Search Results for: Australia

BY MATTHEW BRACE
ONE of the world’s most inhospitable deserts is yielding scores of unknown species that have existed since the time of the dinosaurs.

They have been discovered in the Simpson Desert in central Australia, where summer temperatures reach 50C and where there is no rain for months, sometimes years.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
THE WORLD’S first large-scale conventional solar power station is to be built in the blisteringly hot Australian outback in a A$700 million (UK Pounds 270 million) project.

The station’s circular solar collector will measure 5km in diameter and the collecting tower will soar 1km into the sky.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
RESEARCHERS at the University of Tasmania, Australia, have developed the world’s first smart car that can override driver error and reduce road accidents.

“In terms of a comprehensive central processing unit working as an artificial brain to make driving safer, this is a world first,” said project leader Dr Vishy Karri.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
SCIENTISTS in Queensland, Australia, have been experimenting with crustacean blood lines to breed prawne that grow faster and produce the biggest specimens; they can now produce one measuring 30cm in length and weighing more than 450g.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
INVESTORS are being warned by the International Chamber of Commerce’s Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) to stay clear of documents promoting deals using the good name of the ICC. Fraudsters are mentioning a fake standard called the “Modified Insurance Guarantee ICC 4081” in fraudulent documents relating to bank guarantees and letters of credit to add credibility to fictitious high yield investment schemes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is joining talks at the WTO about a dispute between Australia and the Philippines over quarantine restrictions imposed by Canberra on imports of fresh fruit and vegetables, especially banana and pineapples.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PORTUGAL has called for the resumption of EU funding of the International Olive Oil Council’s promotion of olive oil in non-EU countries with low demand, (including the USA, Australia and Japan). Payments were suspended over council tendering concerns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MEMBER countries of the World Trade Organisation have sought to exploit the deal struck in Doha, Qatar, to strive for more comprehensive liberalisation in the ongoing agricultural round than has so far been discussed. At an informal meeting of the food trade talks, meat exporter Australia has been calling for an end to trade preferences favouring exports from developing countries, claiming that they encourage them to be dependent on a small range of uncompetitive products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HEALTH experts have been discussing a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD), which has shown Britain performs poorly against its competitors in western Europe and north America, regarding the number of nurses employed per head of population in the late 1990’s.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANZ Fischler has been making a lot of speeches recently. It is not because he has time on his hands, he is in charge of the European Commission’s largest two budgets, agriculture and fisheries after all. Rather it is because he is cross with the Americans, whom he accuses of playing Janus at the WTO.…