Search Results for: japan

BY KENCHO WANGDI, in Japan
VISITORS to this year’s World Expo at Aichi, Japan, are being introduced to a new low pollution tram that needs neither a driver, nor rails. Developed by Toyota researchers, this Intelligent Multimode Transportation System (IMTS) is guided along standard roads by embedded magnetic markers, enabling it to be steered and controlled automatically.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
IT’S coming up to 18 months since the French tobacco industry was hit by the last of a triple whammy of excise tax increases over a single year and it seems a reasonable moment to take stock. The three tax increases – 10% in January 2003, 20% in November 2003 and 10% in January 2004 – were part of a health drive by Jacques Chirac’s government, worried by the continued popularity of smoking among young people among other things.…

BY KENCHO WANGDI, AND KEITH NUTHALL
GIVEN the environmental pressures of global warming laws and clean air legislation, the energy industry is always looking-out for new technologies that can help it deliver services, without the being criticised for harming the planet.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A HEAVY fine levied by the European Commission on Germany’s SGL Carbon for participating in a cartel on the speciality graphite market has been reduced from Euro 27.75 million to Euro 18.45 million. Following an appeal against the fine, the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) Court of First Instance has confirmed that SGL and three other companies should be fined for market fixing; however, it said Brussels’ “was manifestly incorrect” when calculating the German company’s fines.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has made the case for governments and inter-governmental organisations increasing their influence over cross-border accountancy bodies, such as the International Accounts Standards Board (IASB). In a green paper on financial services, Brussels said that “the debate about the future governance, funding and political accountability of global standard-setting bodies….are…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE JAPANESE government has announced it is updating its technical rules on nuclear power generating equipment used within Japan, reforming its 1965 Regulations on Nuclear Power Generation Equipments (the MITI Ordinance No. 62). Notably, specific requirements for materials and structures are being converted into performance-linked standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS the May 31 deadline looms for World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries to make formal offers to liberalise their service industries, the Comité Européen des Assurances (CEA) has called on Brazil, India and China to be as generous as they can.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ENVIRONMENTAL health officers will be well acquainted with international efforts to develop hydrogen cars, but local authorities in Denmark wants to go further: they are planning to launch Europe’s first hydrogen-powered train. Three towns in western Jutland – Vemb, Lemvig and Thyborøn – have pledged funding to run a hydrogen train along the 59-kilometre railway that connects them.…

BY MARK ROWE
IT is tempting to think that all is well in the Russian cigarette market. And, in fairness, in many ways this is the case. Filter and light cigarettes production is growing, while the manufacture of plain cigarettes and filterless papirossi is decreasing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission will spend the majority of a new Euro 5 million budget over the next three years promoting French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and Austrian wines in key foreign markets. Brussels noted that the main targets would be north America, China, Russia, India, Japan and non-European Union countries in central and eastern Europe.…