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.
EU TRADE RULES
Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed liberalising its textile trade regime, to make it easier for textile companies to import samples or small consignments “of negligible value” into the European Union. At present, EU legislation forces many importers to abide by quota limits, submit export and import licences, while following surveillance documentation regulations and rules of origin, when hawking samples around Europe, even though such items enter the EU duty-free.…
EU MID-TERM REPORT
BY DEIRDRE MASON
THE ROMANO Prodi-led European Commission has received a mid-term report from senior environmental groups within the European Union and it contains a mixture of bouquets and brickbats. It written by the Green 8, a coalition that includes the European Environmental Bureau, the European Federation for Transport and Environment and Friends of the Earth Europe.…
LIFE-ENVIRONMENT
BY ALAN OSBORN
The European Union’s LIFE-Environment programme has selected six British projects for grants under its latest allocation of 69 million euros (pounds 43 million). Altogether 109 projects in the EU countries are being supported, mostly in water resource management.…
BY ALAN OSBORN
The more new buildings that go up, the more demand there is for sand and gravel for use as aggregate. In theory there’s an almost inexhaustible supply of it on the sea-bed. But each ton taken away leaves a hole under the sea that fills with water.…
SEA EMISSIONS REPORT
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NORTH Sea is Europe’s blackspot for maritime sulphur dioxide emissions from fishing vessels, a report ordered by the European Commission has claimed. Pollution from ships in the southern North Sea east of East Anglia and north of the Straits of Dover is the worst in the continent, at between 0.2 and 0.5 kilotonnes annually per square 50 km, with emissions for the northern North Sea coming in at between 0.1 and 0.2 kilotonnes.…
SEABED EXTINCTIONS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPECIALIST United Nations agency has admitted that unless careful precautions are taken, the future exploitation of mineral deposits on the bed of deep oceans could lead to the extinction of species, many of which have yet to be discovered.…
TELEWORKERS
BY ALAN OSBORN
NEW worries about the health and safety of teleworkers, homeworkers and others on short-term contracts are expressed in two new studies by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. It says they not only lack the protection of national occupational health and safety (OSH) regulations but may also suffer from “an increased sense of
job insecurity, often associated with work-related stress and its potential human and economic costs.”…
SOUTH-EAST ASIA
BY MARK ROWE
MONEY launderers looking to process their criminal gains look favourably upon south-east Asia. Authorities in the region are under-funded and overworked, while cash-transactions are a cultural norm, making it easy to ensure that money you would prefer not to be traced can simply disappear, with little likelihood that anyone will have the time to investigate the transaction.…
OECD - SECURITY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
INFORMATION technology and telecommunications companies should build security from hackers, virus spreaders and cyber-terrorists into the design of their networks from the outset, rather than tacking it on later as a result of painful experience, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has advised.…
HEALTH AND SAFETY
BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN unkind moments, critics of the insurance industry might say that the sector revels in misfortune, making money out of pessimism and encouraging its clients to prepare for the worst. Of course, like most unconditional statements about business, the truth is far off and is a lot more murky.…