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.
CHINA WTO
BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNATIONAL pharmaceuticals companies will find it easier to export to China in the future, following the approval of its membership of the World Trade Organisation, a decision that was achieved by China making a wide range of concessions that will liberalise its commercial laws.…
TOULOUSE EXPLOSION
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REVIEW of European safety laws designed to prevent industrial explosions – such as that which recently ripped through the Atofina fertiliser plant in Toulouse, France, killing 29 people – is to be launched by a specialist EU committee.…
DUAL-USE GOODS
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.…
EU-RUSSIA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has signed an agreement with Russia on space research cooperation. EU research commissioner Phillipe Busquin and Russian space agency director general Youri Koptiev agreed a joint document on the Euro-Russian Space Partnership. The deal focuses on mutual assistance in the development of satellite navigation systems such as Galileo and Glonass, Brussels’ “global monitoring for environment and security” (GMES) initiative and launch services, notably the launch of Soyuz rockets from the European Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.…
INNOVATION LEAGUE
BY ALAN OSBORN
BRITAIN comes fourth in an international league of 17 developed countries which ranks them according to their achievements, resources and capacity for future development in the field of innovation, the European Commission said today Monday. Sweden comes top followed by the US and Finland.…
SOUTH KOREA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has developed what appears to be the rather unlikely plan to lend US$25 million to a South Korean-owned shipbuilding firm, in a bid to increase its industrial capacity. Although the proposed loan would actually be spent on boosting Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering’s operations in Mangalia, a Black Sea coast town in Romania, near the Bulgarian border, the bank is said to be aware of the political sensitivities.…
RESEARCH
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed that Euro 440 million be set aside from the proposed EU’s 6th Framework Research Programme, to fund research into subject areas not yet identified, but which will become technological priorities in the future.…
TELESCOPE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Space Agency is to launch the world’s first giant space telescope in 2007. Its Herschel Space Observatory will command a primary mirror 3.5 metres in diameter, allowing, said the European Commission, the faintest objects to be observed.…
GALILEO
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FIRST cracks are appearing in what has so far been a remarkably solid public front over the European Union project to send global positioning satellites into orbit, with the European Parliament expressing concern about its financial viability.…
BRAIN DRAIN
BY ALAN OSBORN
Britain is the key source within the OECD countries for scientists and engineers working in America, according to the latest Science, Technology and Industry indicators published by the organisation. They show that 7,086 scientists and engineers from the UK are at present working in the US, followed by 5,351 from Canada, 2,298 from Germany and 1,843 from Korea.…