GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, to the dismay of Annecy, France, one of three contenders. Pyeongchang received 63 votes from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) delegates meeting in Durban, South Africa. Munich received 25 and Annecy 7.
IOC President Jacques Rogge, in announcing the award, said perseverence played a role, since this the Asian city’s third attempt to win the Games.
Geneva is considering bidding on the 2022 Winter Games and there is some sentiment, according to the Tribune de Geneve, that it will have a better chance if its neighbour has not held the previous Games.
Rogge, at a press conference in Geneva in June, denied that it is IOC policy, or even encouraged, to move the Games from one continent to another or to avoid holding two Games in a row in the same region. He cited several past examples, notably for Europe.
TSR and other Swiss media, however, underscore the importance to Lausanne-based IOC of ensuring that the Games are embraced by Asians and the developing world in general.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Seven people from seven countries, a collection of bloggers and journalists, all of them human rights activists in their countries, were presented Thursday 9 June in Geneva, and given an opportunity to tell their stories at a conference, “The Human Voice of Freedom, the Internet and Human Rights”.
The seven are:
- Egypt – Wael Abbas
- Burma – Aung San Thar
- Uganda – Rosebell Kagumire
- Indonesia – Andreas Harsono
- Tunisia – Henda Chennaoui
- China – Wen Yunchao (Bei Fung)
- Korea – Kwon Eun Kyoung
The US and Korean navies patrolled the Yellow Sea off the coast of Korea in a show of force meant to underline the US committment to South Korea after the deadly shelling of a South Korean island last week. China repeated a call 1 December for a resumption of the six-party talks between the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the USA and is urging calm. Russia seconds the Chinese government’s call, but the USA says that there is no point “in stabilizing the region through a series of P.R. activities.” A top North Korean official has travelled to Beijing for talks.
China has refrained from criticizing North Korea’s shelling, and is blocking UN Security Council attempts to censure North Korea. The USA hopes that the naval exercises will put pressure on China to bring its ally North Korea into line.
Links to other sites: BBC, Bloomberg
Source: RT News
Two South Korean marines are reported to have died in one of the tensest clashes Tuesday between North and South Korea since their war in the 1950s, and 12 people are reported by South Korean media to be injured. The reaction from China has been muted, with foreign ministry officials saying they are verifying what has happened, while the US has tersely called on North Korea to stop its “belligerant” action. World leaders from other countries are underscoring the importance of not allowing tensions to increase. North Korea fired several missiles at an island near the border between the two, and the South says it has retaliated.
Links to other sites: Financial Times, NPR, Xinhua
(video) Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Data released 16 September by Wipo, the World Intellectual Property Organization based in Geneva, shows a slowdown in IP registrations in 2008 and, based on partial data, in 2009, but the global picture is mixed. IP registrations include patent, trademark and industrial design applications, with industrial design applications suffering less from the glocal economic downturn than the other two categories.
The one country that bucked the mostly downward trend was China, although it accounted for an overall fall in trademark applications in 2008 while remaining the country with the largest number of trademark requests, 670,000.
The figures are part of the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2010, published by Wipo, with figures mainly from 2008-09.
Patents: applications, grants down
The number of patents granted in 2008 is estimated to have fallen by 0.6 percent, to 780,000 for the year. South Korea alone had a 32.5 percent drop and the overall figure was saved from showing a serious global contraction by China’s growth in patent grants. The fastest growing area was in demand for energy-related patents: fuel cells, solar, wind and geothermal energy. Patent applications filed for those technologies increased in nine years nearly seven-fold, from 584 applications in 2000 to 3,424 applications in 2009.
Applications for patents fell in virtually every country in 2009, preliminary data show, down 10 percent in Japan and down 5 percent in South Korea, but China’s applications rose by 8 percent.
Some 6.7 million patents were in force worldwide in 2008, a 5.3 percent increase over 2007. Patents in force in China and the Republic of Korea saw double-digit growth at 24 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively.
Residents of Japan and the US owned around 48% of total patents in force in 2008.
Trademarks: Bric nations, 30% of applications
The Bric (Brazil, Russian Federation, India and China) countries accounted for 30 percent of all trademark applications in 2008, far above their combined share in patents. Overall, trademark applications fell by 0.9 percent in 2008, the first decrease since 2001. They rose again in 2009, first figures show, but only in some countries: China and France recorded considerable growth in trademarks filings, while Germany, Japan and the US reported a drop.
In 2008, approximately 2.37 million trademarks were registered across the world, 7 for percent growth compared to 2007. China accounted for around 90 percent of the worldwide growth in trademark registrations. It also recorded the highest growth in these registrations (+56.8 percent), followed by the UK (+23.6) and the Russian Federation (+21.7).
Industrial design registrations led by China
China saw a 17 percent increase in industrial design applications in 2008, accounting for much of the world’s total growth of 5.7 percent in this area. France in 2008 remained the country holding the largest number of these patents, some 400,000, but China is expected to overtake France in 2009.
Video, presentation of the World Indicators by Francis Gurry, head of Wipo in Geneva
International sports, World Cup football roundup
Swiss coach to stay on until 2012
Honduras' Mauricio Sabillon fights for the goal against Swiss Xherden Shaqiri - Photo 2010 FWCLOC
South Africa (GenevaLunch.com) – Switzerland’s inability to qualify for the Group of 16 didn’t seem to take all of their fans by surprise, but it was nevertheless a sad day for Swiss football fans. The French-speaking press noted that the Swiss squad went from knowing victory to defeat in just three games.
Swiss coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said his team had tried hard and their loss was also his. For his part, Tranquilo Barnetta said the Swiss squad “lacked quality,” while Hakan Yakin seconded Barnetta’s opinion, “We’ve come up short due to our own limitations,” he said.
Hitzfeld, who is often described by the sports press as a “tactical genius” confirmed on 26 June that he will continue to head the Swiss squad until his contract ends in 2012.
With Switzerland out of the top two spots Spain and Chile qualified to the following round.
Uruguay to quarter-finals for the first time in 40 years
Luis Suarez celebrates his victory goals - Photo 2010 FWCLOC
Uruguay beat South Korea after an incredible match in which the South Americans took advantage of the few defense mistakes the South Koreans made.
The Korean coach said his team played well but meeting squads from other parts of the world is something they need to do more, to help their game.
In addition to the Koreans’ mistakes, Huh Jung-Moo believed luck just wasn’t on their side, an opinion shared by Uruguayan coach Oscar Tabarez. “Korea played a great game, but that slice of luck went our way not theirs this time—that’s football,” he said.
This is the first time since 1970, when Uruguay took the World Cup home, that the team has been able to qualify to quarter-finals.
Uruguay will meet Ghana who beat the USA 2-1 in extra time.
Soccer is a cruel game sometimes
Ghana fans celebrates - Photo 2010 FWCLOC
US football star, Landon Donovan expressed better than anyone what the US squad was feeling after being eliminated by Ghana: “We were a little naive tonight and at this level you can’t do that which is frustrating considering all the work we have done. I’m proud of what I have done and proud of what the team has done. Soccer is a cruel game sometimes. One minute you are on top of the world and the next minute you are bottom of the mountain,” he said.
USA coach, Bob Bradley said his team had gone down once too many times. “There was some chances for us but early in the overtime we went down again, and at that point, with everything we had put in physically we just didn’t have enough after that. At the moment it is just a stinging tough defeat.”
After beating the US Asamoah Gyan who helped Ghana to qualify to quarter-finals said he’s the “happiest man in the world.” Gyan said Ghana’s brings pride not only to his country but to “the whole of Africa.”
Follow GenevaLunch’s daily recap of the 2010 World Cup.
S Korea and US will have joint sea missions
Late Tuesday North Korea announced that it is severing all communication and relations with the South, and South Korea said that it is cutting trade and it will not allow ships from the North to pass through its waters.
South Korea and the US will carry out military exercises at sea together as part of their response to the South’s claims that North Korea torpedoed one of its submarines 26 March. Forty-six sailors died in the incident.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came out with a firm statement Monday backing South Korea and demanding that the North stop its “belligerant behaviour.” For the first time in several years the South Korean government intervened to support its currency, which fell sharply as fears grew over escalating tensions between the two Koreas.
Lindsey Vonn’s win in the Women’s Downhill and Shani Davis’s in the Men’s 1,000m Speedskating pushed the US to the top of the gold medals list at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver with four, while Germany, Korea and Switzerland each have three. Vonn is the first American to win the downhill, reports Reuters, and Davis the first man to win the 1,000 at successive Olympics.
Next stop, Nuuk. © 2008, Princess Cruises
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The breakup of Arctic pack ice due to global warming means an increasing number of icebergs drift into sea lanes in the North Atlantic, and 2009 was the eleventh most severe in that respect since 1912, the year the Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg.
An growing number of ships are venturing into seas at latitudes and in months that were impossible before. This increases the risks and the opportunities to shipping, and the need for up-to-date information and well-trained crews, according to a report by the International Ice Charting Working Group (IICWG) which met in Geneva at the World Meterological Organization 12-16 October.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nineteen countries have now secured their places in the Fifa World Cup finals to be held in South Africa in 2010 after the penultimate games in the qualification series. In the African group Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are through and six places are up for grabs. Australia, Japan and the two Koreas take the Asian places with one more team entering a playoff with New Zealand. Seven of the 13 European places are decided:
