Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
AFGHAN HOTEL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RELAXING week-long break in Afghanistan may not be top of most holiday-makers travel priorities, but that has not stopped the Aga Khan Fund for Economic
Development (AKFED) from sinking US$28 million into restoring and expanding the Hotel Kabul in the nation’s captal.…
OPEN SKIES LATEST
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has formally rejected an EU-US open skies deal that would deny European airlines the right of cabotage in the United States air travel market. Washington is currently refusing to offer this concession, valuable given the size of the US.…
BATHING WATER
KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved in principle updating Europe’s bathing water tests considering technical progress since the system’s 1976 establishment. The new checks focus on intestinal enterococci and escherischia coli. Also tests will be staged only every two years for beaches with consistently good records and three years at “excellent” beaches.…
GALILEO/GPS DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
HAULAGE companies preparing to invest in expensive global positioning navigational equipment have been assured that systems working with the European Union’s (EU) GALILEO network from 2008, will work with signals from the USA’s GPS. The text of a US-EU deal insists that the systems “will be fully compatible and interoperable”, making their joint use and the “manufacturing of equipment much easier and cheaper.”*…
SEVENTH FRAMEWORK
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has started detailed work on proposals for a Seventh Framework Programme of research grants, which could command twice as much money as the existing (sixth) programme to Euro 40 billion and would include space and technology budgets for the first time.…
VENDEX DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition of the Dutch retail company Vendex KBB by US investment fund KKR, ruling it would not create competition problems, despite the Americans already controlling Wincor Nixdorf, a German supplier of electronic retail systems.…
AGOA - AFRICA/USA
Keith Nuthall
USA sales of textile and clothing made in sub-Saharan Africa have been increasing solidly as a result of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which promotes trade by allowing duty free exports of products into America. That is the conclusion of a new report from the US Trade Representative (USTR) office on the act’s influence on trade and investment policy towards and in the region.…
EU HIGH LEVEL GROUP
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) high-level group on textiles has adopted a series of recommendations to improve the competitiveness of the EU textiles and clothing industry, in the face of increasing competition after import quotas are abolished in the New Year.…
QUOTA ABOLITION FIGURES
Keith Nuthall
AS the European Union (EU) prepares to abolish its remaining restrictive import quotas for textile and clothing products, the latest European Commission statistics confirm that China is best placed to exploit this liberalisation. For 2003, China exported more textile products to the expanded EU, with 10.7% of imports.…
VISCOSE - INDONESIA
Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC), of the World Bank, is lending Indonesia’s high quality viscose staple fibre producer (VSF) PT South Pacific US$9.5 million to achieve self-sufficiency in electricity, modernise production and refinance medium-term debt. The company supplies 7-8% of world consumption, working with Austria’s Lenzing AG, its major shareholder and the world’s second largest VSF producer.…