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.
PRESTIGE INQUIRY - EP
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SEAFARERS should not be made the legal scapegoats for maritime disasters, when onshore failures in training and management are often to blame, the European Parliament’s inquiry into the sinking of the Prestige off Spain has been told. Eduardo Chagas, of the Maritime Transport Section of the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), told the parliament’s temporary committee on safety at sea that it was wrong, more than one year after the Prestige sank, that Captain Apostolos Mangouras was still under house arrest in Spain.…
ITALY EARTHQUAKE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SPACE technology is being employed in Europe to alert national emergency services to the risk of an oncoming landslide. The European Space Agency (ESA) is working with Italy’s national group for hydro-geological disaster prevention, its environment ministry and Switzerland’s federal office for water and geology.…
MOBILE PHONE HEALTH
BY KEITH NUTHALL
INITIAL results from the world’s largest ever study into whether mobile phone use causes cancer suggest that the technology is safe. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) says that research carried out in Denmark, forming part of the global INTERPHONE study, has concluded: “Use of a cell phone for 10 years or more did not increase acoustic neuroma risk over that of short term users.…
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
APPROVAL has been secured at the European Parliament for a new European Union (EU) directive on the mutual recognition within member countries of professional qualifications; the legislation covers accountants, lawyers, engineers, psychologists, real estate agents and other regulated professionals, liberalising existing general and sector-specific EU rules.…
AIR CREWS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve new rules laying down minimum rest periods and other safety-related personnel regulations for civil aviation crews. The European Commission has proposed a regulation that would set maximum flight times for pilots and cabin crew to 13 hours per day, (11 hours, 45 minutes for night flights).…
PARMALAT SCANDAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for the creation of a single European Union (EU) authority for supervising cross-border financial supervision in Europe as a long-term response to the Parmalat scandal. MEPs made a number of recommendations in a detailed resolution after voicing their concern that “neither the supervisors nor the regulatory authority nor the auditors nor the rating agencies” had any idea that Parmalat funds were being embezzled.…
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS - EU
BY KEITH NUTHALL
APPROVAL has been secured at the European Parliament for a new European Union (EU) directive on the mutual recognition within member countries of professional qualifications; the legislation covers accountants, and liberalises sector-specific rules already in place for the profession.…
COLOUR TESTING
BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane
AUSTRALIAN accountants spend far more time in front of the mirror these days. They are not vainly checking on their tans but seeing if they are a shade of ‘cool blue’ or ‘hot-blooded red’. Colour testing is all the rage at leading accountancy firms Down Under, with PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Ernst and Young among those promoting the practice.…
FISH TRACEABILITY
KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) sub-committee on fish trade has ordered the promotion of cost-effective and global standards to trace a fish’s progress through the commercial chain, from harvesting to consumption. At a meeting in Bremen, Germany, many national representatives expressed concerns about health and safety issues affecting the international fish trade, including consumer perceptions over problems such as antibiotic residues in farmed fish.…
US-AUSTRALIA TRADE DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has signed a free trade deal with Australia, paving the way for large-scale exports into the American market of Australian seafood, both farmed and wild. Upon the ratification and coming into force of the agreement, Australian seafood exports, currently worth around A$140 million (US$110 million), “will enter the USA market duty free immediately”, said a note from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.…