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.
APPLES
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RESEARCHER from New Zealand’s Massey University has invented an electronic one-handed “grip” to measure apples on the tree, transmitting dimensions digitally to a computer, helping growers assess whether crops will meet the required size at harvest.…
NUCLEAR PROBE
BY MATTHEW BRACE
A NUCLEAR probe developed by Australia’s national science authority, CSIRO, could be used in the promotion and marketing of low sulphur coal, claims its inventors. The quipment can measure the sulphur content of coal underground, allowing miners to choose seams with less sulphur.…
RAG DEAL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition by Germany’s mining and technology group RAG of German speciality chemicals company Degussa AG, so long as RAG sells its Italian, Spanish and German plants making naphtalene sulfonate, an important concrete input.…
CANCER HANDOUTS
BY PHILIP FINE
MANY US states are putting little of their tobacco settlement windfall into smoking cessation programmes, according to figures released recently (November 21) by the country’s Cancer Care and Chest Foundation groups. In 1998, 46 states won US$206 billion from major cigarette makers, with each receiving an average of nearly US$164 million.…
SPACE TECHNOLOGY
BY JONATHAN THOMSON, in Newcastle, England, PHILIP FINE and MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal, Canada
SPACE may be Star Trek’s final frontier, but in reality innovations used on rockets and satellites do not stay in orbit; they are often brought back to Earth where they have been used by auto-manufacturers to break their own technological boundaries.…
USA WTO TARIFF ROW
BY PHILIP FINE
THE AMERICAN Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI) is voicing its opposition to the Bush administration’s recent tariff-slashing proposal for the ongoing World Trade Organisation Doha Development Round, saying the trade plan will further open the market to China and wipe out US$13 billion worth of US business.…
US LABELLING
BY PHILIP FINE
US textile companies that make small labelling errors will soon be getting a break from the country’s Federal Trade Commission. Its Textile Corporate Leniency Policy will allow such mistakes as fibres not being listed in order, a label being covered by another label and a shortened word such as poly used in place of polyester for most businesses.…
BULLET RESISTANT
BY PHILIP FINE
FOUR members of America’s Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees, including its president, Bruce Raynor, are being sued by a bullet-resistant vest manufacturer for allegedly defaming the quality of their protective textiles. Florida-based Point Blank says the four knowingly lied to media, police and retailers about subcontracting operations, claiming they negatively affecting vest quality.…
FOOTWEAR FREE TRADE
BY PHILIP FINE AND KEITH NUTHALL
THE US government has unveiled plans to push for freer trade in footwear at the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round of trade negotiations. The Bush administration has announced that it would like to see an end to non-rubber footwear tariff and non-tariff barriers worldwide within 10 years.…
FOOTWEAR FREE TRADE
BY PHILIP FINE AND KEITH NUTHALL
THE US government has unveiled plans to push for freer trade in footwear at the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round of trade negotiations. The Bush administration has announced that it would like to see an end to non-rubber footwear tariff and non-tariff barriers worldwide within 10 years.…