Switzerland

Oil prices need to rise to allow for investment, energy chiefs say

Oil prices need to rise to allow for investment, energy chiefs say Davos, Switzerland - The drop in the price of oil is a result of the global economic downturn, energy chiefs said Thursday, but the fall has been too great and the current amount will not leave producing countries with enough capital for investment.

"The price is low because demand has fallen, because economic growth in most part of the world has stopped," said Tony Hayward, the head of BP.

Leaders reflect on ethical capitalism with economic news gloomy

World EconomyDavos, Switzerland - With the headlines screaming the glo

Swiss police order Tibetan flag removed from Davos shop

Dalai Lama named freeman of ParisDavos, Switzerland - Swiss police forced a Davos shop owner to remove a flag of Tibet from the window of her store, but she managed to keep writings of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan prayer books in the window, the shopkeeper told Swiss radio DRS Thursday.

UN chief Ban calls for urgent aid to Gaza

Ban demands Israel, Hamas stop fighting, heed UN resolution Davos, Switzerland - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the international community Thursday to provide quick assistance for the people in conflict-torn Gaza Strip.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ban issued a so-called flash appeal for urgently needed assistance worth 613 million dollars in order to help the 1.4 million Gaza residents.

Zimbabwe cholera outbreak races ahead; more than 3,000 dead

ZimbabweGeneva - Nearly two months after Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe declared that the cholera outbreak in his country had been "arrested" the number of dead continues to climb, passing 3,000 this week, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

As of Tuesday, 3,028 people had died and 57,702 become infected with the waterborne diarrhoeal disease.

That's 273 more dead and 9,079 more cases of infection than the last OCHA update six days ago.

UN agency: Tens of millions to lose jobs in 2009

unemploymentBangkok/Geneva - Global unemployment would increase by 18 million to 51 million people this year from 2007 figures, depending on the extent and length of the economic crisis, the International Labour Organization predicted Wednesday.

"We are now facing a global jobs crisis," the UN organization's director general Juan Somavia said in Geneva. "Progress in poverty reduction is unravelling, and middle classes worldwide are weakening. The political and security implications are daunting."

The organization has painted three scenarios for global unemployment in 2009, ranging from bad to worst.

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