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
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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
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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
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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