ASEAN
Number of Singaporeans keeping exotic, smuggled animals as pets rises
More S'poreans keep exotic pets
SINGAPORE: More and more people in Singapore are keeping exotic, smuggled animals like snakes, gibbons, tarantulas and tortoises as pets, the government said on Friday.
The presence of illegally imported animals has risen by about 15 percent from 2000, Singapore's Agri-food and Veterinary Authority said in a news release Friday. It did not estimate the total number of illegal animals currently in the island state.
Many of the animals are poorly treated and some are endangered. Underlining this, the Straits Times newspaper on Friday ran a story of a slow loris -- a tiny, big-eyed primate found in Southeast Asia -- that had its sharp teeth cut so it could be sold as a gentle pet.
The primate had to have two root canals and four fillings because the dental work caused an infection. --AP
;AP;KOD; ANPAu..r.. Aglance-Thailand-UN Thailand to nominate ex-foreign minister for U.N. post JP/9/ASEAN
Thais name ex-minister for UN job
THAILAND: Bangkok said on Friday it plans to nominate former Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan as a candidate for the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said the government will send a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Saturday, officially proposing Surin's name.
He said the current high commissioner, Mary Robinson, has indicated she would not like to extend her term, which expires in September.
A 1975 Harvard graduate and a member of the opposition Democrat Party, the 53-year-old Surin was minister of foreign affairs in the previous government from 1997 to January 2001, when it lost the elections.
Surin, who belongs to the minority Muslim community in the predominantly Buddhist country, was a university lecturer before joining politics in 1986. --AP