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.
NUCLEAR ENERGY SECURITY
BY DEIRDRE MASON, ALAN OSBORN, PHILIP FINE and KEITH NUTHALL
IF there had been feelings bubbling under the surface of the British civil nuclear industry that the regulations governing its security were due for an overhaul, the events of September 11, 2001 – becoming universally known by its American shorthand 9/11 – certainly brought everybody to the table.…
MARATHON OIL
BY PHILIP FINE
HOUSTON-BASED Marathon Oil will sell US$400 million (Pounds 253 million) in assets this year to pay down its debt and boost spending on international oil projects. The company identified the assets as non-core oil and gas production and refining and marketing.…
HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS - US
BY PHILIP FINE
US President George W. Bush last month committed US$1.2 billion (Pounds 760 million) to developing hydrogen-powered fuel cell technology. Part of that will include US$720 million in new funding over the next five years to develop the technologies and infrastructure to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen for use in fuel cell vehicles and electricity generation.…
EL PASO MISERY
BY PHILIP FINE
WILLIAM Wise, the embattled chief executive of US gas pipeline giant El Paso, will retire by the end of 2003. The announcement came last month just one week after El Paso said it would sell nearly US$3 billion (Pounds 1.9 billion)
more in assets than originally planned in a bid to reduce its debt.…
USA FEATURE
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.…
BLACK LUNG DISEASE
BY PHILIP FINE
THE US’S Bush administration has revived several President Clinton-era proposed rules meant to protect coal miners from black lung disease. In particular, this decision reverses a December 2001, Bush decision to stop the continuous monitoring of coal dust in underground mines and for US Mine Safety and Health Administration
(MSHA) to verify dust control plans at surface mines.…
SLURRY STUDY
BY PHILIP FINE
A US$3 MILLION (Pounds 1.87million) pilot project designed to address the dangers
of coal slurry impoundments in West Virginia has been given the go-ahead as part of a federal 2003 Omnibus Appropriations act. The project will study alternatives to the creation of waste and the reduction of existing impoundments, as well as alternative methods of disposal and power generation from all impoundment materials.…
US ORGANIC MEAT ROW
BY PHILIP FINE
US organic producers are urging legislators to repeal a section of a new
law that waters down the definition of organic meat. The 2003 Omnibus
Appropriations Bill exempts those raising organic livestock from purchasing
organic feed if it costs twice as much as conventionally produced feed.…
ROCHESTER UNIVERSITY CASE
BY PHILIP FINE
A SMALL private college in upstate New York, USA, has lost a patent case against
two pharmaceutical heavy-hitters. Three years ago the University of
Rochester sued Pharmacia and Pfizer, seeking royalties on the popular
painkiller, Celebrex. The university cited its own patent that treated pain
and inflammation by inhibiting the Cox-2 enzyme.…
US PRECURSORS
BY PHILIP FINE and KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States is calling for countries to offer up more information on their legal pharmaceutical and bulk chemical industries so as to better catch those who are using them for illegal purposes.
In its comprehensive annual report on worldwide drugs activities, the US State Department places some of the blame for many legal chemicals ending up in the hands of illicit drug manufacturers, on government political structures.…