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When France’s fast-food chain O’Tacos (www.o-tacos.fr) announced in 2020 that it would be selling in Italy its halal-certified French-style meat and vegetable wraps, Italian Muslims took this as a sign that halal was going mainstream in their country. O’Tacos’ first Italian outpost will open in January 2022 in Rome (delayed by Covid-19) and more openings in 2022 are planned in major Italian cities, including Milan and Bologna, said Yassin Baradai, founder of Milan-based Meem Communication (https://meemcommunication.com/…

Higher education institutions are being warned they could be a target for money laundering, with fees being financed by the proceeds of crime, including corruption, which might also buy property, cars and other items for students.

The problem has been highlighted in a series of reports.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) will start work in early 2022, based in Frankfurt, Germany, and Montréal, Canada, the IFRS Foundation Trustees have announced at the COP26 climate change meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. The trustees added that the new body would by next June (2022) incorporate the work of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) and the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF), which itself includes the Integrated Reporting Framework and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).…

Britain’s open register of beneficial ownership was groundbreaking worldwide but its effectiveness as a bulwark against money laundering is being debated, even as both the European Union (EU) and the US move ahead at varying pace to replicate the system. The question of whether BO registers should be open or closed is one that is being discussed in countries around the world.…

The Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a revision of the island’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Law, partly to help paint and coatings manufacturers maintain access to the European Union (EU) market. The reform will take account of the EU’s planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which may levy duties on products the EU deems have been made with excess carbon emissions.…

The increasing decriminalisation and legalisation of cannabis as a recreational and medicinal substance has encouraged the liberalisation of hemp as a fibre crop, whose use in some jurisdictions had been restricted because of laws against the plant’s chemically-active ingredients.

This is starting to change, most notably in the USA, which used to have severe anti-marijuana laws, but which now has 18 states that have legalised recreational cannabis use.…

Cryptocurrency innovation is moving fast, with AML/CFT-oriented financial institutions and law enforcement struggling to keep up as criminals exploit the system through newer technology such as decentralised finance and anonymous privacy coins.

The use of cryptocurrencies is surging, and is increasingly being adopted in more, often unregulated, markets.…

INTRODUCTION

In a global textile and clothing market that is increasingly integrating design with functionality, the potential of luminescent yarns is becoming ever more apparent. The focus of groundbreaking research and development, there is widening diversity in this segment from luminescent coatings on yarns to those that integrate LEDs (light-emitting diodes).…

INTRODUCTION

In a highly technical textile sector segment such as the manufacture of compressed garments, the use of detailed standards to guide production is not just useful in guaranteeing quality output, it can help manufacturers and brands’ marketing. Where products are associated with international, regional, national and private standards, this builds confidence in consumers, promoting sales.…

THE COVID-19 pandemic’s boom in web usage has created opportunities for hackers and fraudsters to attack the unwary through electronic networks, however, on the plus side the scope for open-source intelligence (OSINT) inquiries online to reveal useful information about these criminals is growing.…

The Covid-19 pandemic that accelerated e-commerce by an estimated five years will also lead to an increase in on-shoring for the US textile industry through sustainable digital printing, especially attracting millennial and Gen-Z consumers, say industry insiders.

Tight profit margins in the textile-garment sector mean it makes “no sense” to rely on an overseas supply chain when runs as short as half a yard of fabric can be carried out with digital print technology, argued Mike Scrutton, director print technology and strategy at California-based Adobe, which provides innovative software for digital textile printers

Moreover, Kathryn Sanders, CEO of Western Sensibility, a digital textile printing company based in Montana, described changes such technology is making to the US textile industry as “very powerful” and “incredible”, adding some American manufacturers and designers are “banking on this being the future”.…

Even though life has been increasingly lived online during the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still a significant market for hardware surveillance devices, including those that are covert, with recording devices hidden in everyday objects, such as pens, watches, even water bottles.…

INTRODUCTION

The COVID-19 pandemic has had many profound social and economic impacts, but maybe one of the most important for the clothing and textile sector has been how it encouraged the meshing of design and function in products.

With consumers staying at home, they have looked for apparel to provide comfort as much as formal elegance, of more importance when working in an office or attending public evening events.…

The European Commission has published details of the first themed grant calls in Horizon Europe, its seven-year EUR95.5 billion 2021-7 research funding programme, including at least six with obvious relevance to the textiles industry. The six calls are worth around EUR140 million in total, to be spent over the course of 2021-2022.…

Long after the January 10, 2020, deadline set by the European Union’s (EU) 5^th anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD) (1) for member states to establish public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) registers, a Transparency International (TI) report (2) has alleged widespread non-compliance.…

The May (2021) acquisition by Irish animal health products firm Bimeda, of Seattle, USA-based AquaTactics Fish Health was low profile, but significant in highlighting Irish ambitions in the global aquaculture industry. The sector is growing globally, with production increasing to replace declining wild fishery stocks, in many cases fished to their maximum sustainable levels.…

THE WIDE diversity of AML laws worldwide can complicate the enforcement of AML/CFT extradition proceedings.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations 37 and 39 say that governments should be prepared to extradite money launderers (and terrorist financiers) to another country if they both criminalise the underlying predicate offence.…

EMPLOYERS who fear they are being fleeced by a corrupt employee or being hacked externally do not just need to find the attacker, they must comply with data protection and privacy protections while they conduct their investigations. Breaching such laws can undermine any criminal or civil case brought against a fraudster or hacker or can weaken inside dismissal and disciplinary negotiations with the offender.…

FASHION brands and clothing retailers have seen their supply chains struggle under lockdown measures imposed by governments trying to contain Covid-19. The shutdowns, of course, began just in time for 2020’s spring season, causing maximum disruption. 

According to consulting firm McKinsey, 2020 was the fashion industry’s worst year on record, with a 90% decline in overall profits and almost three-quarters of registered firms globally making a loss.[1]…

The latest probe by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) into publicly accessible data held on Luxembourg’s ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) register – ‘OpenLux’ [1] – has alleged gaps in European Union (EU) requirements as well as the Grand Duchy’s own UBO provisions.…

REGULATIONS affecting what information can, should and cannot be placed on personal care product packaging are among the most demanding of compliance issues facing beauty manufacturers.

One reason is that this is both a very international field and a dynamic one – rules change all the time and vary widely from market to market.…

WHEN governments talk about how to reduce the risk of terrorism, the most oft-voiced policies are security-based: detecting and cracking down on extremist cells and targeting online propaganda.

But the reality is that a more effective way of reducing societies’ exposure to criminal groups seeking to achieve political ends through violence and fear is simply to make regular life more interesting.…

NEW integrated paint manufacturing units in India with an annual production capacity of less than Indian Rupees INR500 million (USD6.6 million) will soon be exempt from securing prior environment clearance by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). This rule, covering plants with production facilities for resins and pigments, is expected to come into force early next year (2021) once the central government formalises and gazettes a new Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification.…

Many of European Union’s 27 member states appear to have been dragging their feet when implementing a key provision of the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD) (1), setting up a public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) register.  The registers should have gone live for the corporate world on January 10, 2020, and two months later on March 10 for trusts.…

SOUTH Africa’s paints and coatings industry has been struggling though the particularly tough Covid-19 lockdown imposed by the country’s government, which saw its manufacturing plants and most paint retailers closed from March 26 until May 1.

What made this order worse was that from March 26 until May 1, homeowners were told to remain at home except for essential purchases, making it hard for them to help each other with renovations, swapping decoration equipment and more – preventing many from undertaking renovations during this enforced time off.…

IN Australia, the process of bringing the nation’s AML/CFT laws and regulations up to international standards has stalled, senior AML/CFT specialists have told MLB. And a widening banking scandal currently highlights the need for reform, they say, with Australian financial institutions struggling to detect and report money laundering and other criminal transactions.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is promoting digital technologies within air traffic management systems to shore up the efficiency of a global civil aviation sector severely disrupted by Covid-19. But there is doubt about whether these investments will be made by a pandemic-hit industry.…

The Covid-19 pandemic is set to drive a near threefold surge in the antiviral coatings market as researchers and developers say they now realise how little they know about effective materials combatting such threats.

The search for more universal antiviral materials “should be continued with even higher intensity”, said Professors Ken Ostrikov and Ziqi Sun from Queensland University of Technology, in Australia, in their September (2020) report, ‘Future antiviral surfaces: Lessons from COVID-19 pandemic’, featured in the publication ‘Sustainable Materials and Technologies’.…

THE WORLD has become used to large leaks of confidential data from intelligence services and banks, but the latest dump, from the files of the USA’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) may have impacts beyond the unveiling of wrongdoing. Keith Nuthall explains.…

The China National Coatings Industry Association (NCIA) on July 31 informed members that it has been told by the ministry of ecology and environment to investigate the production, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste in the coating industry and compile a management guide based on the investigation’s findings.…

UNPRECEDENTED demand for aluminium cans caused by consumers drinking at home during lockdowns and associated restaurant and café closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will not cause long term disruption to this key canning market, say industry experts. Instead, manufacturers will work closely with customers to maintain supplies, European and United States (US) industry organisations have told CanTech International.…

With the fall out from the Covid-19 pandemic set to prompt an increase in already staggeringly high levels of digital identity fraud, financial institutions and businesses should develop more sophisticated tools to tackle the issue, researchers have warned. The fact the disease has hit when open banking applications are proliferating means fraudsters have more portals to target “particularly through identity fraud” attacks, suggests a July (2020) report from financial platform Finextra in collaboration with software providers Feedzai, headquartered in Portugal (https://www.finextra.com/finextra-downloads/research/documents/148/how-to-prevent-payments-fraud-amid-global-disruption.pdf).…

With Nigeria continuing its lockdown closure of education institutions into late June, the country’s private universities are continuing to develop online learning, while many public universities are waiting for their physical facilities to reopen before restarting services. Access to such buildings by essential staff have eased from June 2, with Nigerian government loosening a nationwide curfew from 8pm and 6am, which will now be in force from 10pm to 4am until June 29.…

THE UK’s overseas territories are struggling with something of an existential crisis, as they face an effective 2023 deadline for introducing publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers that could undermine their ability to offer confidential financial services to companies and wealthy individuals.…

ACCESSING the dark web once demanded some computing expertise. But dark web search engines and browsers continue being developed, guiding potential users to this encrypted corner of the web where commercial criminals ply their wares and illicit businesses avoid taxes. How should legitimate companies react?…

While it is too early to assess the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the UK personal care product sector, industry experts expect strategic changes to its supply chain, a growth towards innovative digital strategies and changes in consumer behaviour that will shape the industry in the long run.…

WANT to check the dark web for illicit services? Search engines accessible from the public web offer links to the dark web. One example is Finland-based Ahmia (https://ahmia.fi/), which yields interesting results from searches such as https://ahmia.fi/search/?q=hacking. A more recent variant that has attracted attention from the IT security press is Kilos – http://dnmugu4755642434.onion…

INTRODUCTION – SERIES

A series of reports from WTiN is exploring the need for the textile and clothing sector to protect itself against attacks from cybercriminals as it invests in new transformative Industry 4.0 technologies – extended reality, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.…

Only five European Union (EU) member states out of the current 27 have fully and properly complied with a requirement to set up public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) registers by January 10 (2020) under the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD), according to research by campaign group Global Witness.…

CHINESE consumers, especially in younger generations such as Millennials and Generation Z, are increasingly concerned with eating healthily- and that includes snack choices. In a trend that may increase following the Covid-19 outbreak, sales of yoghurts, nut snacks and snack bars have all seen soaring growth in sales in recent years.…

INTRODUCTION – SERIES

A series of reports from WTiN is exploring the need for the textile and clothing sector to protect itself against attacks from cybercriminals as it invests in new transformative Industry 4.0 technologies – extended reality, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.…

Indonesia’s industry ministry launched an initiative in February (2020) aimed at eliminating lead used in paint made and sold in the country. It involves the Indonesian paint industry, is part of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) project and is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an international investment body.…

AS the afternoon heat ebbs in the middle of this Indian summer, a police team block a major highway outside the city of Nashik, in the western state of Maharashtra, rolling in wheeled yellow-coloured barricades. Soon a traffic jam builds up and policemen move from one car to another in search for cash, often hidden in door cavities or spare wheels.With…

THE GERMAN personal care products market turned out to be an “element of stability” in an otherwise sluggish economy in 2019, according to the country’s cosmetics industry association Industrieverband Köperpflege- und Waschmittel (IKW). German consumers spent EUR14.04 billion (USD15.55 billion) on personal care products, including shampoo and decorative cosmetics in the past year, 1.8% more than in 2018.…

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are being touted as game-changing solutions to improve the detection of financial crimes, including AML/CFT, but despite some promising results there are obstacles to roll-out, not least regulators’ ability to green-light new technologies as well as effectively utilise the data they produce.…

With Pakistan’s digital textile printing industry production growing at an average of at least 5% annually in recent years, according to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), with the country’s digital textile printing industry being an important focus of investment in a sometimes-troubled textile sector.…

Beauty markets in sub-Saharan Africa are becoming more sophisticated, and with this comes an increasing desire by consumers to use cosmetics that better match their own skin and hair characteristics, rather than utilising products that of more universal appeal.

Nigeria’s personal care product industry continues to grow, and given its population is the largest in Africa – now estimated by the United Nations at 200 million – this market inevitably has the most potential in the continent.…

As internet-enabled devices proliferate, there are some 400,000 new malware (malicious software) samples a day being released, according to Paul Ducklin, a principal research scientist at Sophos, a British security software and hardware company.

There are currently more than 7 billion devices connected to the internet, a number forecast to reach 10 billion by 2020, according to Germany-based internet of things consultants IoT Analytics.…

The new so-called European Union (EU) sixth anti-money laundering directive that harmonises penalties for money laundering across the bloc is a key back up to the EU’s existing AML legislation. While dubbed the sixth anti-money laundering directive (6AMLD), Directive (EU) 2018/1673 on combating money laundering by criminal law (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2018/1673/oj…

A harmonisation of regulatory frameworks and increased sharing of data between financial institutions may help overcome the “metronomic tension” within financial businesses balancing effective fraud detection and low user friction, say experts. With more challenger banks delivering services, real-time checks based on artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics may ensure the speed customers expect in digital transactions does not compromise security, including during onboarding.…

THE CHINESE government has from September 1 imposed 5% additional retaliatory duties on US exports of paint to China, in the latest round of the trade war between the two countries. The new tariffs cover products such as polyester, acrylic, ethylene and polyeurathane powdered paints; acrylic, polymer and vinyl liquid paints; and more – see http://gss.mof.gov.cn/zhengwuxinxi/zhengcefabu/201908/P020190823604938915640.pdf…

HONG Kong’s government has released tax measures to support an economy buffeted by political protests, the US-China trade war and headwinds from a potential hard Brexit. Its financial secretary announced that 27 groups of government fees and charges would be waived for 12 months to benefit sectors including maritime, logistics, retail, catering, tourism, construction, agriculture and fisheries businesses.…

HONG Kong’s government has released tax measures to support an economy buffeted by political protests, the US-China trade war and headwinds from a potential hard Brexit. Its financial secretary announced that 27 groups of government fees and charges would be waived for 12 months to benefit sectors including maritime, logistics, retail, catering, tourism, construction, agriculture and fisheries businesses.…

THE EUROPEAN Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has started looking for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that it may advise be restricted internationally through the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and hence within the European Union (EU).

This new role for the agency, which could impact the use and availability of coatings and their chemical ingredients, was mandated under a new EU regulation on persistent organic pollutants (POP), that came into force in June – see https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32019R1021&from=EN…

THE TRADE war between the USA and China that has seen both sides impose a wide range of duties on each other’s exports has depressed Australian wool prices though a reduction in demand from key Chinese buyers.

Australian Council of Wool Exporters and Processors executive director Peter Morgan told just-style that the Washington-Beijing stand-off has come during other events depressing wool sales: “Events such as the US, China trade wars, US, India trade disputes, the US, Iran political tensions and the negative rhetoric during the recent G20 meeting” have been  disruptive and this obviously “effect global economic confidence,” he said.…

SURVEILLANCE and detection are becoming increasingly high-tech, especially when fighting financial crime. But experts still think combining human expertise with new artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analysis is the smartest way to unmask commercial crime. Sarah Gibbons and Sara Lewis report.…

The rules amend existing restrictions in the REACH chemicals regulation 1907/2006. They set maximum concentration limits for chemicals “particularly harmful in case of frequent contact with human skin”, the Commission said in an October 10 press note.

Permitted levels range from 1mg/kg for cadmium, chromium, arsenic, and lead to 3,000mg/kg for N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF).…

Regulators have started to actively encourage financial institutions to experiment and use machine learning to detect suspicious activity.

US regulatory authorities have called for innovative approaches to meet AML compliance obligations “to further strengthen the financial system against illicit activity”.

In a joint statement, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; USA FIU the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN); the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced their support for innovative technology development last December.…

Regulators have started to actively encourage financial institutions to experiment and use machine learning to detect suspicious activity.

US regulatory authorities have called for innovative approaches to meet AML compliance obligations “to further strengthen the financial system against illicit activity”.

In a joint statement, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; USA FIU the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN); the National Credit Union Administration, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced their support for innovative technology development last December.…

WITH the Carbon Trust defining energy management as the use of technology to improve energy performance of an organisation within their holistic management processes, the need to tap data banks of expertise can only help in framing and operating such policies.…

THE PERSONAL care product sector has an increasingly complex and global supply chain and as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and retailers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

THE BALTIC States, being European Union (EU) member states adjacent to Russia and Belarus have been exploited by Russian criminals as a gateway for their illicit funds into the EU and beyond.

This is despite that as EU member states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must implement EU anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance legislation.…

THE INDUSTRIAL minerals mining and processing sector and its customers has an increasingly complex and global supply chain and as a result, international technical standards are growing in utility and importance. Where suppliers and retailers follow and require the use of international standards to guide their operations and products, there will be fewer nasty surprises, in orders and purchases.…

AFRICA is without doubt the continent to watch for airport and air traffic control investment in the future. It is the world’s second most populous continent (home to more than 1.2 billion people), and according to Airports Council International (World) – ACI World – Africa was the fastest growing region for air passenger traffic in 2017 and 2018, which rose 6.3% in 2017 year-on-year and 10.8% in 2018 to June year-to-date, year-on-year.…

THE LEGALISATION nationwide of recreational cannabis in Canada last October (2018) was a groundbreaking move – a first for a major western country – and from this coming October 17, at the latest, one that may have significant implications for the beauty business.…

INDIAN authorities have seized more than USD120 million’s worth of unaccounted cash during the six-week long general election that concluded in May [2019]. Law enforcers have warned that this could be for vote buying, making a future government susceptible to corruption, promoting graft in business.…

THE INTERNATIONAL paint and coatings sector is not just under increasing regulatory pressure to reduce the amount of toxins in its products, but it continues to actively remove such potentially harmful elements – it is good for consumers and hence, business.…

INTERNATIONAL efforts are under way to improve how airports can serve as effective humanitarian logistics hubs, reducing the risk that they become bottlenecks in disaster relief efforts. These moves follow research and a growing consensus in the air and aid sectors that while airports are undoubtedly a lifeline during crises, they can also hamper the efficient delivery of aid to victims.…

This year’s edition of Italy’s premier beauty trade fair, Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna (March 15-18) and its packaging “show within the show” Cosmopack have showcased innovations that will help pull the global personal care product sector towards a more sustainable future.

The 52nd edition of the successful B2B platform drew over 265,000 cosmetic beauty professionals, boasting an increase in visitors from abroad by 10% compared to the previous year.…

BOTH France and Germany are facing legal action by the European Commission over their failure to implement the European Union’s (EU) 2015 fourth anti-money laundering directive (AMLD – 2015/849) correctly.

While both countries have written the legislation into national law, the EU’s executive has concluded that certain provisions are missing.…

With more than 5.48 billion (see https://www.worldwidewebsize.com) pages on the internet, fraud investigators have a wealth of material at their fingertips to help trace fraudsters and link target individuals, objects, locations and events. Thankfully, there are also increasingly sophisticated sites and tools available online to make this task more efficient and less time-consuming.…

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) maybe the focus of hype in anti-fraud circles, but specialists insist that as AI systems are refined, they will create effective tools for financial institutions, governments and large companies.

Sundeep Tengur, London-based banking fraud and financial crime specialist within the global fraud and security practice of US-headquartered analytics software producers SAS Institute Inc, noted in a blog on the Fintech Extra site last April last year that the financial services industry has witnessed “considerable hype” around AI.…

EMBATTLED Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has launched appeal proceedings against a mammoth USD4.69 billion judgement as it fights on to salvage its reputation amid increasing claims its Baby Powder causes cancer.

Dubbed by one attorney as the biggest public health scandal after tobacco, the American personal care product giant is currently fending off almost 12,000 other lawsuits.…

MANUFACTURERS and users of chemicals made from minerals, and chemical mineral processing agents within the European Union (EU), will from January 2020 have to check whether the chemicals they use contain nanoparticles. If they do, they will have to assess their safety and report the results to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).…

EUROPEAN Union (EU) textile finishers and their suppliers will from January 2020 have to check whether the chemicals they use contain nanoparticles, and if they do, assess their safety and report the results to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). This follows the release of a new EU regulation on nanoforms amending EU chemical control system REACH which will apply to all current REACH registered chemicals and any subject to new registration applications.…

BLOCKCHAIN technology may be being examined hard by the anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) sector, but AML/CFT experts warn against its swift widespread adoption, stressing that while regtech innovation is important, adopters must make sure it does not “compromise the safety and soundness of the financial eco system”.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is working with European ATC organisation Eurocontrol to design a globally accessible repository of urgent messages and related situational data showing emergency services the location of a plane at risk of crashing. This system would, if the project is successful, come on line as a prototype by February 2020, and be operational by the January 2021 enforcement of a second tranche of air navigation reporting requirements, designed to prevent a recurrence of tragedies such as the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370.…

With different forms of fraud skyrocketing, demand for surveillance is not only growing but becoming more diverse, with companies offering services ranging from old-fashioned stakeouts to high-tech detection. A Market Guide for Online Fraud Detection, released in January (2018) by research and advisory firm Gartner Inc, forecasts that the fraud detection and prevention marketplace is expected to grow significantly by 2022.…

THE DRAFT Brexit agreement that has caused political controversy in the UK, but which the European Union (EU) insists is its final offer, would not – if approved – guarantee British membership of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

There have been calls for the UK to remain within ECHA and its REACH chemical control system, if the UK quits the EU, as planned on March 29.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has adopted a regulation* tightening use restrictions for 33 carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR) substances in clothing and textiles.

The rules amend existing restrictions in the REACH chemicals regulation 1907/2006. They set maximum concentration limits for chemicals “particularly harmful in case of frequent contact with human skin”, the Commission said in an October 10 press note.…

WHILE crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero and the others have built their reputation and success of the reliability of their blockchain-based transaction records, it does not mean that these financial systems are immune to fraud. Indeed, fraudsters have found ample opportunities to exploit and subvert the eco-system that surrounds cryptocurrencies.…

WITH an estimated USD1.5 trillion lost to the global economy because of bribes, the World Bank is pushing for a diverse array of technology to be deployed – it is a call being answered with anti-graft systems being installed worldwide.

Reducing corruption “is a priority” for the World Bank, it said in a briefing note in September 2017.…

DEBATES are now underway at the European Union (EU) on a proposed revamp of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a programme for 2021 to 2027 that would exclude Brexited Britain. As a result of losing UK contributions to the EU from next March (2019), funding for the CAP would fall by around 5% to EUR365 billion, with EUR265.2 billion spent on direct payments for food producers, EUR20 billion for market price support measures and EUR78.8 billion for rural development.…

An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose such registers on its OTs by this deadline, if the local administrations have not created their own. The UK currently has the world’s only public beneficial ownership register – but it only covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – see http://ownershiptransparency.com/…

AN INNOVATIVE air traffic management switch from land-based ATC services using classic vectoring, to a performance-based navigation (PBN) arrangement using airliner satellite positioning and RNP-AR (required navigation performance – authorisation required) has dramatically increased the traffic capacity of El Dorado International Airport, Bogotá, Colombia.…

EASTERN Europe offers some significant advantages as regards digital fabric printing – it has a high skilled workforce, reliable utilities and transport, access to western European markets, and comparatively low wages.

Its fabric producers also look for technological niches that allow them to compete with Asian manufacturers on quality and western European companies on cost – and digital textile printing as a result is popular.…

THERE are growing calls for Hong Kong-based recruiters to re-think and speed up their hiring processes, after a latest study found that they are losing the best talent to unnecessary HR decision delays.

More than 72% of 500 Hong Kong job seekers have taken a second job “because their preferred employer took too long to give them an answer,” recruitment specialist Robert Half found in a study published last month (May 17).…

CIVIL rights groups in the United States have been making progress in securing court rulings hindering customs and border security agents from searching electronic devices at international borders, including airports.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and others, have been seeking to leverage the 2014 Supreme Court ‘US v Riley’ judgement, which said police must obtain a warrant to search mobile phones of arrested people – https://www.eff.org/document/riley-wurie-supreme-court-opinions…

A VOTE by the UK parliament to insist that Britain’s overseas territories introduce publicly available beneficial ownership registers by December 31, 2020, has sparked anger and dismay within these autonomous, mainly small island, jurisdictions.

An amendment to a UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill requires the British government to impose such registers on its OTs by this deadline, if the local administrations have not created their own.…

THE HIMALAYAN kingdom of Bhutan may have a ban on smoking in public spaces under the Tobacco Control Act of 2010, but it is not hard to find smokers flouting this law. The legislation specified sporting centres as public spaces under the act, but when Tobacco Journal International visited the national stadium in the capital Thimphu to watch the opening game of this season’s Bhutan Pepsi Football League on April 21, it followed young fans walk to washroom at half-time to light up smuggled cigarettes.…

A DRAFT European Commission regulation amending European Union (EU) chemical control system REACH is to insist that chemical manufacturers using nanoparticles must consider the special potential environmental health impact of using them in their products.

These proposals have been backed by the European Chemical Agency’s (ECHA) REACH committee.…

WITH the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) about to hold a new plenary on June 27-29, jointly with the FATF-style regional body from the Middle East and North Africa (MENAFATF), the global AML body is assessing its new operational plan for terrorist financing.…

THE ORGANISERS of Italy’s premier beauty trade fair, Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, are claiming a record number of visitors and international buyers attending this year’s 51st edition of the event from March 15-19. Exceeding the 250,000 visitors from last year’s Cosmoprof, attending foreign buyers, distributors and retail representatives grew 11% in 2018, year-on-year.…

THE SOUTH Korean cosmetics market, currently evaluated by Frost & Sullivan at USD12.4 billion and growing at 7% year-on-year, is leaving behind the negative effects of a de facto boycott by Chinese tourists. The travel freeze, sparked by Seoul’s decision to install a US-made anti-missile system to protect itself from North Korea, has been in place since early 2017.…

WILL Brexit increase money laundering through the UK, or will the British government’s October 2017 Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill (SAMLB) and the UK money laundering regulations 2017 adequately replace the European Union’s (EU) anti-money laundering directives (AMLD)?

British Labour member of the European Parliament (MEP) Claude Moraes has his doubts.…

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI)-led candidate screening or simply put, automated recruitment is ready to take off in east and south-east Asia. However, a key challenge in the process is making automated interactions valuable and engaging enough for candidates – so that “they don’t feel like they are talking to a dumb machine,” an industry expert said.…

AUSTRALIA may have been strengthening its anti-money laundering (AML) systems, but an admission last year (2017) by the country’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), about AML failures was a clear reminder that reforms are still needed. The Commonwealth Bank admitted that it had breached Australian AML laws 53,700 times.…

THE UK may have a formal relationship with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) after its planned March 29, (2019) departure from the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May has signalled in a detailed policy speech. Speaking in the City of London, she said: “We will also want to explore with the EU, the terms on which the UK could remain part of EU agencies…” And while not naming EFSA, she said – in theory – she was prepared to allow the UK to be bound by the rules of EU agencies, post-Brexit. …

THE IMPORTANCE of Brazil as the world’s top supplier of internationally-traded tobacco leaf and manufactured products has been waning for the past decade, with India, notably, improving its position. New statistical analysis released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) shows that this market share fall for Brazil also represented a decline in volume sales, given the global trade in tobacco leaf and products has shrunk since 2013 – until 2016, the year for which the latest data is available.…

MAJOR shifts in the power of exporting countries within the meat and livestock sector in the past decade have been identified in new statistical analysis released by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The global body has noted how India between 2006 and 2016 became a bovine meat export power house (notably in buffalo meat) with overseas sales rising from 79,400 tonnes (1.9% of world exports) to 1.2 million tonnes (18.7%) and the world’s largest exporter to boot.…

ONLINE-savvy cosmetics consumers are becoming more adventurous – gone are the days that they would only trust the quality of traditional brands bought sight unseen on the web. Instead, consumers are investigating product ingredients carefully, as well as online reviews, and armed with such information, are often choosing to buy emerging, smaller brands over those established, known ones.…

BEET and cane sugar exports from the European Union (EU) boomed in 2017, the year production quotas were scrapped (on September 30), according to figures released by the European Commission. They rose by 42.9% year-on-year, up from EUR631 million in 2016 to EUR902 million in 2017.…

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors, has highlighted concerns about how Chinese knitwear exporters maybe exploiting loopholes in EU customs and VAT controls to evade paying proper amounts of these taxes.

In a report on shortcomings in EU import procedures, the court noted how Chinese traders were abusing EU customs procedure CP42, which allows an importer to bring goods into one EU member state without paying VAT, because they will be sold in another EU country.…

Australia has today (January 16) requested formal talks with Canada at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where it will pressure the Canadian government to liberalise wine trading restrictions in four of Canada’ provinces. These are British Columbia (BC), Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.…

TARGETING online fraud as businesses, government and consumers increasingly conduct business and transactions via the Internet is an increasing priority for anti-fraud technology providers.

Real-time identification of potential frauds is a key focus of new systems developed and released in the past year.…

The programme called ‘”From School To Work” Buddy Programme’, initiated by the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM), is set to be rolled out in January 2018 – marking the institute’s 40^th anniversary.

The six months long programme will offer “one-on-one, peer-to-peer mentoring and coaching for HR students in their final year of study in universities and academic institutions about career aspirations and goals,” HKIHRM president David Li said.…

Saudi Arabia’s efforts to liberalise its society and economy are positively affecting the local beauty market. Ever since the global plunge in oil prices that led to the shrinking of the state’s budget, the kingdom’s government has embarked upon major economic reform.…

With its history of currency counterfeiting, drug trafficking, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the laundering of related proceeds and payments, there is surely no state worldwide that has a worse money laundering track record than that of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea).…

HUMAN resources experts in Asia have challenged the widely-held belief that recruiting more and more younger ‘digital natives’ who grew up in the Internet age is the best answer to technological developments completely transforming traditional work environments.

Personnel specialists in the tech-innovation-driven economies of Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia believe that an older more experienced workforce might actually be more beneficial to organisations mastering digital development challenges.…

MORE could be done by the Indonesian government to improve the opportunities for job seekers as unemployment figures continue to rise, say HR experts.

While the IT sector is set to drive the economy forward, the skillsets of local would-be employees are still lacking and a push is required towards stepping up education levels, they warned.…

HUMAN Resources experts across east and southeast Asia need to rethink what can be overly-automated hiring processes, lacking in personal touch, say some experts. Indeed, there is a need to rehumanise the candidate experience, according to a new study which found that too much automation puts off prospective candidates rather than attracts them.…

CHINA’S imposition of temporary safeguard duties to protect its sugar industry have been challenged at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with sugar giant Brazil arguing Beijing’s tariffs break global commerce rules. In a signal that Brazil might be considering launching a disputes case against China, diplomats for the South American country told a WTO safeguards committee meeting that the duties broke the WTO agreement on safeguards and the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT). …

PANAMA has been reforming its anti-money laundering (AML) regulations at a rapid rate as it tries to change perceptions of the country as a hub of money laundering and tax evasion. However, with serious loopholes remaining and grave doubts over its lack of investigative capacity, it remains some way from shedding its unwanted reputation.…

SINGAPORE may be a global hub for business but the city state’s ministry of manpower is keen to ensure that its employers consider Singaporeans fairly for local jobs when recruiting. And currently there are nearly 300 companies placed on a government watchlist for not doing so, a ministry spokesperson told People Management.…

DUBLIN-based accountancy firm BDO is planning to start a new EUR100 million investment fund to assist fast expanding mid-sized Irish companies in unlocking further growth opportunities. This will be the successor fund to an already existing BDO Development Capital Fund (DCF) worth EUR75 million.…

THE ARAB Spring, for all its faults, inconsistencies and disappointments, has delivered the world one thriving open and pluralistic Arab society – Tunisia – where women especially have seized new freedoms and spending power. This is reflected in spending on spa and salon services in the country, where, according to market researcher Euromonitor International, in the year of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution the turnover of the Tunisian spa sector was just USD32.4 million.…

IN a cutting-edge area of the textile sector such as digital manufacturing, planning and distribution, it is always helpful to know what the gold standard is for performance. But with technologies still developing and innovation taking hardware and software in directions that are untested – with implications that are as yet unknown – companies may not want to follow the crowd.…

THE IMPOVERISHED south-east Asian kingdom of Cambodia shares porous borders with the significantly more dynamic economies of Thailand and Vietnam, is notorious for corruption, has a large casino sector and generates significant earnings from illegal exports.

This precarious mixture of factors has since 2012 consecutively earned Cambodia a spot in the Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index (from the Basel Institute on Governance) top-10 risk jurisdictions for money laundering.…

MOST of East Asia’s dynamic economies have traditionally relied on expats and there are no readily discernible signs that this is decreasing.

In Vietnam, which has been benefitting from production lines migrating from China amid rapidly rising labour and land costs there, increasing the number of expats six-fold since 2004 to almost 100,000 in 2016, the shortage of engineers and managers can be seen throughout most sectors.…

A MAJOR international anti-counterfeiting action ‘Operation Renegade’ did not just seize more than 70,000 counterfeit auto spare parts, oil and air filters, grills, and fuel pumps, and nearly 600 cylinders of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants, it yielded valuable anti-smuggling and counterfeiting information.…

QATAR is a small country, roughly half the size of Wales and with a population of 2.5 million. But what it lacks in demography and geography, it makes up for in spending power – and its significant cosmetic surgery industry is a key beneficiary.…

AN EXPERT from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has told businesses in the city state that they need to work harder to ensure they pay women and men equally for the same for level of work.

Its call came after a study found that Singapore’s gender pay gap has not improved in the last decade.…

IN east Asia’s complex ethnic mix of peoples, the need to avoid racial discrimination which may undermine social stability is understood clearly by governments and businesses. And while experts agree that progress is being made is tackling this potentially corrosive personnel problem, more certainly could be done.…

TEXTILE finishers in Brazil should take heed of local consumers’ demand for complex and colourful design in fabrics, traders at SAARA, Rio de Janeiro’s biggest open-air market, have told WTiN.com.

Grassroots interviews at this market in the city’s historic centre said Brazil’s mass market fabric tastes eschew simplicity – the market, originally founded by immigrants at the end of the 19^th century, is a medley of shopfronts selling everything from sports equipment and beach chairs to makeup and plastic jewellery.…

Myanmar human resources managers are facing a challenge managing a flood of qualified professionals return home from abroad in the past half-decade, with the country’s government transitioning from military to civilian rule and opening up the economy.

At first it may seem that Myanmar returnees – so called ‘re-pats’ – would be ideally placed to prosper in a local business environment.…

THE GROWING importance of computer apps (applications) in fraud investigation has been highlighted at an expert conference – Forensics Europe Expo, the annual exhibition for the international and digital forensic communities held at the Olympia exhibition centre in London in May.…

Open source intelligence (OSINT) is becoming an increasingly attractive tool of choice for lawmakers and other bodies investigating and trying to prevent fraud. With so much data now available online, OSINT’s rich seam of data from newspapers, radio and television, academic papers, government and other public records, and commercial websites can provide exceptionally valuable information, especially when analysed by sophisticated big data analysis software. …

EU MINISTERS APPROVE DOUBLE TAXATION REDUCTION SYSTEM

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has agreed a directive insisting that member states establish an effective system for resolving EU double taxation disputes. The system requires dispute resolution mechanisms to be mandatory and binding, with clear time limits.…

THE DIFFICULTIES that have surged in the diplomatic relations between the Mexican government and the new US administration of President Donald Trump have increased uncertainty within the Mexican personal care product market and industry.

With Mexico facing US demands to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with the risk of the US imposing temporary safeguard duties on Mexican exports to protect American manufacturers, companies in Mexico are seeking to boost domestic consumption.…

SALES of personal fragrance products maybe on the rise among the 1.4 billion people market of mainland China, but thus far, growth is still almost solely attributable to millennials residing in the big cities, market researchers say.

Retail sales of personal perfume products grew by 8.9% in the whole of 2016 from the previous year to just Chinese Yuan Renminbi CNY6.1 billion (USD885 million), with the competitive landscape remaining firmly in the hand of foreign players, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

EU PROPOSES BOOSTING ANTICARTEL POWERS OF NATIONAL EUROPEAN COMPETITION AUTHORITIES

A DIRECTIVE has been proposed by the European Commission that would ensure that national competition authorities across the European Union (EU) have a minimum level of powers enabling them to enforce EU antitrust laws.…

GERMANY’S paint and coatings companies, backed by the country’s formidable research organisation the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM), are pushing forward with developing innovative environment-friendly products. They are developing water-based protective coatings, sustainable coatings, biocide-substituting microbial protection and radiation curing, among other initiatives in the search to develop new products. …

Promoting women to corporate boards within the Middle East and elsewhere can directly improve profitability and change the way a company approaches its market, participants at a recent networking breakfast hosted by ACCA concurred.

Entitled ‘Women in Finance: beyond the numbers’, the event was held on February 2 at the Four Seasons resort hotel in Dubai and attended by senior finance professionals and leaders from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).…

Indonesian batik producers are turning to social media to boost sales, helping them maintain production when not only standard marketing and distribution channels are not delivering enough revenue but standalone websites and major e-commerce sites.

Rusydi Bawazir, producer of Nargis Batik Podhek, from Madura, East Java province, started online marketing three years ago by using website: nargis.web.id.…

A new European Union Observatory for Nanomaterials (EU-ON) database is set to go live in summer 2017. Its establishment will relieve the cosmetics industry which had feared earlier proposals to create a mandatory nanomaterials register, regarding it as a potential bureaucratic nightmare.…

Russia’s economic woes are well-documented, yet, rather than mirroring the financial downturn, its personal care market and industry has remained comparatively healthy. Beneath these encouraging figures, however, strong currents appear to be instigating long-term changes to the sector, notably an increasing preference for cheaper products by hard-pressed consumers.…

United Arab Emirates

Population 9.1 million – 2015

GDP 2015 – USD370 billion (up 3.2% on previous year)

Projected 2016 GDP growth – 2%

Size of non-oil economy 2015 – 66% (IMF)

Proportion of local nationals in private sector – 1% (LSE estimates 2014)

Saudi Arabia

Population 31.5 million – 2015

GDP 2015 – USD646 billion (up 3.5% on previous year)

Projected 2016 GDP growth – 1.86%

Size of non-oil economy 2014 – 57% (IMF )

Proportion of local nationals in private sector 2016 – 16% (Oxford Strategic Consulting)

Qatar

Population 2.2 million – 2015

GDP 2015 – USD166 billion (up 2.9% on previous year)

Projected 2016 GDP growth – 3.3%

Size of non-oil economy 2015 – 49% (IMF)

Proportion of local nationals in private sector 2014 – 5% – (Qatar Statistics Authority)

Bahrain

Population 1.3 million – 2015

GDP 2015 – USD32 billion (up 2.9% on previous year)

Projected 2016 GDP growth – 2.2%

Size of non-oil economy 2015 – 76% (IMF)

Proportion of local nationals in private sector 2013 – 18% (Bahrain’s Labour Market Regulatory Authority).…

COMPANIES and the financial professionals that work with them have many risks to worry about, but few can seem as menacing and as alien as the so-called ‘dark web’.

The Internet can be described as an iceberg: the websites and services most people use regularly are the tip, but there is an entire other, much larger world submerged below.…

The Internet can be described as an iceberg: the websites and services most people use on a regular basis are the tip sticking out of the water, and there’s an entire other, much larger world submerged below. This underwater portion generally goes by two names – the deep web and the dark net.…

BIG data means big money, especially for telecoms and internet companies. However, the fact that they are holding, collating, processing and monetising so much data makes heavy weather for IT-based anti-fraud systems. As a result, the siren song of cloud-based anti-fraud programmes is becoming increasingly attractive as companies look to scale up their protection to take account of growing datasets.…

THE SPANISH book sector has declared that it is optimistic about growth in sales at its annual LIBER International Book Fair, which wrapped up on Friday (Oct 14). A statement from the organisers said that there was a “positive feeling about the sector’s upswing”.…

THE CIVIL aviation industry and its suppliers are innovating solutions to comply with the new tracking rule from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) which came into force in July and will be compulsory for new planes with a take-off mass exceeding 27,000kg from January 2021.…

COSMETICS giant the Kao Group has opened a state of the art research facility at its existing plant in Odawara city, around 80 km south-west of Tokyo. Its new Beauty Research & Innovation Centre includes laboratory space where the company’s scientists, developers and marketing experts are encouraged to interact through technology in the search for new products.…

BIG marketing stunts can boost sales of technical textiles and maybe one of the biggest examples in Europe this year was created by world renowned artists Christo. He created ‘The Floating Piers’ on Lake Iseo, near Brescia, in northern Italy.…

Authorities in China are currently developing a new range of regulations aimed at efficacy claims that when passed will have a broad-ranging impact for domestic and foreign cosmetics manufacturers, alongside other regulations covering labelling and ethics. The proposed regulations are aimed at standardising the industry and providing a basis on which prosecutions can be brought in order to reduce safety concerns.…

WORKFORCE DEMOGRAPHICS

East Asia is a very varied region in terms of economic development. Take the 10 members of trade bloc ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations): with 632 million people, demographics greatly vary, from aging Singapore and Thailand, to the younger and emerging economies of Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.…

Autoparts researchers are developing the use of grasses, such as hemp or flax, to make tough bioplastics that are lightweight and also help reduce a vehicle’s carbon footprint by using a renewable resource as an input.

A key innovator is Bruce Dietzen, president of Renew Design, a Florida, USA-based company that produces custom-ordered cars whose body components are made from processing the outer stalk of hemp plants through combining it with a synthetic resin and placed in a mold.…

BRAZIL’S JBS, the giant meatpacker and meat processing company, has been arguing it has not been harmed by raids carried out by Brazilian police earlier this month, dubbed ‘Operation Sepsis’, part of the country’s ongoing ‘Lavo Jato’ corruption investigations.

Brazilian media has reported that on July 1 federal officers searched the São Paulo home of Joesley Batista, CEO of J&F Investimentos, the parent company of JBS.…

Significant European Union (EU) company law changes are set to add to the training challenge for non-executive directors who are working on boards outside their home country. The difficulties are compounded where flexibility for member states or companies to implement directives, regulations and recommendations adds local nuances to the know-how required to serve on a board in a jurisdiction with which a director is not previously familiar.…

Significant European Union (EU) company law changes are set to add to the training challenge for non-executive directors who are working on boards outside their home country. The difficulties are compounded where flexibility for member states or companies to implement directives, regulations and recommendations adds local nuances to the know-how required to serve on a board in a jurisdiction with which a director is not previously familiar.…

THE UK’s personal care and cosmetics industry faces uncertainty and potential future trade challenges with the European Union (EU) following the 52% to 48% June 23 referendum vote to leave the EU. “No longer being part of a single market for the free circulation of goods and no longer being a key player in the development of legislation governing those goods will be a major challenge to the cosmetics industry as it will be to all other sectors of the UK industry,” Chris Flower, director-general of the UK’s Cosmetic, Toiletry & Perfumery Association (CTPA), told Soap Perfumery and Cosmetics.…

Seizures of contraband cosmetics have become an increasingly common sight on local TV in China. A recent case in point (this March – 2016) saw 1,488 boxes of South Korean cosmetics seized from a forty-foot container in the east coast port city of Qinhuangdao, about 300km east of Beijing.…

ITALY’S textile, finishing and clothing sectors have been given detailed guidance on reducing the toxicity of its manufacturing processes, with advice being released by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (the National Chamber for Italian Fashion), following wide industry consultation.…

With the desire for packaging beauty being an integral part of north-east Asian consumer culture, it is perhaps no surprise that Japanese and South Korean cosmetics companies have led the way with compacts – whose popularity is spreading worldwide.

The ultimate combination of utility and design, when Japanese cosmetics companies start developing a new compact product, its packaging needs to meet two basic requirements: it has to delight the user with the way it looks, and it must be easy and convenient to use.…

Experts predict artificial intelligence-based technology may underpin anti-money laundering (AML) measures within the next decade. With artificial intelligence (AI), or cognitive computing, services already providing significant applications in the financial crime prevention industry, several companies have begun developing and commercialising AI-based technology for AML.…

BRAZIL may have emerged the world’s largest sun care market in terms of sales in 2014, pushing past the United States (US), according to market researchers Euromonitor International. And the country may retain its suncare crown – sales are expected to continue growing between 2014 and 2019, albeit at a slower pace compared its growth between 2009 and 2014. …

A shortage of raw materials and domestic equipment is making import substitution difficult for the Russian textile sector. Indeed, instead of seeing rising production amidst increased rhetoric about localising production, fabric output has slumped across all categories. According to industry insiders, manufacturers are still years away from replacing imports with locally-made products.…

THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMA) is to stage assessments of the effectiveness of its medical literature monitoring service in this coming year to ensure the effectiveness of this pharmacovigilance service.  An independent audit of the system’s internal quality management, controls and its output will be conducted early this year (2016).…

MILLENNIAL CONSUMERS ARE SHAKING UP INDIAN MARKET

The emergence of the millennial generation – those born between 1980 and the early 2000’s – is going to drive how consumption, including that of food, takes place in India, according to retail and manufacturing heads at the India Food Forum, which was held in Mumbai between January 19 and 21.…

IT has been a tough year for China’s growing economy, which has experienced some unexpected faltering in 2015, but facial care product sales have continued to surge ahead.

Retailers of these products have posted strong and sustained growth rates, increasing by 8% in the whole of 2014 to Chinese Yuan Renminbi – CNY142 billion (USD22.1 billion) and are estimated to have grown by another 10.2% in 2015, to CNY (also known as RMB) 156.4 billion, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

In the dozen or so days after a devastating earthquake killed more than 8,000 across Nepal on April 25, many major international search and rescue teams came and left, but they have been followed by a second wave of emergency response nurses belonging to smaller non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and even nurses volunteering alone.…

The lack of coordinated control of unmanned aircraft (drones) gathering information and data following a disaster such as the recent Nepal earthquake has been highlighted at the bi-annual European Civil Protection Forum, in Brussels. A debate staged on April 6 on the subject was told by Michel Feider, director of Luxembourg’s Search and Rescue Agency (CHECK), that there had been poor co-ordination between the groups using drones responding to the earthquake disaster Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) were trying to map the resulting physical damage and monitor population movements and camps, as they had done following the Hurricane Sandy incident in Haiti five years ago.…

Online sales of unbranded personal care products that are either clearly counterfeit or sold in a way that alludes to an established brand are legion, as the industry well knows.
But how easy is it to spot such products on the internet?…

Publishers were upbeat at the 41st Buenos Aires International Book Fair highlighting strong sales in the Argentine market of adventure, fantasy and self-help books. They told the Bookseller that they planned to focus on these genres as they sign new talent.…

Changing textile and other input suppliers may be fraught with difficulties, but it is key to the role of any clothing buyer.
“It can be extremely difficult,” said Emma Wilson, buyer for UK-based specialist sourcing agency Smartway. “There are issues such as quality, lead-times and monitoring the supplier.”…

A NEW offline version of the EudraLex database of European Union (EU) pharmaceutical legislation has been launched. The EudraLex V30 is similar to the existing online EudraLex database, but can be used off-line with an integrated search engine. All documents are in.pdf…

A NEW international standard for the monitoring and reporting of suspected side effects of medicines has been explained by a new European Medicines Agency (EMA) guide. The standard will come into use from July 2016, and explains how such problems should be noted in individual case safety reports (ICSRs).…

Japan’s confectionery manufacturers have a reputation for being creative when it comes to new product lines, and when it comes to bubble gum and chewing gums, companies will need all the innovation they can manage. Domestic sales in the segment have been falling sharply.…

Projects are underway in India to install captive solar photovoltaic power systems in the country’s airports, exploiting innovative funding models and long term power purchase agreements. However, the country’s grid power operators are refusing to purchase any excess power.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which is owned by the Indian government, plans to generate 50 megawatts (MW) of electric power from solar plants at 30 airports by the end of 2015.…

THE HONG Kong government has proposed a 75% reduction of profits tax, salaries tax and tax under personal assessment for the 2014-15 assessment year, up to Hong Kong dollars HKD20,000 (USD2,578) per case. Announced in the government’s budget, the tax cut will cost HKD17.7 billion (USD2.2 billion), benefitting about 1.95 million taxpayers.…

NATIONAL authorities in the member countries of the European Union (EU) will be obliged to create central registers listing the ultimate owners of companies on their territory following a deal on the fourth EU anti-money laundering directive (AMLD) agreed on Tuesday (Dec 16) in Brussels.…

US meat exporters are to launch inexpensive cuts of American corn-fed beef in the Taiwanese market, with demand for premium products being depressed by soaring prices for American beef, accompanied by lacklustre consumer spending power on the island. The US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) recently partnered with a Taipei five-star hotel to promote plate fingers, petite tenders, and clod hearts, which with prices between Taiwan New Dollars TWD250 (USD7.91) to TWD550 (USD17.41) per kilogramme would roughly cost half the price of the currently popular rib eye, fillet, and boneless ribs.…

Consumers in Japan are notoriously fickle and constantly in search of the next greatest product – and in a nation that takes its food very seriously, that applies doubly to the confectionery sector.

Sales of ice cream have been strong in recent years and continue to grow, although chocolate confectionery sales came to Japanese Yen JPY342 billion (USD2.95 billion) in the calendar year 2013, a minor contraction on the previous year – blamed on poor weather during the traditionally busy summer months.…

Oil and gas companies are facing increasing risks related to corruption. However, there are numerous ways in which a business in the sector can avoid being exposed to graft. And new laws are tackling such problems more effectively. Jonathan Dyson reports.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a searchable database that can be used offline including a complete set of European Union (EU) human and veterinary pharmaceutical legislation. The Eudralex V29 is similar to the EU’s EudraLex web site, but with an off-line search engine – all the documents are in pdf format.…

GHANA continues to be recognised as one of Africa’s success stories. The country remains relatively peaceful and stable, and its economy has grown at an annual average of around 6% over the past six years. As a result, it is maybe not a surprise that Ghana was ranked healthily at 5.88 (10 being the worst score) in the 2014 Basel Anti-Money Laundering index, among the lowest in west Africa, only bettered by established democracy Senegal, with 5.43.…

When it comes to shipment of liquids in bulk, flexitanks are emerging as a viable alternative to traditional methods, and personal care product companies are taking notice. These huge, impenetrable and foldaway polyethylene bags that fit inside shipping containers can transport up to 24,000 litres of liquid at a time.…

AN AGREEMENT between the European Commission and Google over alleged abuses of its dominant market position – breaking European Union (EU) competition law – appears to have collapsed. Brussels today said it had levelled fresh allegations against the company. In February, Google promised to make changes to its commercial policy – in particular, to give equal prominence in search engine results to competitors in various sectors – in response to Commission competition law concerns.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) trade commissioner, Karel de Gucht, has welcomed the ruling by the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) appeal body against China’s restrictions of rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum exports.

This is “another milestone in the EU’s efforts to ensure fair access to much-needed raw materials for its industries,” he said in an Aug 7 statement of the European Commission.…

THE SALE to Russia of multi-directional, multi-dimensional knitting and interlacing machines, including adapters and modification kits, specially designed or modified for weaving, interlacing or braiding fibres, for composite structures has been banned by the European Union (EU).

This is because the EU considers such machines of potential use to the Russian military, which has been involved in the Ukraine crisis.…

A RANGE of plastics-related chemicals have been included in a draft list of new substances subject to special authorisation by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) for their manufacture or use in the European Union (EU). ECHA is now consulting on these planned additions to its ‘authorisation list’, because of concerns about their potential impact on human health and the environment.…

IN the search for ways to extract energy from a reliable and efficient source to power heat pumps, the water lapping the shores of our continents is increasingly being viewed as a key resource. “Sea water, like any water, has the ability to retain heat for a long period of time.…

Chinese construction firms have cornered plenty of business in Africa and Latin America, but they need upskilling to consolidate their position. Anyone who observes the queues of nervous young men lining up in the early morning in Beijing’s tree-lined Sanlitun diplomatic district will be in no doubt of the intensity of Chinese activity in Africa and Latin America.…

AFTER upgrading its laws against money laundering, Bangladesh has earned praise from anti-money laundering (AML) watchdogs however implementing this legislation remains an uphill challenge. Satisfied with the progress Bangladesh made toward plugging “strategic deficiencies” in its AML and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) regime, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) removed the country from its special watchlist.…

EXPORTS from the European Union (EU) to Russia of a wide variety of specialist coatings with military uses have been banned as a result of extensive sanctions imposed on Moscow. Imposed because of the Ukraine crisis, the EU Council of Ministers has released details of the banned goods, which include so-called ‘dual-use’ goods that have military as well as civilian uses.…

Many eyes will be on a court room in Shanghai on July 29 when a Chinese judge will decide the fate of one of the most prominent investigators of fraud in China. The trial of Peter Humphreys and his wife Yu Yingzheng follows a year’s imprisonment for the two, who founded ChinaWhys, a Shanghai and Hong Kong-based firm that performed due diligence, credit checks (as well as investigations of staff for possible kickbacks or embezzlement) for western corporations in China.…

WHEN American personal care product giant Johnson & Johnson opened its shared-services centre in Prague during 2006, it employed 12 people and provided only in-group procure-to-pay services. Currently this Johnson & Johnson finance centre is the largest of the five centres the company operates worldwide in terms of staff numbers as well as the scope of services it provides to internal business partners.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has released details of how it plans to boost aviation tracking following the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The Commission released a detailed note at a meeting of EU transport ministers in Luxembourg in Thursday (June 5).…

Big data is creating a growing range of opportunities that can help the global pharmaceutical industry develop and manufacture drugs more effectively. However, the industry faces a number of challenges in the way it manages and analyses the increasingly broad range of data that is available, with collaboration essential for the industry to capitalise on the potential of the big data explosion.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Avition Organisation (ICAO) is pushing hard for a global aircraft tracking system in the wake of the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH 370. But, while recommendations on aircraft tracking solutions will be issued later this year, binding standards may still be some way off.…

Colombia’s struggling automobile sector is anticipating the April 15 launch of a new government program designed to help it follow the successful tactics of its principal competitors abroad.

The primary objective of the scheme, PROFIA, (Development Program for the Automotive Industry) is to help the sector recover market share from cheap imports, notably by imports by slashing tariffs on parts and materials imported for vehicle assembly.…

Astellia, a leading provider of network and subscriber intelligence enabling mobile operators to drive business performance, is constantly developing solutions helping mobile operators exploit big data. Astellia’s vendor-independent real-time monitoring and troubleshooting solutions cover end-to-end 2G, 3G and 4G from radio access to core network, and its scalable products and expert services address the needs of operators’ full value chain.…

WHEN the Percassi family, owners of the successful make-up brand KIKO Make Up Milan, purchased in October 2013 a UNESCO-listed historic industrial site called Crespi d’Adda in northern Italy, it was not only a sign of their success, but proof of the old adage that tough economic times can be good for the beauty industry. …

TECHNIQUES being developed to analyse ink offer significant benefits for examining questioned documents. Forensics has voyaged far since handwriting experts had just magnifying glasses and experience to underpin giving evidence as experts.

It has had to: high-quality inkjet and laser printers make it tougher to distinguish between photo-quality frauds and commercially printed, legitimate documents.…

The Russian government is to draft fresh state measures to support domestic producers of wool and flax fibres.

Acting on direction from the office of President Vladimir Putin, the Russian ministry of industry and trade will boost Russian wool production through the creation of special trading centres that will buy wool from farmers at prices that are high enough to encourage production.…

THE ORGANISATION for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has created a global model for using export credits in new railway infrastructure projects, including rail control, electrification, tracks, rolling stock, and related construction and engineering work. The system covers contract repayment terms and more.…

A SENIOR official within an organisation charged with increasing European textile exports to Russia has told WTiN.com that Russia’s 2012 accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has created real opportunities for European manufacturers to score Russian sales.

Igor Salomakhin, head of the Moscow liaison office of the Russia-Europe Textile Alliance (RETA), has told WTiN that it is helping a growing number of European textile businesses expand their sales in Russia by helping establish direct contact with new customers in Russia.…

THE BALTIC States’ proximity to Russia and their position as a border between eastern and western financial markets, renders Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania particularly at risk as regards money laundering.

Hard hit during the global financial crisis they have still made considerable strides towards improving anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) legislation while transitioning into the Eurozone: Estonia joined January 2011; Latvia will join this January; Lithuania wants to join by 2015. …

DIGITAL innovation and exports dominated discussion at the 31st edition of Liber 2013, Spain’s leading book fair, which ended on Sunday (October 6) in Madrid after drawing 10,000 visitors, compared with 6,000 last year in Barcelona.

And while 450 exhibitors and 300-plus international buyers almost universally framed their comments in terms of recession, robust overseas sales and advances in e-publishing made for a slightly more positive mood than last year.…

THE BIG question for mobile operators today is how to make an honest buck tomorrow, when Internet connectivity is getting so fast, over-the-top (OTT) service providers are becoming increasingly competitive. Some specialists predict operators will essentially become utilities, offering basic network services, leaving the cream to content and OTT companies.…

WHEN a senior company figure blunders in communicating through the media, the corporate and career costs can be high, but getting it right can drive sales and profits.

Examples in the debit column are rife. Gene Morphis, the CFO of Nasdaq-listed US womenswear chain Francesca’s Holding Corp was fired in May 2102 after his ‘Tweet’ message on social media site Twitter inadvertently disclosed share price-sensitive information from a board meeting in contravention of rules applied by the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).…

To meet apparel and textile brands’ desire to move into fast fashion, manufacturers have begun to embrace new production processes that improve efficiency and performance. Apparel and textile manufacturers have been slower than many other manufacturing industries to embrace supply chain improvements in speed, but are now succumbing to pressure from brands moving into fast fashion retail.…

Making money in the mobile communications sector is always about the art of the possible, but ambitious companies will always seek to tap the most revenue streams. The question, as ever, is how to achieve such goals, without being weighed down with additional layers of management that eat into those vital profit margins.…

ON July 1, Croatia finally became the European Union’s 28th member state – a long-awaited accession following 10 hard years of negotiations. Many of the questions that surrounded Croatia’s eligibility centred on the country’s level of commercial crime and corruption, including money laundering, and concerns about its ability to tackle such problems effectively.…

A fire at a slaughterhouse near the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun has so far claimed the lives of 119 people and left a further 60 hospitalized, state media reported Monday night – the victim’s families are demanding answers about the fire’s cause.…

Poland confirmed plans in 2012 to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant with a view to importing supplies from Qatar, it seemed like the latest example of eastern European energy ministries trying to avoid energy dependence on Russia. Plans to develop shale gas in Poland and the Baltic States fall into the same category, along with policies to build energy infrastructure linking Poland and its Nordic and Baltic neighbours.…

the wall for multinationals using current international tax laws to reduce their fiscal exposure. Speaking at the eighth meeting of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development) Forum on Tax Administration, hosted by Russia’s federal tax service from May 16-17, experts noted that public anger was building over cases such as the low level of taxes paid by Google, Amazon and UK energy company NPower.…

THE INDIAN government is to create a national Veterinary Emergency Response Unit, charged with protecting the country’s huge livestock population during natural disasters, such as floods, fires, droughts and earthquakes, a New Delhi conference has heard. “We are going to train the students of Indian veterinary colleges in disaster management techniques so that they can rush to save livestock whenever a disaster strikes,” S Abdul Rahman, President of the Commonwealth Veterinary Association, told globalmeatnews.com. …

THERE are many pathways to developing helpful support services for telcos in today’s increasingly complex communications world, but one particularly reliable guide has to be boosting customer experience. Some companies start with the technology and work out to the customer, but others start with the customer in mind and develop effective technologies that suit a comprehensive vision of maximising their happiness and generating revenues.…

MAJOR companies within the European Union (EU) suffering from major cybercrime attacks will have to inform regulators under a proposed EU directive on network and information security. If the legislation is approved by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers, it would assign that duty to operators of critical infrastructure in the financial, transport, energy and health sectors; IT services, such as app stores, e-commerce platforms, internet payment systems, cloud computing companies, search engines and social network; plus public administrations.…

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-backed research project has developed new ways of applying patterns within deposited layers of nanoparticles that can be adjusted to create special properties such as super-waterproofing. Hungarian and Finnish researchers working for the CompNanoALD have developed atomic layer deposition (ALD) techniques, which can “deposit one atomic layer of a material at a time in a step-wise manner”, said Dr Imre Miklós Szilágyi, of Budapest University of Technology and Economics, in a European Commission note.…

As Poland’s shale gas rush ramps up in earnest, companies offering locally-sourced minerals used in hydraulic fracturing look set to profit. The industry, nascent as it is in Poland, comprises a hodgepodge of contractors and subcontractors, each sourcing different materials from different places.…

IF there is one crime condemned worldwide it is the sale and smuggling of counterfeit medicines. Sometimes close copies and sometimes dangerous substances – this crime kills on a grand scale.

Counting the number of its victims accurately is difficult, because of the subversive nature of the trade, but some think-tanks have tried.…

PART 1 – THE RAPID EVOLUTION OF MULTI-CHANNEL

The apparel retail world has been altered profoundly by technology over the last few years, and the fashion industry knows that to succeed marketing and sales must be undertaken though the many new channels that are now available. …

AFTER years of promises, the Ghanaian government, with some help from Brazil, is ready to make good on its pledge to equip Ghana with a second international airport. Construction under the government’s USD174 million plan to upgrade Tamale Airport, in northern Ghana, to enable it to better handle the international traffic for which it was designated in 2008, should begin this summer, according to Bernard Nyavor, the passengers director of Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport (KIA), in the capital Accra.…

NORWAY is on course to become the latest European country to roll-out full body scanners at its airports, following a ministry of transport and communications decision, authorising the country’s airports to purchase and employ 360 degree full body scan technologies and equipment.…

MAJOR new opportunities are emerging for both international and domestic cosmetics brands in Thailand, due to strong economic growth, increasingly sophisticated consumers, and a vibrant market in which new products and innovations are leading to growing competition.

The economy in Thailand, with 70 million consumers, is a key mid-sized and medium-income market, and has recovered strongly from the severe floods in 2011 that affected much of the country, with GDP growth forecast at 5.7% for 2012.…

DECLINING demand from the USA and European Union (EU) for Bangladesh knitwear has not dampened the world’s second largest clothing exporter from aiming high. Rather, Bangladesh is planning to more than double its current knitwear exports, to USD20 billion by 2020, seeking out new markets.…

BY CARMEN PAUN IN BRUSSELS

IN a move which critics might claim animal welfare is being given priority over human safety, the European Union (EU) is about to implement a marketing ban on all cosmetics which have been tested on animals since March 11, 2013.…

BY MARK ROWE, MICHAEL KOSMIDES, IN ATHENS, AND MOHAMMED YUSUF, IN NAIROBI

WHILE Aden Adde International Airport, Mogadishu, Somalia, does not serve an unrecognised country, it has operated without an effective government since 1991. But with Mogadishu security now improving, airport traffic has grown from just three to four flights-a-day to around 18 this year.…

THE LUXURY packaging seent of the personal care product industry has always been important, but with the industry’s high end becoming increasingly profitable worldwide, packagers are assuming a really critical role.

Simply, while revolutionary formulations are being developed to tap wealthy markets, the resulting cosmetics and personal care products need to set themselves apart for marketing with classy exteriors.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

SMALL and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European Union (EU) complain they cannot get finance from banks, or not on reasonable terms. Banks counter that there is just not that much demand.

Politicians have responded with schemes to improve the flow of finance to SMEs.…

BY MARK ROWE, IN BRISTOL

BRISTOL Airport, the largest in the south-west of the UK, plans to expand its annual passenger numbers from 6 million to 9 million by 2015. At the heart of the development is a 30-point plan, which includes reconfiguring the terminal building, with an extension to the east (6,700 square metres) and west (3,600 square metres) of the existing terminal to just over double its current overall floor area.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PRESSURE is growing on European Union (EU) ministers to give the EU’s sugar production quota system a stay of execution. MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee have called for the retention of EU sugar quotas for beet farmers until 2020, rather than follow existing plans to phase them out in 2015.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, IN ITALY

WHILE trade fairs remain the primary channel for finding suppliers for any kind of fabric, the sourcing of luxury fabrics and fibres has seen a small revolution over the last decade – thanks in large part to the development of web-based technologies that have integrated face-to-face contact with online services.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

OUTSOURCING textile and apparel production is a necessary step along the supply chain for many large international brands, which – more than often – have long-standing relationships with manufacturers abroad. These partnerships have to start from somewhere, though – and with economic development continuing to grow in the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and other emerging market countries, there are many third-party companies and services that can help international buyers choose the right manufacturer.…

BY JONATHAN DYSON, IN LA PAZ

STRONG growth in Bolivia’s personal care market is attracting an increasing number of both international and domestic cosmetics brands, capitalising on rising demand for products across all consumer demographics. This market success can be linked to the country’s overall economic growth in recent years, which has seen GDP rise about 5% per year since the country’s indigenous socialist president Evo Morales came to power in 2006.…

BY KITTY SO

GLOBAL police agency Interpol is developing a service enabling customs officers and retailers to identify counterfeit personal care products using the Internet and smart phones. A prototype has been built by Interpol with Google Ideas. It is a global database of security features such as tax stamps and holograms.…

BY KITTY SO

GLOBAL police agency Interpol is developing a service enabling customs officers and retailers to identify counterfeit clothing and textiles using the Internet and smart phones. A prototype has been built by Interpol with Google Ideas, and the agency wants industry associations to help structure the system.…

BY ANDREW GREEN, IN KAMPALA

Uganda is undergoing a higher education boom. The result of introducing universal primary education in 1997 and universal secondary education a decade later is a surplus of students looking for a university placement. Uganda’s 30 public and private universities offer 50,000 spots for qualified secondary school graduates.…

BY KARRYN MILLER, IN HANOI

WITH similar tropical and sub-tropical climates giving personal care product consumers some similar requirements as regards skin care, the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region could be regarded as one by lazy marketers.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN, IN EDMONTON

EXPERTS, industry and provincial and municipal governments met this month [June] to discuss progress and improvements to a set of detailed guidelines for planning, defining, and integrating intelligent transportation systems specifically for Canada’s needs. ‘The ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems Architecture for Canada 2.0’ is the country’s second such set of detailed guidance.…

BY GERARD O’DWYER, IN HELSINKI

A TOUGH legislative response to the rising problem of money laundering-related crimes in Sweden appears to be having a meaningful impact on curbing illegal activities within the country – with the latest statistics from Finanspolisen, the Swedish financial crime police, revealing that while the number of reports pertaining to money laundering grew by 30% to 11,892 in 2010 (year-on-year) that figure dropped to 11,135 in 2011.…

BY MIKE STEIN, IN PRAGUE

EASTERN and central Europeans often have mixed feelings about dealing with the Russians – and for good reason, given their 40-plus-year domination of the region after the Second World War. It has encouraged many governments to seek alternative energy supplies other than Russian gas, but – as the Cold War recedes into memory, old scars are healing and joint energy ventures with Russia’s energy giant Gazprom are increasingly being assessed on their merits.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Germany’s metals association, the WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle (WVM), has linked the recent announcement of bankruptcy at Voerde Aluminium (see http://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/3024029/Search/Voerde-Aluminium-declares-insolvency.html?PageId=196010) to the delay in implementing

European Union (EU) rules helping energy-intensive industries survive in Europe. Ulrich Grillo, WVM chairman, said non-ferrous metals companies were awaiting decisions from Brussels and Berlin on compensation for demonstrated CO2-related costs and for the shutdown regulation – both of which were still pending.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

DESPITE the US government’s great need for new tactics to combat cartel-related money laundering activities, recent budget cuts are limiting the potential development of highly useful tools in this fight – including a bulk currency detector able to sense large quantities of money hidden in speeding vehicles.…

By Wang Fangqing

China, a nation once so secretive about sex, is determined to introduce sex education as early as primary schools. On December 12, China’s Ministry of Education released a draft of the National Standard for Primary School Teachers that included a requirement that teachers “get the knowledge and methods of puberty and sexual education.” 

 Beijing and Shanghai, the two most developed cities in China, launched sex education programs in selected local primary schools months ago along with the textbooks: “Steps of Growth” in Beijing and “Boys and Girls” in Shanghai, both presented in manga style to appeal to the young students.

“How to Protect Myself” is a major topic in both books. In “Boys and Girls,” which is adapted from a German textbook, scenarios include a little girl being given candy by a stranger and a little boy being told by a male tennis coach to help him clean a locker room.…

By Wang Fangqing

China, a nation once so secretive about sex, is determined to introduce sex education as early as primary schools. On December 12, China’s Ministry of Education released a draft of the National Standard for Primary School Teachers that included a requirement that teachers “get the knowledge and methods of puberty and sexual education.” 

Beijing and Shanghai, the two most developed cities in China, launched sex education programs in selected local primary schools months ago along with the textbooks: “Steps of Growth” in Beijing and “Boys and Girls” in Shanghai, both presented in manga style to appeal to the young students.

 “How to Protect Myself” is a major topic in both books. In “Boys and Girls,” which is adapted from a German textbook, scenarios include a little girl being given candy by a stranger and a little boy being told by a male tennis coach to help him clean a locker room.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD AND JONATHAN DYSON, IN LIMA

SOME of world’s most coveted fibres, Vicuña, Guanaco, Alpaca and Llama, all hail from rugged Andean region in South America. Vicuña fibre, known locally and in the trade as the "gold of the Andes" and "the fabric of the gods" is a key part of the global high-end luxury market for rare and superfine fibres.…

BY MARK GODFREY, IN BEIJING

DINERS in Beijing were appalled recently to discover that restaurants on the city’s most famed dining street have been using recycled – or so called ‘gutter’ – cooking oil processed by an underground industry of oil collectors.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

SWITZERLAND just signed a so-called ‘Rubik deal’ with Austria to safeguard Swiss banking secrecy in return for it levying withholding taxes anonymously on undeclared savings and investments held in Switzerland by Austrian nationals.

The bilateral treaty with Austria, start date 2013, follows those with Britain and Germany, and has raised the hackles of the European Commission, which has questioned these agreements’ legality under the European Union (EU) Savings Tax Directive, which tries to erase loopholes allowing depositors to squirrel money away from tax assessors.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OFFSHORE wind energy has moved with astonishing speed from being little more than an environmentalist’s dream a few years ago to a vast industry set to provide 4% of Europe’s electricity by 2020 with commensurate growth in jobs, associated industries and port development.…

BY WANG FANGQING, IN SHANGHAI

WITH a growing interest in colour cosmetics amongst Chinese women, many companies are developing innovative and unique packaging that especially appeal to younger consumers.

Market research firm Euromonitor International has stressed in a report that international marketing has helped fuel this trend: women between the ages of 15 and 30 living in urban areas of China have been widely exposed to Western and Japanese makeup and are gravitating largely towards colour cosmetics because of this.…

BY MARK ROWE

IN the global push to make transport greener, the aviation industry is just beginning to take a serious look at how to ease the sector into using less fossil fuel. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), like many other airlines, is currently looking into projects that scrutinise kerosene biofuel blends in the quest to make transportation more environmentally friendly.…

BY BILL CORCORAN

SOUTH African and Chinese investors have joined forces with the government of the tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho to develop Africa’s largest renewable energy project at an estimated cost of around US dollars USD15 billion over the next 15 years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PUBLIC searchable database of pharmaceutical-related intellectual property assets will be run by a global consortium involving major pharma companies including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi. They are working with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH) and major research organisations.…

BY EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

RUSSIA is planning to invest more than Russian Roubles RUB470 billion (USD14 billion) in reforming the country’s air traffic management system, bringing it into the line with European Union (EU) standards, according to November 25 statements made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a transport policy meeting in the city of Horki.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FRENCH cosmetics giant L’Oréal is offering scholarships subsidising up to 50% of fees for full time MBA courses at the well-regarded Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School, Belgium. However, unlike many such corporate grants, students do not owe work or studies for L’Oréal after graduation.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

AMAZON’s arrival in Spain has lit a slow flame under the soles of Spanish booksellers, but the e-tailer faces obstacles to growth that do no afflict it in the UK and America. Amazon.es launched September 15 and will be hot gossip at the LIBER Madrid International Book Fair, the main platform for publishers of works in Spanish, which begins October 5.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Medicines Agency (EMA) will allow public access to its databases with information on the potential side effects of medicines. Its announcement follows criticism that EMA has been too secretive with such data. In a communiqué, the agency said it would henceforth produce monthly reports summarising information held in its EudraVigilance database for all medicines with central EMA authorisation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

LITTLE more excites the international auto industry more than the search for an alternative to fossil fuels, and an American company is now looking seriously into the idea of using a heavy element thorium to generate locomotive power.…

BY MARK ROWE

IN the global push to make transport greener, the aviation industry is just beginning to take a serious look at how to ease the sector into using less fossil fuel. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), like many other airlines, is currently looking into projects that scrutinise kerosene biofuel blends in the quest to make transportation more environmentally friendly.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the global digital content marketplace continues to evolve rapidly, communications service providers (CSPs) have been increasingly losing revenue to third party content providers. For years now, entertainment and broadcasting companies, search engines and more have been harming CSP’s revenue streams and brand value.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

EARLIER this year the search of the house of a notorious octogenarian loan shark in Naples made headlines in Italy. The news was given particular attention not because of the elderly gentleman’s reputation as one of the city’s most prominent usurers, but because of the amount of money investigators found hidden in his home: over Euro EUR5 million (US dollars USD7.15 million) in cash stashed behind tiles and false walls together with hundreds of thousands of Euros in debtor cheques.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

ITALIANS have voted overwhelmingly against a return to nuclear power, repealing regulation that allowed for the construction of new reactors in a national referendum held on Sunday and Monday. On the nuclear question 54.79% of citizens responded, and 94.05% of these voted against the reconstruction of nuclear reactors in Italy.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FEW transatlantic agreements have given rise to more friction and animosity than the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP) set up by the US Treasury in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and in direct response to them.…

BY MARK GODFREY

WITH some researchers (most recently Credit Suisse’s China analysts) predicting Chinese e-commerce revenues will grow 100%-a-year to 2015 it’s not surprising international brands are scrambling to understand and tap the dynamics of the country’s web portals. Top of the local business-to-consumer pile Taobao has evolved from an eBay knock off to a massively popular resource for wholesalers and B2C operators.…

BY MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

CENTRAL Asia is often in the news regarding political instability, and the complexity of the region’s borders and ethnicities make for an opacity that can encourage the growth of organised crime. Also, being far from the centres of anti-money laundering activities and standard setting – in Europe, north America and east Asia, the region’s often authoritarian governments have a poor reputation regarding the enforcement of law and judicial probity.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

IN the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in living memory, with the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami on Japan’s economy being assessed closely, its government is conducting a rapid rethink of its energy priorities – and that could be good news for the biofuels sector.…

BY MARK ROWE, ALAN OSBORN and PAUL COCHRANE

IT may be no coincidence that football (or soccer as it is known by north American readers) is generally regarded as corrupt by law enforcement agencies and has chosen to stage two of its next major spectacles – the 2012 European championships, and the 2018 World Cup, in Ukraine and Russia.…

BY JULIAN RYALL, and EUGENE VOROTNIKOV

A PROPOSED joint venture under discussion between Japan’s Toshiba Corporation and Russia’s Techsnabexport (TENEX) is expected to focus supplying low enriched uranium, not only to Japan but to third-party markets, Fuel Cycle Week has been told.…

BY FLORENCE LABEDAYS

Michele Norsa is a discreet amicable man who does not seek personal publicity in his role as Chief Executive Officer of Italian luxury clothing company Salvatore Ferragamo. Impeccably-dressed at all times – pin-striped suit, pale blue shirt and red tie, when we met – as one would expect an Italian fashion executive to be, he has ease and approachability.…

BY MINI PANT ZACHARIAH and EMMA JACKSON

WHILE European paint manufacturers are breathing sigh of relief having passed the first major compliance deadline for the European Union’s (EU) chemical control system REACH, the same cannot be said for paint manufacturers in India.…

BY WANG FANGQING

IN maybe one of the most telling signs that China is opening up to the west, as much as it is exporting products there, that Chinese consumers are purchasing more olive oil and moreover, they are using it in a shift to a more cosmopolitan diet, including healthy Mediterranean-based recipes.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE FIRST major compliance deadline for the European Union’s (EU) chemical control system REACH has passed, and paint manufacturers, importers and suppliers are breathing a sigh of relief.

"Overall, I think it has been quite challenging for both industries and ECHA [the European Chemicals Agency based in Helsinki, Finland], but I think we are both relieved to have the first deadline past, and I think it was quite successful on both sides," said Laurence Hoffstadt (NOTE: NAME IS SPELLED CORRECTLY), a scientific officer with ECHA, which governs and administers Europe’s chemical registration programme.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A DECISION this June by the leading US anti-money laundering (AML) agency, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), to call for changes to the US Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in respect of stored value or prepaid access cards has stirred interest and some controversy.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

BEFORE September 8, few people anywhere had heard of Zhan Qixiong or his battered fishing boat. However, since the Chinese fisherman and his 14-strong crew were taken into custody by the Japan Coast Guard on September 8, Zhan has found himself at the centre of an escalating geopolitical row that has already put planned discussions over gas and oil deposits between Beijing and Tokyo on hold and is ratcheting up broader tensions in the region.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

EUROPEAN booksellers and publishers have welcomed the decision by the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers to approve legislation improving access to orphan works, whose copyright holders cannot be found. By encouraging their digitisation, the move will potentially open up vast swathes of books to libraries, museums and similar non-commercial organisations across Europe.…

BY PAUL RIGG

SPAIN’S top book fair has been told by an American anti-piracy firm that publishers and retailers can protect themselves against illegal downloads, even as digital publishing becomes increasingly dominant.

Yuri Burka, Europe, Middle East and Africa director for Attributor, told LIBER, the international book fair for the Spanish speaking world that acting proactively against illegal downloaders did work: "There is a group of occasional offenders who can be influenced," he said.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

AS demand for digital content within electronic communications continues to rise, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) are seeing activity continuously expanding on their networks; however, this does not necessarily mean revenue growth for telcos. In fact, as the consumers’ appetite for content grows, video producers, movie studios and other creators of premium content have, in recent years, been capitalising on this demand by launching and cultivating their own digital content delivery systems.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

A COOPERATIVE of 450 current and former workers at the Jeffrey Mine, Québec, Canada, voted Monday to approve an offer made by an international consortium of financiers and construction material manufacturers to invest in expanding its underground asbestos mining operations.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

EXPORT development and digital trends dominated discussion at the 30th annual staging of Liber, Spain’s leading book fair, in Barcelona last week.

With Spain still gripped by recession, short-term hopes rest on exports and e-books. Government figures released at Liber showed book exports of all kinds rose 5.4% to EUR482 million (GBP402 million) in 2011.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission has proposed a second handout this year for redundant Spanish textile industry workers, drawn from the European Union’s (EU) Globalisation Adjustment Fund. Brussels in August proposed spending Euro EUR2.8 million on former Galician textile workers; now it has asked the European Parliament to authorise another EUR2 million on 350 unemployed textile workers in Alicante province.…

BY MARK ROWE

ION-EXCHANGE reactions and water-soluble polymers are among the new generation of "green" paints that are being introduced to protect the marine environment in Asia. The International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) international convention on the control of harmful anti-fouling systems on ships came into force in September 2008 and IMO is continuing to urge all its members to ratify this convention.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE MULTI-BILLION dollar cosmetics and fragrances industry in the Middle East’s six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has had a mixed few years in the wake of the global financial crisis, made more unpredictable by demographic change and purchasing behaviour shifts.…

BY BILL CORCORAN

ALTHOUGH Sub-Saharan Africa is considered one of the least developed parts of the world in terms of air traffic management (ATM) systems, experts at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have said the continent has made progress in recent years.…

BY WANG FANGQING

WITH the fast development of on-line shopping and increasing orders from overseas, the business of counterfeit perfumes is expanding in China.

Take taobao.com, Asia’s largest online shopping website resembling eBay, as an example. A simple search for J’Adore, a perfume by Dior of Paris-based LVMH (Moët Hennessy.Louis…

BY DINAH GARDNER

WITH its five thousand years of history, it’s unique Confucian-based social traditions and, more recently, a one-party state system, no one expects China to take on the western concepts of coaching without tweaking them a little. "The best coaches in China are those who can blend Western best practice with Chinese wisdom and social mores," says Frank Gallo, an American who offers business coaching in China via his own company, Calypso Consulting.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

THE FOUNDER and CEO of Canada’s book retail giant Indigo Books & Music Inc Heather Reisman has told The Bookseller she firmly believes paper books will survive and thrive in an increasingly digitalised world of bookselling, despite predicting ebooks will take a whopping 20% of the book market in the future.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CANADIAN company exploring for metals and diamonds in northern Botswana is receiving Canadian dollars CAD5 million in investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank. Tsodilo Resources Limited has licences to explore for metal deposits surrounding the globally-renowned Okavango Delta nature conservation area.…

BY ALYSHAH HASHAM

KENYA, and its capital Nairobi, is the business hub of east Africa. It also has the reputation of being one of the world’s most corrupt places – a place where bribery is an accepted part of doing business.…

BY WANG FANGQING

THE RASH of strikes that have hit China’s auto sector are certainly insufficient to persuade manufacturers to scale back their expansion plans, but the long term lessons are clear: China is no longer a bargain basement labor market of placid easily-pleased workers.…

BY MARK ROWE

ANTI-FOULING paints prevent barnacles, algae and other marine organisms attaching themselves to the hulls of ships and help reduce drag. Yet increasing concern about the impact of organotin ingredients, such as the pesticide tributyltin-oxide (TBT), on the marine environment has prompted the development of a new generation of green paints.…

BY DANIEL PRUZIN

REPRESENTATIVES from around 160 countries are moving toward clinching a deal on new World Health Organisation (WHO) Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, which could be wrapped up within the next 12 months. Unlike its predecessor, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (under whose authority this latest agreement is being negotiated), the protocol is something of a mixed blessing for the tobacco industry.…

BY ERIC LYMAN

THE TRIAL of 11 international bankers and two officials from the City of Milan got underway on May 19 in connection with a series of 2005 bond issues in which the parties are accused of generating as much as Euro EUR100 million in illegal fees and interest.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

ALISON Cooper’s accession to chief executive of Britain’s Imperial Tobacco last month (May) put the UK tobacco industry in an unfamiliar position as the 43-year-old mother-of-two became just the fifth female chief executive in the flagship FTSE100 index.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ESTABLISHED cosmetics firms cannot tell Google to ban the use of their trademarks by rivals as keywords in search engine services, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. Judges said Louis Vuitton Malletier could not require Google to prevent third parties using its mark in its ‘AdWords’ service, allowing rivals’ websites to appear as highlighted links in searches on the French company’s name.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SWEDISH and Austrian governments have been given an additional year to spend the Euro 15.6 million in earmarked European Union (EU) subsidies for the auto sector previously announced by the European Commission.

These payments – Euro 9.8 million for Sweden and Euro 5.7 million for Austria – come from the EU’s Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which is designed to help industries hit by unavoidable international competition.…

BY MARK ROWE

RUSSIA’S near abroad appears to offer an A-Z of both money laundering activities – from low level corruption to more sinister opium-based profits – and of the wide spectrum of governmental attitudes towards tackling the problem.

"While Russian and Ukrainian gangs have a presence in a lot of the activity in the region, most money laundering is still done by indigenes," said Mark Galeotti, of the Centre for Global Affairs at New York University (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT).…

BY MARK ROWE

SEQUENCING the human genome has brought widespread interest and the potential for treatment of diseases, but confectionery industry researchers are increasingly applying this technique to key components in the food chain. One of the most high-profile sequencing programmes gathers pace this year, as Mars continues the sequencing of the cocoa genome, a project it is working on with the US department of agriculture’s subtropical horticultural research substation and IBM.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA’S largest ever financial fraud, the US$1 billion-plus Satyam computer company scam, where top management inflated revenues and laundered money for their personal gains, has shocked the Indian government into reassessing the efficacy of laws and regulations concerning corporate governance and anti money laundering (AML).…

BY GAVIN BLAIR

JAPAN-based food retailer Seven & I Holdings has opened a new online mall, ‘Seven Net Shopping’, stocked with five million items.

The service consolidates the online presence of the group’s department stores, supermarkets and convenience stores, while adding 32 outside specialist retailers, including record labels and an animation studio.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

MOROCCO’S 150,000 tonnes per year decorative paint market, worth Moroccan Dirham (MAD) 2 billion (GBPounds 157.4 million), grew by an estimated 5 to 8% in 2008, but plunged by 30% in December in the wake of the financial crisis, according to paint manufacturer Hempel Morocco (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONSERVATIONISTS may detest the notion of jungle food – cooking rain forest species for the dinner table. But harvested sustainably, the plants, animals and birds of jungles, deserts, ice caps and steppes inhabited by traditional societies offer excellent nutrition.…

By Emma Jackson

The University of Michigan’s library has partnered with Booksurge, the print-on-demand service owned by Internet retailer Amazon Inc., to make thousands of rare and out-of-print books available for one-off printing through digitisation.

Customers will be able to browse over 400,00 titles on Amazon.com,…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to launch an inquiry into the digitalisation of millions of books by Google, without the permission of their rights holders, to see whether the European Union (EU) should protect authors and publishers.

This follows a request made yesterday (28-3) by the EU Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OIL tankers sailing past the often unstable shores of west Africa will be safer in future, following the commissioning of a fully-equipped regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Monrovia, Liberia, coordinated by the International Maritime Organisation. The centre will help ships in distress off the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.…

BY MARK GODFREY

BUSINESS remains slow in Jinghai, a slice of industrial land a couple of hours east of Beijing designated as one of China’s key recycling belts. Business was brisk here up to October 2008, the date given locally as the beginning of a savage dip in demand for recyclables.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

IF there was a year when long-term textile and clothing market forecasters missed by a mile, 2008 was it. Forecasts made in 2007 were dominated by looming concerns about trade restrictions, investment in technology, a potential slow-down of production and a consolidation of business investment but no one predicted what devastating effects an unexpected recession would have on the textiles and apparel sector.…

BY MARK ROWE

AS book reading online enters the mainstream, one question that has plagued academic and cultural journals for years has re-emerged: digital obsolescence. Publishers are concerned about keeping pace with technological advances and preserving access to digital material.

No sooner, and at significant expense, is literature scanned and digitally secured in a given format, than it risks being overtaken by the latest storage versions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

THE NUCLEAR energy industry has always been a global business, and since the fall of communism, it has become more, not less international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES

THE NUMBER of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the skies above Europe is increasing rapidly, but safety concerns mean they normally remain segregated from other airspace users, inhibiting their employment in a wide range of activities. Eurocontrol, the European organisation for the safety of air navigation, has therefore launched a major project of work intended to ensure the safe and efficient integration of UAS into the pan-European Air Traffic Management Network (ATM).…

BY ALAN OSBORN, LUCY JONES and KEITH NUTHALL

INTRODUCTION

CLOTHING and textile production and trade subsidies are under pressure today, as they have not been for many years. There has been a steady trend towards liberalisation in the sector worldwide, stemming from the abolition of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) in January 2005 and with it, then end of restrictive quotas for imports for the WTO’s 152 member countries.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOR the past 10 years, the message from the environmental movement has been "biofuels good, fossil fuels bad". And the search for alternatives has exercised many industries, not least the cosmetics sector, which widely uses mineral oils, but has increasingly been looking for ways to use bio-based oils and fats.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, in Lucca, Italy; PHILIPPA JONES, in Paris; DOMINIQUE PATTON, in Beijing; KARRYN CARTELLE, in Tokyo; and LUCY JONES, in Dallas

Where is the best cutting edge research for the textile and clothing industry? Which are the best design schools, the best fabric developers and the best industrial innovators in the sector?…

By Alan Osborn

It lasted less than a day and it ended in apparent humiliation but believe it or not the launch of the European digital library Europeana has been hailed as a success story. The site collapsed on 20th November because the servers couldn’t cope with the torrent of demand but all being well it will be back before Christmas "bigger and better than ever" according to a spokesman for the European commission which is behind the idea.…

BY MUNZA MUSHTAQ

DOING business in a country wracked by civil war is never easy, and involves extra cost, but with care and good management, oil and gas companies can still turn profits in such circumstances. Sri Lanka is a good case in point: multinationals Shell, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Chevron Lubricants are trading successfully in this country, even as its government’s armed conflict with Tamil Tiger separatists reaches an expected military climax.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE LONG-AWAITED European digital library Europeana was launched last Thursday (November 20) but you had to be quick off the mark to learn anything from it: within hours the site had to be closed after its on-line servers proved unable to cope with the volume of demand.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE FUTURE of the oils and fats sector globally may be shaped in the coming years by the emergence of synthetic biology, which is enabling scientists to create oils and fats with enhanced properties.

This new technology has been developed in the wake of advances in biofuel manufacture, as the United Nations, major energy companies, scientists and environmental organisations all seek to identify the sources of energy that will sustain a post-oil world.…

BY GAVIN BLAIR

EXPLOSIVES screening procedures, like most security measures at international airports in Japan, follow the lead of the United States’ Transportation Security Administration (TSA). However, airport operators are somewhat less than satisfied with the performance of the current generation of certified explosive detection systems (EDS) or explosive trace detection systems (ETD).…

BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

EMPLOYEES of the big four accountancy firms are almost twice as likely to donate money to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign than to John McCain’s. A search of campaign contribution database at OpenSecrets.org shows nearly 640 employees at the big four have contributed to Senator Obama’s campaign, while only 326 employees have donated to Senator McCain.…

By Gavin Blair

Though the number of academic specialists in commercial crime in the Asia-Pacific region may be fewer than in the US or Europe, many of the leading figures are both willing to work with corporate clients and have a great deal of experience outside the ivory towers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A COMPANY importing quality cigars from Nicaragua has been launched in Toronto, Canada. Former investment bank researcher Markus Raty has become president of Mombacho Cigars, which is backed by the president of independent beer-maker Steam Whistle Breweries Co – Cameron Heaps.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE HEADS of government of the European Union (EU) have backed a USA-Russia global nuclear non-proliferation initiative, making detailed pledges.

These came in a communiqué issued following the June 19-20 EU summit in Brussels. It said the EU and its member states agreed Moscow and Washington’s Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism "corresponds with [EU] strategy…"

As a result, EU member governments made promises to tighten up nuclear material security including:

*Improving accounting, control and physical protection systems for nuclear and other radioactive materials and substances and enhancing the security of civilian nuclear facilities;

*Boosting their capacity to detect nuclear and other radioactive materials and substances to prevent illicit trafficking;

*Increasing their capability to search for, confiscate, and control unlawfully held nuclear or other radioactive materials and devices; and

*Ensuring their national laws "provide for…appropriate criminal and, if applicable, civil liability for terrorists and those who facilitate acts of nuclear terrorism".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has dropped security plans to limit the maximum permitted size of cabin baggage on planes operating within the European Union (EU) to 56 cm x 45 cm x 25 cm. Following a detailed assessment, newly appointed EU justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot has announced: "The inconvenience of additional limits would outweigh the advance in security."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BACK in 2006, the buzz in Internet marketing was about virtual worlds, and how clothing and other companies could use them to raise profile and generate additional sales. The dominant version of this technological platform was – and is – Second Life (SL), an interactive online world, which computer users explore online through the eyes of a digital representation of themselves (or indeed someone completely different) using simple cursor-based controls.…

BY MARK ROWE

ONE of the first responses to concerns about climate change involved the search to sequester carbon, a component of the major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Increasingly, efforts are focussing on how to deal with another greenhouse gas, methane.…

BY MARK ROWE

MALAYSIA’S paint and construction industries are going through a stabilisation phase, according to the government’s Department for Statistics. Figures released by the department show that the paint industry grew by 3% in both 2006 and 2007, and is projected to grow by around 5% each year from now until 2011.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEWEST members of the European Union (EU) – Bulgaria and Romania – have been roundly attacked in Brussels over failures to combat organised crime and corruption. Their inaction could cost them dear. Keith Nuthall reports.

BEING criticised by the European Commission could easily be compared to being slapped with a wet fish: unpleasant, but nothing to lose sleep about.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AFTER years of resistance from France, Italy and other European Union (EU) member states favouring privacy on a range of issues, all recipients of EU agricultural and rural development subsidies will be published from April 30, 2009. Under a new European Commission rule, the full name, municipality and, where available, postal code of recipients will be published, said the Commission, in "clear, harmonised, nationally-managed websites with a search tool".…

BY GAVIN BLAIR, in Tokyo

THOUGH the number of academic specialists in commercial crime in the Asia-Pacific region may be fewer than in the US or Europe, many of the leading figures are both willing to work with corporate clients and have a great deal of experience outside the ivory towers.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Tripoli and Beirut

THE OPENING up of Libya’s economy could not have come at a better time for international oil companies, which have been beset in recent years by dwindling easily accessible oil reserves, tighter controls over exploration rights and extraction, and heightened security concerns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY decade or so comes a technology that is so new, comprehensive, interesting, and damned useful, that it changes the way that we learn, have fun and do business. Think commercial air travel, the mobile phone and the Internet…..these…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN EXPERT group including the Federation of European Publishers is pressing towards the launch next November of a prototype European digital library, giving access online to records of Europe’s cultural treasures. The aim is to include digitised versions of at least 2 million digital books, photographs, maps, archival records, and film material from Europe’s libraries, archives and museums.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) maritime safety committee has accepted an offer from the United States to be the initial temporary host of a global data exchange linking centres for long range identification and tracking (LRIT) systems for shipping.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

TECHNOLOGY generates more technology. Only a decade ago, the Internet had only just come into commercial use and many companies still didn’t have websites.

Before then, money launderers got along fine without internet frauds perpetrated through email and websites and the anti-money laundering industry had to manage without software devoted to online identity verification.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HUMAN nature’s tendency to let sleeping dogs lie means that international initiatives to deal with chronic problems often only come to fruition after a major disaster. And such was the case with the formation of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has welcomed a cooperation agreement struck between the British and Irish governments to prevent illegal waste shipments across the land border between their two countries. Brussels was threatening legal action over the problem, because it broke European Union (EU) waste shipment rules, but with London and Dublin combining their forces, and tougher waste regulations being approved for Northern Ireland, the Commission has been satisfied.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in the real world, and BELINDA BLESSED, in Second Life

EVERY decade or so comes a technology that is so new, comprehensive, interesting, and damn useful, that it completely changes the way that we have fun and do business.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

THE DEVELOPMENT of biofuels and their impact on food crops has generated debate since Germany’s Rudolph Diesel ran the world’s first diesel engine on peanut oil in 1894.
However, now a biofuels boom is moving global markets and one result is commodity crop price inflation.…

BY ANDREW CAVE

BIOFUELS have generated earnest debate ever since German inventor Rudolph Diesel ran the world’s first diesel engine on peanut oil back in 1894, but suddenly there is a biofuels boom that’s moving global markets.
World economies are in a race to find alternatives to fossil fuels and turning crops such as wheat and corn into ethanol or oilseed rape, soya, or palm oil into biodiesel is having an impact on farmers, manufacturer and industrial producers worldwide.…

BY MARK ROWE

A FUEL marker so complex that it is all but impossible for thieves to replicate has been developed by scientists; the marker is so sensitive, it can identify illegal stolen fuel by using nanotechnology-based components.
This nanotech-based tracer, developed by Authentix, a nano-science company based in Dallas, Texas, uses hand-held LSX-based technology, and which has already been taken up by Luke Oil, Shell and BP in the United States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE OIL and gas sector was always a global business, and with world trade increasing and new reserves being opened up in all continents and oceans, it is becoming ever more international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE OIL and gas sector was always a global business, and with world trade increasing and new reserves being opened up in all continents and oceans, it is becoming ever more international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi
SHY but confident, Leenia Thomas, 31, is among the few fortunate nurses in India satisfied with their present employment and not dreaming of immigrating to the UK, USA or the Gulf. However she still lives 2,000 km away from her hometown in the southern state of Kerala, which provides a large proportion of the nurses in India because of its high literacy rates and unusually strong cultural position of women.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NUCLEAR energy industry has always been a global business, and since the fall of communism, it has become more, not less international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming increasingly important.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE POWER generation industry has always been a globalised business, especially regarding the manufacture of equipment, but with the opening of national electricity markets, especially in Europe, it has become increasingly international. As a result, the need for common standards and practices, relevant to the industry, its suppliers and its customers is becoming more and more important.…

BY MARK ROWE, in London
NANOTECHNOLOGY has a range of significant implications for power generation, a series of leading UK and world experts have told a high-level conference at Britain’s Royal Society. From solar cells to battery storage and fuel cells, nanotechnology will change the way we produce energy, with some impacts already beginning to be rolled out and others expected to become mainstream and commercially viable within 10 years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States’ diplomatic service is surely the largest and best resourced international network of experts in the world, and this is born out by the depth of the narcotics strategy report – or INCSR to use its acronym.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London
YOU think the European Union (EU) is like the US – one big uniform market where prices are roughly the same wherever you buy? It is after all, legally and officially named the ‘Single European Market’.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London
YOU think the European Union (EU) is like the US – one big uniform market where prices are roughly the same wherever you buy? It is after all, legally and officially named the ‘Single European Market’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PHILIP Morris International (PMI) has released a detailed intelligence dossier on cigarette and other tobacco product counterfeiting, in a bid to encourage the international cooperation it deems necessary to effectively fight this crime. The report highlights 17 countries around the world where it thinks cigarette counterfeiting is a particular problem and where the cigarette company has specific advice: Latvia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Egypt, Belize, Panama, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Ghana.…

BY KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo
AS hostilities between Sri Lanka military and Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka’s north and east intensify, the country’s national air force has been entrusted with “overall security” of the Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake, near Colombo a top government official has disclosed to Janes Airport Review.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH and German scientists have made a breakthrough in developing Europe’s most common food and animal based pathogen – salmonella – which is increasingly resistant to standard antibiotics.

Britain’s Institute of Food Research and the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, of Germany, have discovered how salmonella bacteria defends itself in hostile environments (such as stomachs and intestines) by continually inserting outer membrane proteins (OMPs) into its cell walls.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN odd fact about Serbia today is that hardly anybody in the country seems curious about the way its official government financial figures don’t remotely add up. The authors of a US-sponsored report for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) published last October – ‘Money Laundering and Predicate Crime in Serbia 2000-2005’ – acknowledge the conventional shortages of staff and computers but say they “hit on a more fundamental void: lack of curiosity.”…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

IF there are those who doubt whether the time, effort and resources invested in tracking down lost or orphaned sources of nuclear radiation is well spent, the tragic case of Alexander Litvinenko demonstrates only too clearly why this work is crucial.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

IT’S COMMONLY acknowledged that, whatever its merits, the globalisation of world trade and commerce brings with it vastly enhanced opportunities for money laundering. As the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) points out, in an online report explaining its work, the world-wide spread of inter-connected financial markets greatly extends the range of countries where anti-money laundering (AML) controls are absent or embryonic and enforcement is weak "and unfortunately, many countries particularly those classified as emerging markets, fall into this category."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

By many measures, the Dutch are the world leaders in paint and coatings which is not quite the same as saying they’re the largest suppliers or that Dutch paints are the best known though they do come at or near the top in both categories.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

AS befits its wider membership and longer history, Interpol is better known internationally than Europol though it has fewer staff and a smaller budget. But the similarities between the two organisations are more important than the differences. Neither is a hands-on police force.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN research network Eureka has developed a computerised screening process that will help pharmaceutical companies assess thousands of plants for a potentially lucrative source of therapeutic compounds. At present, researchers trawl through plant samples looking for a useful species, but Eureka’s E!…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

WHEN asked about corruption in Belgium by Commercial Crime International, a government official held his nose in the time-honoured gesture. But was he being fair? Some recent high profile cases have brought the nation some lurid publicity.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

FROM the scorching heat of Kenya’s northern border with the Sudan to the unforgiving conditions of Afghanistan, International Red Cross nurse Jenny Hayward-Karlsson has seen it all during a varied and challenging 20-year career working in the world’s war zones.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PUBLISHERS are being asked to comment on draft European Commission plans to reform scientific publishing in Europe. The Commission has suggested an official ranking system for scientific publications: by quality, copyright management, search facilities and archiving. It is also considering using its competition powers to "guarantee a level playing field" in a market where paid-for journals compete with open-access Internet sites.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend up to Euro 150 million to Esso Highlands Ltd, Oil Search Ltd, and the Papua New Guinea government to develop gas reserves in the country’s Southern Highlands. Gas would be piped 3,500km to eastern Australia.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London

EUROPEAN and US regulatory bodies have agreed to co-operate to develop common testing and engineering standards for mobile air conditioning systems such as those used in automobiles. Because some of the gases used in these systems, such as HFC 134a, are far more lethal to the environment than carbon dioxide, the European Union (EU) has agreed to start phasing them out in 2011 and stop using them in new autos from 2017.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney

FOR devotees of Captain Kirk, Dr Spock and the original Star Trek crew, the thrilling world of nanotechnology could sound vaguely familiar. It offers the 21st century a swathe of new products and services, from dirt-repelling cars to ‘thinking’ materials that can change colour automatically.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPE’S business newspapers are reporting that German publishing giant Bertelsmann will join the Quaero serach engine consortium that wants to create a European rival to Google. A spokeswoman for Bertelsmann’s information logistics arm Empolis however would only confirm to the Bookseller that "we are considering this", adding that there may be a formal announcement by the end of this week.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE USE of more and increasingly sophisticated monitoring equipment to detect radioactive steel scrap, that might otherwise be melted and cause health problems for workers and the public, has been urged by a European Commission report. It warns: “The problem of rogue sources shows no sign of diminishing”.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
STANDFIRST

AMERICA’S post 9/11 AML legislation does not only affect the formal banking sector, it controls other savings and investment institutions too, and in different ways. Alan Osborn reports.

MUTUAL FUNDS

ALTHOUGH there have been some complaints, by and large America’s mutual funds have accepted with reasonable grace the anti money laundering legislation brought in by the US government since the September 11 attacks.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CRITICS of European political institutions have sometimes been unkind about the Council of Europe, which has been accused of being a powerless talking shop. And although the Council lacks the power to fine and cajole member governments enjoyed by the European Union (EU) – from which it is completely independent – it has some important roles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is being pressed to fund France’s plan to establish a European Digital Library as a rival to US-based Internet search engines such as Google, which wants to scan 15 million books. A second meeting of the library’s advisory council also heard that Germany, Spain, Poland, Hungary and Italy have formally agreed to be involved in the project.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRENCH scientists have pinpointed the area of the brain, which is particularly responsive to nicotine addiction, whilst identifying how the chemical hunts down receptors that are particularly susceptible to its effects. Experiments on mice at France’s Institut Pasteur have shown that nicotine dependence is linked to a specific molecule of brain receptors detecting and reacting to nicotine, which are located in the ‘ventral tegmental’ area of the brain.…

BY MARK ROWE
CAN insurers help reduce risk by funding initiatives for the emergency services? Companies are increasingly looking at how they can support emergency services and, thereby, lessen the impact of insurance claims. The thinking is by helping to improve the efficiency of emergency services, the impact of natural and manmade disasters, including terrorism, can be mitigated in terms of people making insurance claims.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WHILE the consumption of paint, ink and colourings in Belgium is, like that in most other European countries, best described as “stable”, the country’s production industry is eying opportunities to relocate in cheaper regions, such as eastern Europe.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
FEW industries are as touchy about their image as the American gambling business but given the way the industry is portrayed by Hollywood this is understandable. Whether or not people are right to hold the industry in such suspicion these days is debatable.…

BY TAMARA VANTROYEN, in Hong Kong

IT is not just a rumour anymore: China is officially upgrading its water quality, a move welcome to drinks manufacturers that rely on and control costs through guaranteed clean water supplies. China launched new drinking water standards in June, raising the number of forbidden water pollutants from 35 to 101.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS a truly global criminal problem, it is only right that fighting money laundering is a key priority of the United Nations (UN). Its general assembly and key committees have made declarations and approved conventions on the subject, and its specialist agencies have also devoted time, money, specialist staff and energy to fighting the problem.…

BY EDWARD PETERS, in Hong Kong
HONG Kong might be renowned for being one of the safest cities in the world – mugging and other forms of street violence are practically unknown – but that’s not to say that commercial crime doesn’t rear its ugly head in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, reports Edward Peters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has released a technical standard advising on detecting illicit movements of radioactive materials at frontiers and industry control points. ISO said it wanted to provide a common technical base for monitoring, helping communication between regulatory authorities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THERE may be lies, damned lies and statistics, but no spin can conceal that a large proportion of international shipping and ports will not have complied with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) security code by July 1, its implementation deadline.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS EUROPEAN Union (EU) member states search for a comprehensive withholding tax solution on preventing tax avoidance via savings accounts, the Council of Ministers has reformed how national tax authorities cooperate to fight fraud. The updated directive allows them to conduct simultaneous control checks on taxpayers operating in several countries of the EU, sharing information obtained.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN scientists have developed technology that could help fight a major garden industry pest, detecting and identifying the presence of black vine weevils through the computerised interpretation of their bodily vibrations. James R. Fisher, entomologist from the USA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), has developed a wand-like microphone that can be inserted onto a large nail placed at the root in nursery pots.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN EU-funded research consortium is producing biodegradable plastics from whey separated from milk curd during cheese-making. WHEYPOL is synthesising the polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) generated from whey. *http://ica.cordis.lu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.simpledocument&PJ_RCN=5316860&CFID=83049&CFTOKEN=71957927…

BY EDWARD PETERS
DEPENDING on who you ask, Taiwan is either a renegade province or to all intents and purposes an independent nation, albeit one that currently lacks full international recognition. To suggest that it could be a fully functioning country in its own right to anyone in Beijing – the capital of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – is tantamount to treason.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Commission-funded research project is developing an integrated sales, production and storage system for small-and-medium sized timber businesses, which have difficulty serving a number of niche markets simultaneously. The IN-TIME project involves eight companies covering the whole timber supply chain, coordinated by UK software design house MJC2.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT from European Union (EU) power federation Eurelectric has said that when regulators or governments impose public service obligations under the 2003 electricity directive, utilities “should be granted fair compensation.”

The group adds that such obligations should be organised “in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner”, using “market-based mechanisms.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT from European Union (EU) power federation Eurelectric has said that when regulators or governments impose public service obligations under the 2003 electricity directive, utilities “should be granted fair compensation.”

The group adds that such obligations should be organised “in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner”, using “market-based mechanisms.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MONACO is all about money. A glamorous speck of high-rises looming above the French Riviera, it is famous for wealthy glamour, tax exiles, racing-cars and gambling. Given this cocktail, it is hardly surprising that this, Europe’s second smallest country by geography, has attracted allegations that it has been the site of money laundering.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN EU-supported research scheme has developed practical guidelines on recycling waste from 19 food production processes. AWARENET worked out technical solutions for recycling its oils, sugars, vitamins, colorants and antioxidants. *http://ica.cordis.lu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.simpledocument&PJ_RCN=5059864&CFID=58430&CFTOKEN=21966306…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union-funded research consortium is developing an industrial system for producing biodegradable plastics from whey, separated from milk curd during cheese-making. Around 30 per cent of the 50 million tonnes of whey produced in Europe annually is currently discarded, and the Euro 1.6 million WHEYPOL project is creating process to synthesise polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) generated from whey into plastic.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FIRST Europe-wide register of industrial emissions into air and water has been launched by the European Environment Agency and the European Commission. This European Pollutant Emission Register is available on the Internet and contains detailed information on pollution from around 10,000 large industrial facilities in the European Union and Norway, including large pig and poultry farms.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN EU-supported research scheme has developed practical guidelines on recycling waste from 19 food production processes. AWARENET worked out technical solutions for recycling its oils, sugars, vitamins, colorants and antioxidants. *http://ica.cordis.lu/search/index.cfm?fuseaction=proj.simpledocument&PJ_RCN=5059864&CFID=58430&CFTOKEN=21966306…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded project has developed a technical system to search and retrieve the increasing amount of information held in digital moving image video, still photograph or audio archives. Its coordinators say that the project will be very useful for museums and research institutes who store such material.…

BY MARK ROWE
UZBEKISTAN has been at the forefront of international AML efforts in the central Asia region, a spokesman for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) told the Money Laundering Bulletin. Uzbekistan has the most advanced AML legislation and apparatus of all the former Soviet Central Asia and has signed more than 20 bilateral and multilateral agreements on cooperation in fighting illicit drug trafficking with its Central Asian neighbours, as well as with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, according to the International Money Laundering Information Network (IMOLIN), (whose contributing members include the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering, the United Nations and the World Customs Organisation).…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EASTERN and southern Europe countries slated to join the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004, have worked small wonders in recent years to set up anti-money laundering regimes, not necessarily because they believe this is good in itself but partly at least because EU entry might not be possible otherwise.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE PREMISES of five major European chemical companies have been raided by the European Commission’s antitrust services in a search for evidence of price-fixing in solvents, and a small list of other products. Brussels said the investigation was at a “preliminary stage” and could lead to no evidence of wrong-doing.…

Keith Nuthall
WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) wine and spirits rules of origin register talks chairman Eui-yong Chung, of South Korea, has released his draft proposal designed to end the long running negotiations. It tries to crystallise positions so a deal can be struck at the WTO TRIPs council, July 2-3.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON, in Newcastle, England, MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane and RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
ASK a human to find a needle in a haystack and they would probably spend five minutes at the most sifting through the stalks, then get bored and walk away.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERPOL has agreed to a request from Russian authorities to help locate the missing vodka magnate Yury Shefler, wanted by Russian prosecutors in connection with allegations of threatening to kill a government official.

A spokesman for the organisation’s Moscow bureau confirmed that Interpol offices across Western Europe were now liaising in the search for SPI Group owner Shefler.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE EXTRAORDINARY efforts by the American government to thwart terrorist financing have been leaning heavily on the USA’s financial services industry,

which continues to bear the brunt of the new anti-money laundering legislation.

Noone was surprised that the US government set its sights on the banks when it enacted legislation to make it more difficult for criminals to launder their illicit money or for terrorists to soil their clean money.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
BRITISH government backed scientists have launched a pioneering research project that could see natural plant fibres being used to manufacture car body shells. Biomat is a four-year project using various forms of flax and hemp fibre, as well as willow, and is being funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MARK ROWE, in London, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane, and RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg

Introduction

Europe

Cuts to EU catch quotas

New sources of fish

Affect on fish producers

Wild alternatives to cod

Farmed cod

North America

USA – Healthier local stocks

USA – Demand up

USA – Fish imports

Canada – Farmed fish exports

Canada – GM issues

Australasia

Australia – New wild sources

Australia – Aquaculture

Australia – Wild fish innovation

Australia and New Zealand – sustainability

South Africa – Export increase and conservation

Japan – Local and regional supply

Japan – Maintaining quality

Japan – Non-Asian sources

Introduction

ONCE it was said, cod was so abundant that fishermen in some parts of the world boasted they could walk on the backs of the fish to find their catch.…

BY MARK ROWE
IF you open the window, flies will enter your home but in post-Soviet Russia it wasn’t just the windows but the doors too that were flung wide open.

Organised gangs, drawn by the sweet smell of easy pickings, duly swarmed all over the decaying house of Lenin.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GENERAL Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation has streamlined and simplified the international patent application filing system as operated under its Patent Cooperation Treaty. Delegates agreed to integrate two key processes, namely an international search looking for existing patents that might throw doubt on the uniqueness of an invention and an examination of the application itself, checking whether it is novel, involves an inventive step and can be exploited industrially.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
WHEN IATA’s Director General and CEO, Pierre J Jeanniot, spoke at the opening of his organisation’s 58th AGM and the World Air Transport Summit in Shanghai on June 3, 2002, he lamented the industry’s losses of US$12 billion the previous year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RICHES that can be made from the illegal ivory trade are well known, but what of illicit imports and exports of rare flowers. Shipping protected orchids to Europe, Japan and north America can make criminals a lot of money.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SMART cards for health are not exactly a novelty but the Prevencard to be launched in the UK next year uses some particularly smart technology.

Prevencard, which is being marketed by the Spanish company Grupo Prevencard International, is a commercial application of security research carried out under the EU’s 5th Framework Programme for research.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW laboratory tasked with fostering innovative solutions for nuclear waste management has been inaugurated at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

Its Institute for Transuranium Elements, in Karlsruhe, Germany, has opened a Euro 10 million Minor Actinide Laboratory, which will manufacture and characterize the most suitable materials for the transmutation of long-lived toxic elements created by the nuclear industry.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN publishers are licking their wounds after a summer ill spent with paperwork, lawyers fees and frustration because of the crash of Jack Stoddart’s General Publishing Co. Ltd. and its book distribution arm, General Distribution Services Ltd. (GDS), which filed for voluntary bankruptcy last month at an Ontario court.…

BY PHILIP FINE

The US Justice Department, on behalf of the country’s Internal Revenue Service, has filed suit against the US member companies of KPMG and BDO International. It says the accounting firms failed to provide the government with key tax shelter information.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FUTURE Harvest Centres, a network of global food and environmental research organisations, has launched a new online search tool in Rome allowing users to search the rich reserves of online material about harvest performance worldwide. *More information: http://infofinder.cgiar.org…

Keith Nuthall
A SPECIAL conference on settling a number of maritime border disputes in the Caribbean has been launched, which could help develop international law regarding the effect of uninhabited island on establishing exclusive economic zones.

One wrangle is between Venezuela and the Caribbean island state of St Kitts and Nevis, which has been protesting about maritime boundary treaties concluded by the south American state regarding the so-called Isla Aves; they grant the islands full territorial sea status, including an exclusive economic zone, or continental shelf.…

Keith Nuthall
NOONE should ever accuse the European Commission of fighting shy of regulation, and given that proposals on promoting shipping safety are generally framed with good intentions, it would be fair to say that Brussels at least tries to improve standards.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A SIGNIFICANT extension of airport security measures across the 43 countries of the Council of Europe, including for the first time three republics of the former Soviet Union, has now become a real possibility.

The Council’s economic committee has agreed to recommend to its member governments a range of sweeping airport reforms based on the AVSEC package drawn up by the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE AGREEMENT of a Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, (UNESCO), may not help museums gain access to treasures from shipwrecks and sunken buildings, specialists in the UK have claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRACTICAL guidelines on steps that governments should take to fight digital piracy have been released by the Council of Europe, an organisation whose members include Russia and other eastern European countries, and where such crimes are known to have taken place in the past.…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
THE FORD Motor Company of Canada has announced that its newly launched national online auto shopping service experiment has proved to be so successful, that it and will extend the service to all 532 of its dealers across Canada.…

BY KATE REW
AMERICAN bra manufacturers are responding to growing demand from larger women who are no longer content to wear cumbersome, corset-like structures but would prefer flimsier, sexier bras which are both comfortable and flatter their fuller figures. For a long time this market, which stands at around 40 per cent of intimate wear and is growing all the time, has been overlooked, according to Joyce Baran, Vice President of Merchandising and Design, Liz Claiborne Intimates.…

BY KATE REW
AMERICAN bra manufacturers are responding to growing demand from larger women who are no longer content to wear cumbersome, corset-like structures but would prefer flimsier, sexier bras which are both comfortable and flatter their fuller figures. For a long time this market, which stands at around 40 per cent of intimate wear and is growing all the time, has been overlooked, according to Joyce Baran, Vice President of Merchandising and Design, Liz Claiborne Intimates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
RUSSIA has ratified the Council of Europe’s Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime, a move that could herald a tightening in Russian government policy towards the fighting of money laundering.

Signatories have to ensure that their national legislation provides for the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has taken clear steps towards the adoption of a law, which would compel the freezing of assets in any of its member countries because of a court order issued in any other EU state. This regulation covers “the transfer of property to be used as evidence, for the purpose of confiscation or for restitution to the victim of an offence.”…

BY ALAN OSBORN
AN INTERNET marketplace for motor manufacturers and component suppliers was given a go-ahead by the European Commission today (Tuesday). Covisint, a business-to-business (B2B) electronic exchange, set up originally by Ford, DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Renault and Nissan and later joined by PSA Peugeot Citroën, is designed to provide the automotive industry with “procurement, collaborative product development and supply chain management tools.”…

Alan Osborne
Price: many services are free but a typical subscription for a small or medium-sized company would be around £5,000

Contact:

Headquarters:

120 w 12TH Street, Suite 310, Kansas City Missouri 64105

In UK call 20 7951 8000

International Support outside of the US: 01-816-480-5259

Web-site: www.esecurityonline.com…

BY KATE REW
A MORATORIUM on the drilling of oil and gas reserves in the American portion of the Great Lakes could be lifted this autumn, just as President George Bush unveils his plans to dramatically increase the US search for new energy reserves.…

BY SWINEETHA WICKRAMANAYAKE AND ANNIE KEY
PROPOSALS are in the pipeline for airport construction projects, expansions and refurbishments throughout India and Sri Lanka. Over the next five years, there are plans to launch at least five new airports throughout the region, although it in anticipated that significant support from their respective governments will be required for them to be a fully fledged success.…

Keith Nuthall
INTRODUCTION

IMAGINE the scene. You are a managing director of a new delivery service. You have bought computers, stationary, furniture, filing cabinets, vans and telephones. Advertising has been placed and orders are expected. You are ready to go.

Just one problem.…