Search Results for: united nations

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE, in Columbo
THE UNITED States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will provide technical assistance to Sri Lanka so it can comply with the rules of the US Container Security Initiative. The agency has asked US company Aerospace

Services International Inc.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BINDING energy conservation targets have been proposed for European Union (EU) Member States by the European Commission, a move that could further tighten fuel economy rules for Europe’s transport sector. Brussels has proposed a general energy saving target of one per cent a year from 2006-12, measured against average energy distribution from the previous five years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN law is to guarantee the rights of European Union (EU) citizens to access environmental information, participate in environmental decision-making and grant them the right to bring public authorities to court over this policy area, if EU ministers agree a proposal from the European Commission.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE WORLD’S first hydrogen fuel cell power plant to operate on coal mine methane gas has been launched in the United States. Based in Rose Valley, Hopedale, Ohio, the 200-kilowatt power plant uses between 55,000 and 80,000 cubic feet per day of 42-47 per cent pure mine methane gas from an abandoned mine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNITED Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has welcomed an agreement between the (former US President) Clinton Foundation and four pharmaceutical companies in developing countries to halve the price of anti-retroviral drugs treating HIV/AIDS. Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, of Johannesburg, South Africa; Cipla of Mumbai, India; Ranbaxy Laboratories, of Delhi, India; and Matrix Laboratories of Hyderabad, India, will cut the annual cost of drugs for each infected person to as little as US$140.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations (UN) has framed a new anti-corruption convention and its established convention against organised crime is now coming into force. Keith Nuthall examines what this will mean for businesses, banks and governments.

THE COMMERCIAL world is often doubtful about the value of international conventions fighting crime, but their texts do at least reflect a global consensus amongst concerned governments.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) retail goods importers are girding themselves for the imposition of heavy duties on a range of United States food and clothing exports, after the World Trade Organisation authorised EU retaliation to American protection of its steel industry, erected in breach of global trade laws.…

BY PHILIP FINE

UNITED States border authorities on the lookout for a new food smuggling racket from Mexico, after customs officials discovered an operation that involved one light truck and 756 pounds of processed sandwich meat. US Customs and Border Protection officers seized 81 rolls of Mexican baloney on Texas’s Paso Del Norte bridge from Juarez, Mexico.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE WORLD’S first hydrogen fuel cell power plant to operate on coal mine methane gas has been launched in the United States. Based in Hopedale, Ohio, the 200-kilowatt Rose Valley power plant uses between 55,000 and 80,000 cubic feet per day of 42-47 per cent pure mine methane gas from an abandoned mine.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE USA could become a major pectin producer after a Penn State University (Pennsylvania) researcher developed a process to extract high-quality pectin from orange peels. The complex carbohydrate, used to thicken jellies and fruit fillings, has been traditionally slow cooked by Europeans using lime peels imported from Mexico and south America.…