Search Results for: America

BY PHILIP FINE

AN AREA of northern Bolivia is to be the focus of an innovative Canadian aid mission designed to offer advice on preventing landslides in communities pock-marked with small mines, notably those for gold prospecting.

Canada will fund a team of scientists to help the community of Chima, a remote gold-mining village that was hit by a deadly landslide last month; the specialists want to ensure that they do not suffer from a repeat the tragedy and to help such communities better deal with such disasters, if they do occur.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS with many projects inspired by the start of the next 997 years and the last three, the framing of the United Nations’ (UN) Millennium Development Goals was an ambitious enterprise.

Imposing statistically measurable targets for international organisations and national governments in making improvements in global poverty, education, gender equality, health, the environment and education, they have proved tough to attain.…

BY PHILIP FINE

KFC, America’s largest chicken chain, says it will be changing some slaughter practices in order treat its chickens more humanely. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company said that it has adopted eight guidelines for farmers that address breeding, hatching and raising of poultry, including adequate growth space and routine inspections of facilities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SPANISH government has agreed to cooperate with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to fight breaches of copyright, especially in digital publishing. A joint memorandum of understanding committed both sides to cooperate over training, publicity campaigns and information exchanges.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, ALAN OSBORN, PHILIP FINE and KEITH NUTHALL

IF there had been feelings bubbling under the surface of the British civil nuclear industry that the regulations governing its security were due for an overhaul, the events of September 11, 2001 – becoming universally known by its American shorthand 9/11 – certainly brought everybody to the table.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
A LOT of people are saying that cigar smoking may be in serious long-term decline given the way things are going in America. World Tobacco is inclined to treat the figures a little more cautiously. It is true there has almost certainly been a sharp drop in American consumption in recent years but, as Chris Boon, the premium cigar manager at British American Tobacco, points out, there are no true figures: “you draw own conclusions and arrive at an estimate.”…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE EXTRAORDINARY efforts by the American government to thwart terrorist financing have been leaning heavily on the USA’s financial services industry,

which continues to bear the brunt of the new anti-money laundering legislation.

Noone was surprised that the US government set its sights on the banks when it enacted legislation to make it more difficult for criminals to launder their illicit money or for terrorists to soil their clean money.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICA is experiencing a rash of mould-related lawsuits. Recent cases have included a US$14 million judgment in Florida against a contractor for alleged toxic mould-related construction defects at a courthouse and a US$65 million lawsuit against a New York community college by one of its former employees for injuries and damages allegedly caused by mould exposure.…

BY PHILIP FINE

OCCIDENTAL Petroleum has boosted its reserves, a sign – say analysts – that the California-based oil and natural gas producer could have higher production rates in the next few years. The company, which drills primarily in the Middle East and Latin America, added the equivalent of 263 million barrels of oil to its inventory last year, giving it more than 12 years’ worth of production from its current reserves.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE USA’S Devon Energy Corp. has announced that it will buy Ocean Energy Corp. for US$3.5 billion in stock, to create the largest America-based independent oil and gas production company. Oklahoma-based Devon, which took over Anderson Exploration of Calgary in 2001 for a hefty US$4.6 billion and Northstar Energy, also of Calgary, in 1998, will assume US$1.8 billion of Houston-based Ocean’s debt.…