Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PRECIOUS metal dealers are to be included within the scope of an expanded EU money laundering directive, after a deal was struck between the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers over the final shape of reforms to the legislation.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
SRI Lankan aluminium extrusions manufacturer Lanka Aluminium Industries Ltd has announced that it has experienced its first year of sales decline, after six years of a consistent profit hikes.

Its annual report said that the last financial year saw sales volumes decline 10 per cent over the previous year, although turnover was up due to price increases.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has decided not to oppose the granting of Euro 143 million, (Pounds 86 million) state aid by Italy to the Franco-Italian company ST Microelectronics for three research projects costing Euro 456 million, (Pounds 275 million).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A JOINT research project, involving specialists from across the EU, is to examine whether the electromagnetic fields created by mobile telephones is damaging to human health.

The subject is one of none recently identified by the Committee of Senior Officials for Scientific and Technical Research (COST), an EU-managed body that promotes cooperation amongst European scientists.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission is consulting the electronics industry on an ecological performance directive, which would force electrical companies to minimise the impact of their processes on the environment.

Brussels’ draft law on the impact of electrical and electronic equipment would order companies to carry out an assessment of their manufacturing systems and would also tell them to “strive to prevent pollution” in the design, distribution and operation of a product.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers have been asked to approve an updated list of technology whose export should be tightly restricted because of concerns that in the wrong hands, they could be used to develop military and terrorist weapons. European Commission officials have been reviewing the EU’s list of so-called dual-use goods for more than a year and Brussels now formally proposed its new catalogue of controlled exports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Telecommunication Union is developing global standards for an Internet telephone protocol, allowing a single number to access many types of terminals and services, including phones, faxes, e-mails, pagers, mobiles and websites, at home, at work or while roaming.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank is to provide an eight-year Euro 400 million loan to Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer Ericsson to fund R&D activities at its ‘Centres of Excellence,’ in the EU and central Europe. The money will pay for the development of improved management and operations of third generation mobile telephone networks, allowing the transmission of large data volumes at high speed.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
JUST when it appeared Christmas marketing was reaching a nadir, Woolworth is being accused of stooping to an all time low, by insisting the reason for selling new Mother Christmas outfits alongside Father Christmas attire was to satisfy EU gender equality regulations, and not to extract more money from consumers.…

KEITH NUTHALL
A STREAMLINED system for removing faulty non-food items from shops across the European Union, where goods have been shown to be a risk to consumers, is to be set up, following the agreement of reforms to the EU general product safety directive.…