World-Business/World news

Secretaries Chu, Salazar and Vilsack and Chairs Sutley and Wellinghoff announce energy and transmission policies at the Western Governors’ Association Annual Meeting

A few days ago, the mobile phone boarding pass service was introduced on all flights to the French Overseas Departments (Pointe à Pitre, Fort de France, Cayenne and Saint Denis de la Réunion). This service enables customers to board their flight with no other paper document apart from their passport, on departure from Paris-Orly.

As a part of an expansion program Turkish Airlines will increase the number of flights departing from Istanbul to various international cities including Peking, Shanghai, Beirut, Tunis, Skopje, Sanaa.

Siemens IT Solutions and Services provides the passport authorities in Austria with 900 scanners to record and manage digital fingerprints. Since the beginning of April, all passports issued in Austria have two fingerprints on the security chip in addition to a passport photo. The required software components were provided by Siemens.

AEGON has agreed to sell its Taiwanese life insurance business based on a valuation of approximately EUR 65 million, as per the end of 2008, to Zhongwei Company*.

It is now 30 years since production of the Mercedes-Benz G-Class began. The Stuttgart-based car maker first unveiled this robust off-roader to the public in 1979, since when it has delivered a total of some 200,000 units of the G-Class to customers around the world.

UNICEF is seeking $34.5 million to address urgent recovery needs for children and their families in Gaza. The request forms part of the UN appeal for $613 million to cover needs for over a nine-month period, launched today in Geneva.

Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak, one of the world's largest ever recorded, is far from being brought under control. An enhanced response is needed to urgently reverse an epidemic that has so far infected more than 60,000 people and killed more than 3,100 since August 2008.

Almost 5,000 people escaped their frigid homes last night in American Red Cross shelters in areas where utility companies are working to restore power to more than 770,000 homes and businesses still in the dark after this week's storm.

Saudi Arabia Launches Campaign To Provide Humanitarian Assistance to the People of Gaza

Congress will begin work this week on President-elect Barack Obama's new economic stimulus plan. The American Small Business League (ASBL) is predicting President-elect Obama's stimulus plan may contain provisions that will allow wealthy venture capitalists to receive billions of dollars in federal contracts earmarked for small businesses.

The New Year should begin well for elephants with eBay's worldwide ban on ivory products set to go into effect January 1, 2009.

Among its recent initiatives, the IOC, together with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has launched a project in Azerbaijan to clear outdoor sports areas of landmines.

Agency makes key recommendations in ongoing finalisation of National Development Plan (NDP)

For the fifth straight year, DHL, the world's leading express delivery and logistics company, is donating its services to deliver hundreds of holiday trees, decorations and messages of support to U.S. troops in the Middle East through DHL's annual Trees for Troops charitable program.

Fundraising Gala, Presented by Baccarat, to Take Place in New York City on Dec 3

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assist with the relief effort for the ongoing complex emergency.

Natural increase - more births than deaths - is now the major engine of Hispanic population growth in many large metro areas and their suburbs as well as numerous smaller metropolitan areas and rural communities, finds a new brief from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

Today the American Red Cross reached the halfway mark in its efforts to raise $100 million through its Campaign for Disaster Relief, which was launched in September to replenish the organization's Disaster Relief Fund.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) today joins with its partners in the international community to commemorate World Food Day.