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.
BAVARIA MACHINERY RING
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MACHINERY pool for Bavarian forestry and agricultural producers may have to pay back all or part of the Euro 4 million a year it receives in grants from Bavaria’s state government. The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into the subsidies to mechanical equipment ring KBM, which could result in it declaring the grants illegal state aid and ordering partial or full repayment.…
DOHA ROUND - US
BY PHILIP FINE
THE UNITED States has offered several trading partners a complete elimination within five years of the tariffs it currently places on textile and apparel imports. US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick announced the decision as part of its first offer for the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a trading bloc of the western hemispheric countries (Cuba excluded).…
USA MARITIME SECURITY ACT
BY PHILIP FINE
AMERICAN President George W Bush has still not let it be known how his administration will fund a seminal sea safety bill that recently came into law. Earlier this month (February), Bush unveiled his 2004 budget request and, oddly, offered no money for the provisions of The Maritime Security Act of 2002, which requires
detailed port security plans, more screening of cargo, upgraded navigational equipment and an increase in off-shore surveillance to 12 miles from three,.…
US OIL IMPORTS
BY PHILIP FINE
AMERICAN dependence on oil imports will grow over the next 22 years, according to the US Department of Energy. In its annual forecast, it predicted that petroleum imports, which accounted for 55 per cent of total national demand in 2001, could, by 2025, range from 65-70 per cent of demand.…
OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM
BY PHILIP FINE
OCCIDENTAL Petroleum has boosted its reserves, a sign – say analysts – that the California-based oil and natural gas producer could have higher production rates in the next few years. The company, which drills primarily in the Middle East and Latin America, added the equivalent of 263 million barrels of oil to its inventory last year, giving it more than 12 years’ worth of production from its current reserves.…
BAYER ACQUISITION
BY PHILIP FINE
THE PROPOSED acquisition of Bayer’s high-performance pigment business by Sun Chemical, the US subsidiary of Japan’s Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, has a hit a snag. The US Federal Trade Commission says that before any sale goes through, Dainippon must sell off its US-based perylene business.…
AMERICAN SUV'S/PICK-UPS
BY PHILIP FINE
THE UNITED States automobile industry’s main lobby group has acknowledged that Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV’s) and pick-up trucks (small vans) pose serious dangers to smaller vehicles in collisions, and has promised its members will now develop voluntary standards to boost safety.…
PAPER EMISSIONS
BY PHILIP FINE
A NEW methodology has been developed for paper mills to accurately measure their greenhouse gas emissions. Developed as a standard by the GHG (greenhouse gas) Protocol Initiative, a coalition of environmental and industry groups, the on-line tool can be used on any scale, from determining emissions from a specific mill to the industry as whole.…
NUCLEAR SECURITY
BY MARK ROWE and ALAN OSBORN, in London, PHILIP FINE and MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal, and RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
RATCHETING up security has been a prime concern of the nuclear industry since the September 11 attacks, with all countries possessing commercial reactors addressing the issue to some extent.…
US NUCLEAR WASTE PROJECTS
BY PHILIP FINE
NUCLEAR waste disposal programmes should be implemented in stages, so that decisions about how to proceed can be based on the latest available information, says a new report from the Board on Radioactive Waste Management of the US National Research Council, which provides advice to the US federal government.…