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.
AVIATION INSURANCE
BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission today (Tuesday) announced proposed new legislation to bring in compulsory minimum insurance requirements for all air carriers and aircraft operators flying within, into, out of or overflying the European Union. It is also considering the merits of creating a mutual fund in the probable event that governments decided against maintaining the current state guarantees after the end of October this year.…
PHANTOM SHIPS
BY MONICA DOBIE
UNDERWRITERS in Hong Kong have set a precedent by invoking a law for the first time that dates back to 1906, to avoid paying a claim on cargo that disappeared in the high seas aboard a phantom ship.…
ILLEGAL PLANT TRADE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RICHES that can be made from the illegal ivory trade are well known, but what of illicit imports and exports of rare flowers. Shipping protected orchids to Europe, Japan and north America can make criminals a lot of money.…
TAIWAN CD'S
BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER governments of the World Trade Organisation have claimed that Taiwan’s continuing vast capacity to copy CD’s, is a sign that it is failing to honour its commitments to abide by the WTO’s TRIPs agreement (trade related aspects of intellectual property rights).…
SWISS BANKS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
SWITZERLAND has failed to come up with an adequate proposal for supplying information about tax evasion through Swiss savings accounts held by EU residents and may face financial sanctions unless it complies, the EU Commissioner for the internal market Frits Bolkestein has told EU finance ministers.…
PHANTOM SHIPS
BY MONICA DOBIE
INSTANCES of Phantom ship fraud may decrease in the future because of a law dating back to 1906 that was recently invoked in a Hong Kong court for the first time.
Section 44 of the Marine Insurance Act (MIA), a law replicated in many Commonwealth countries, was used to defeat the owner of missing palm oil cargo worth US$2.5 million aboard the ship the Pacifica that had gone missing in the high seas.…
TAKEOVER DIRECTIVE
BY ALAN OSBORN
AFTER intensive consultation the European Commission has come up with a proposed new EU take-over directive that it hopes will avoid the fate of its predecessor, which was rejected by the European Parliament last year. The earlier text was strongly opposed by Germany, which feared it could weaken defences against hostile take-overs.…
SWISS ROLLS
Keith Nuthall
SWITZERLAND has failed to come up with an adequate proposal for
supplying information about savings accounts held by EU residents and may
face financial sanctions unless it complies, the EU Commissioner for the
internal market Frits Bolkestein has told EU finance ministers.…
FINANCIAL CONGLOMERATES
Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union ministers have approved in principle reforms to EU regulations on financial conglomerates, aimed at avoiding an Enron-style scandal in Europe. They have approved the creation of national regulators whose job is to supervise conglomerates and help improve the flow of information about their accounts.…
PWC - IBM
Keith Nuthall
THE ACQUISITION of PricewaterhouseCoopers’s consulting business by IBM has received regulatory clearance in Europe, with the European Commission concluding that the merged operation will face sufficient competition in Europe to allow consumers a continued wide choice of consultants. The IT giant’s purchase of PwC Consulting will expand IBM’s IT services delivery portfolio with additional strategy, consulting, business process and industry expertise, concluded Brussels, after an investigation.…