Search Results for: France

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE NORTH Sea is Europe’s blackspot for maritime sulphur dioxide emissions from fishing vessels, a report ordered by the European Commission has claimed. Pollution from ships in the southern North Sea east of East Anglia and north of the Straits of Dover is the worst in the continent, at between 0.2 and 0.5 kilotonnes annually per square 50 km, with emissions for the northern North Sea coming in at between 0.1 and 0.2 kilotonnes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
GOVERNMENTS and international organisations have highlighted tobacco smuggling as one of the largest illegal drains on their tax revenues. An international conference has brought law enforcement professionals together with health officials to fight this problem. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE is being threatened with legal action by the European Commission because of its failure to scrap a law insisting that labels on foodstuffs imported into France must be written in the French language. Brussels says this breaks EU free trade rules.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WE know that irresponsible sea-sand dredging can led to coastal erosion, threatening beaches and ecological balance and even the livelihoods of whole sea-side or fishing communities. Yet there is today an unprecedented demand for sand as a building material.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s research Commissioner Philippe Busquin has backed bids by both France and Spain to host the large ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in, respectively, the cities of Cadarache and Vandellós. His support follows the announcement that Japan has formally proposed the city of Rokkasho as a site, joining Canada in making a formal application.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
MINISTERS of the 15 European Union countries have reached agreement on the Trans-European Energy Networks directive. The ministers have essentially supported the Commission proposal of last year and Brussels officials predicted that the European Parliament will do likewise later this year.…

KEITH NUTHALL
SPINOFF technology from the European Space Agency has been used to create knitted steel flameproof textiles, which have been designed to protect the outside of road haulage containers from vandals. French company Société Ariégeoise de Bonneterie has adapted materials used on ESA’s Ariane rocket launchers, modifying the knitting technique to create a flexible fabric of steel wire that is extremely difficult to cut.…

BY MARK ROWE
CAN the European Union’s single skies plan become a reality inside 30 months? It is a topical subject, with the recent crash over Germany underlining the arguments in favour and against the project, which should lead to planes flying above 28,000 feet being guided and controlled by unified units of air traffic controllers, replacing the current piecemeal system of national flight monitoring and guidance.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Fund has agreed to invest Euro 25 million in “Merlin Biosciences III,” a pan-European scheme investing on infant companies that develop human healthcare products or allied technologies. Merlin Biosciences III will exclusively focus on biosciences, with particular attention to post-genomics, cell therapy, computational approaches to biosciences, bionics, nano-technology and system biology.…

KEITH NUTHALL
This is based on a feature I wrote for Geographical Magazine a couple of years ago but which I am now focusing solely on Tasmania rather than nationwide.

Tasmanian aquaculture

Matthew Brace, Sydney

Australia is sold to the world as a vast baking continent with quartzite ridges stretching to the horizon like the fossilised carcasses of fallen dinosaurs.…