Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ENVIRONMENT committee of the European Parliament wants a review of the safety levels of food additives used in confectionery to check whether they are safe for children. It backed a report by Swedish liberal MEP Marit Paulsen, which calling for a European Commission act within three years, because such additive levels are set with the health of adults in mind.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
SRI LANKA’S Cargills has introduced five new flavours to its Magice ice cream range: fresh strawberry, fruit and nut, vanilla with jaggery, mint with chocolate chips and butterscotch with nougat. The company claims the flavours are new to Sri Lankan consumers.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE ALL-INDIA Ice-cream Manufacturers’ Association has launched a campaign to erase a 35 per cent dip in winter sales, even though Indian winter maximums hover in the 20Cs. A spokesman for ice-cream parlour company Nirulas said: “Most of us have this notion that eating ice-cream in winters will make us sick.”…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
A TRADE deal smoothing Poland’s planned 2004 entry into the European Union has been agreed, where the EU introduces duty free quotas for products including chocolate, biscuits and confectionery and Poland cuts its import duties for chocolate, biscuits and confectionery by 30 per cent.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE SRI Lankan government will release a ‘National Policy on River Sand Removal’ in the coming weeks, to restrict an environmentally damaging boom in unregulated extraction. The country’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Management Gamini Jayawickrema Perera announced that permits for sand mining had already been blocked in two areas Deduru Oya and Ma Oya, where extraction had damaged river banks and flood protection.…

BY RICHARD HURST
SOUTH African diamond mining company Trans Hex has announced that it is to embark on a US$30 million diamond project in Angola. Calvyn Gardner, chief executive of the group, said that the mining industry is a primary mechanism to get the south-west African country’s economy up and running, as it emerged from a long civil war.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the payment by northern Spain’s Principality of Asturias regional government of Euro 3 million to local private coal mining companies. The money will improve working safety in mines, (via research and development and worker training), and protect the environment, (through waste management and pollution clean-ups).…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
THE SRI Lankan government will release a ‘National Policy on River Sand Removal’ in the coming weeks, to restrict an environmentally damaging boom in unregulated extraction. The country’s Minister of Irrigation and Water Management Gamini Jayawickrema Perera announced that permits for sand mining had already been blocked in two areas Deduru Oya and Ma Oya, where extraction had damaged river banks and flood protection.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved plans to lend US$3 million to the Armenian Copper Programme to help it increase its production of copper, build up reserves of raw materials and spend more on environmental-protection.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that anti-dumping duties levied on imports of ferro-silico-manganese from China and the Ukraine should be reduced when consignments of the metal have lost value from damage incurred before being admitted into the European Union (EU).…