Archive

BY PHILIP FINE

A UNIVERSITY of Warwick team trialling scented plastic mousetraps have found that mice are more readily lured to their doom with chocolate, than devices laced with the scent of vanilla or cheese. Now, Sorex, a Cheshire, England, pest control company, says it will be marketing a new mousetrap, made out of plastic and infused with chocolate essence, bringing a new meaning to the phrase "death by chocolate."…

BY PHILIP FINE

PUMPING nitrogen into aircraft fuel tanks cuts the risk of explosions, according to Boeing Co. A test it conducted showed nitrogen reduces the amount of oxygen in a plane’s belly to 12 per cent from 21 per cent.…

BY PHILIP FINE

A CAMPAIGN against a proposed third runway at Seattle’s Sea-Tac Airport has been strengthened after Washington state government was allowed to join a lawsuit opposing the project. It claims the runway’s wetland-construction permit was issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers without proof of the need for the US$1.1 billion project and ignored conditions in a separate water quality permit.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AN UNLIKELY new group is being stopped at US airports for suspicious activities: anyone called David Nelson. At least six people in the Los Angeles area, 18 in Oregon and four in Alaska have been detained by airport authorities because they are named David Nelson.…

Keith Nuthall
COUNTERFEIT textile products are being used by international terrorist groups as a key mans to finance their operations, Interpol secretary general Ronald K Noble has warned governments and law enforcement agencies. In documents for his testimony to the US House of Representatives committee on international relations, Mr Noble said the problem might become more serious and called for a partnership between industry and police, to combat it.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
INDIAN scientists have developed a test to detect Bt genes in genetically modified cotton plants, because of concerns about the sale of fake Bt seeds. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research said its test would help quality assurance programmes, including large-scale screening.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILS of the money demanded by four west African countries seeking compensation for subsidies paid to cotton producers in the developed world and China have been released at the World Trade Organisation. Speaking on behalf of its proposal partners Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, the government of Benin has claimed that developing countries lose exports worth US$25 million because of the rich world supports, rising to US$1 billion considering losses incurred by people living indirectly from cotton production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GRANT scheme funneling money to German citizens wanting to buy environment-friendly insulation made from as flax, hemp fibre and sheep’s wool, rather than conventional fossil materials has been approved by the European Commission. Its decision, made under European Union state aid regulatory powers will signal to other EU Member States that such a scheme would be approved by Brussels across Europe.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE BRITISH government has flatly rejected as “ridiculous” the European Commission plan to put VAT on children’s clothes in Britain and says it will block the plan. The Labour government promised in its election manifesto to preserve zero-rating on children’s clothes and other items and John Healey, economic secretary to the Treasury, has repeated that this is a matter for the UK alone to determine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU Council of Ministers has approved a European regulation creating a harmonised system for how customs officers fight Europe’s boom in counterfeit goods, reducing the costs to businesses from making tip offs and speeding the destruction of fake goods.…