Archive

BY KATE REW
BORED by the Vera and Jack Duckworth’s down the local? If so, head for your computer and pay a virtual visit to a pub of your choice: when you ‘see someone you’d like to get to know,’ as the logo says, then ‘click here and get them a beer’.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPE’S notorious IT skills shortage was a focus of a Brussels eLearning ‘summit’ between computing and communications companies, EU politicians and officials last week, (May 10-11). Delegates in particular examined how a growth in remote Internet education packages could help satisfy the EU’s demand for trained IT professionals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for the oncoming sixth framework programme on EU research to treat the development electronic money purses, especially through the use of 3G mobile phones, as a priority for funding. As it stands, the proposed plan would earmark Euro 3.6 billion for ‘information society’ research from 2002 to 2006.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has published a new guide, “Data Protection in the European Union,” which is aimed at providing businesses a clear and understandable description of EU legislation on the subject. It is based on Directive 95/46/EC, (the data protection directive), which is also the subject of proposed reforms that take account of “new and foreseeable developments in electronic communications services and technologies.”…

BY KATE REW
A NEW groundbreaking IT-banking joint-venture is now operating in the UK, with 1,700 staff of high street bank Abbey National plc being transferred to the organisation.

It decided earlier this year to outsource its banking processes by setting up a joint venture to handle the work, in partnership with Texas-based Electronic Data Systems.…

BY KATE REW
THE NEW edition of the global code, which sets the standard for imports and exports of healthy fish has just been released. The third version of the International Aquatic Animal Health Code published by Office International des Epizooties (corr), lists the diseases that would stop the import or export of fish, molluscs and crustaceans, under international trade laws.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
RECENT findings in cod farming lab experiments, performed in Newfoundland, Canada, have provided some encouraging results, rekindling hope that cod aquaculture may soon thrive.

Joel Bell, a marine biologist at Memorial University in St. John’s, the Newfoundland capital, has been performing lab tests on cod since 1995, and most recently, discovered techniques that may help higher numbers of baby cod grow into mature fish.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation has claimed that national governments have a duty under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to introduce tough anti-smoking regulations, that would hinder tobacco companies from marketing product to young people and prevent them from being exposed to passive smoking.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CIGARETTE packets sold in the European Union could be graced with gory medical images designed to shock smokers into quitting, as a result of a compromise deal struck between the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament over the final form of the new European tobacco directive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organisation has launched a bid to encourage its member countries to adopt the kind of tobacco control legislation that was recently adopted by the European Union, In a monograph called “Advancing Knowledge on Regulating Tobacco Products,” the WHO has called for an overhaul of the existing testing methods for tar, nicotine and other ingredients.…