Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has approved the creation of new import quotas for steel products from the Ukraine, which will last until December 31, this year. Imports into the European Union during this year will be limited to 27,414 tonnes of coils, 104,920 tonnes of heavy plate and 8,465 tonnes of other flat steel products; and for long products, quotas have been set at 3,690 tonnes for beams, 52,720 tonnes for wire rod and 66,427 or other long steel products.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPE’S retail businesses and associations have been asked to comment on detailed plans released by the European Commission for a broad ‘framework’ directive on fair trading; the legislation may for instance, ban “business from engaging in commercial practices that are misleading or likely to mislead the consumer.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
CANADIAN consumers are to be compensated by their retailers, if errors are detected at checkout price scanners. Under a new retail code of conduct, the Scanner Price Accuracy Voluntary Code, customers will receive incorrectly scanned items for free if the price is less than CAN$10 and will receive CAN$10 off the price of more expensive items.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank has drawn up plans to lend around Euro 100 million to Turkey’s ministry of national education, to help the country continue improving its primary schools by installing information technology equipment into 6,800 classrooms.

This plan is part of a much larger programme of the ministry to introduce IT classes in Turkey’s compulsory education system, which was extended from five to eight years by the country’s Basic Education Law (1997); the law also aims to boost quality in primary education.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MOVE to liberalise the global trade in artificially propagated orchids has been made by the USA, which has formally proposed that six species are exempted from controls under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Human Rights has ruled that the British government is breaking the European Convention on Human Rights by blocking men from receiving both a Widow’s Payment and a Widowed Mother’s Allowance.

Its ruling followed a case brought by Kevin Willis, of Bristol, who was awarded Pounds 25,000 in damages and Pounds 12,500 costs and expenses.…

BY MARK ROWE
MUSEUMS and research institutions are being warned that they risk losing vast amounts of digital information unless new techniques are developed to conserve the material.

Until recently all that was needed to archive information recorded in traditional forms such as the printed page, analogue tape or film was the physical storage place to house the material.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LOCAL government could be consulted on planned European Union legislation, before it is even drafted, under a root-and-branch reform of the way that the EU is governed.

The idea is to be discussed at the Convention on the Future of Europe, the body chaired by former French President Giscard d’Estaing, having been received by a member of its praesidium, Ana Palacio, an MEP.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has given European airlines a stay of execution regarding the payment of emergency state aid to meet their insurance cover needs in a market still reeling from September 11. Brussels will allow national governments to continue subsidies until June 30; meantwhile it will try and agree a long term solution with the airline industry and Member States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation has launched a comprehensive research programme to unmask mysteries surrounding the contraction of venous thrombosis by air passengers, including epidemiological, pathophysiological and clinical studies.

Scientists will aim to determine the frequency and causes of travellers’ thrombosis, to identify who is at greatest risk and what may be done to prevent the condition.…