Search Results for: united nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BOARDS of major corporations worldwide are failing to disclose to financial investors how environmental and social issues pose strategic risks and opportunities for their businesses, according to an international review of corporate reports. Out of 50 reports examined in detail by non-governmental organisation SustainAbility, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, only three assessed the balance sheet implications of these potential problems.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and KEITH NUTHALL
THE SEPTEMBER 11 attacks sparked a major overhaul of national and international money laundering laws around the world, based on concerns that Al Qaida had clearly shifted money into the USA to finance its operations, unnoticed by banks and law enforcement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A URANIUM and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is too dangerous for workers and should remain closed, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) assessment has concluded. UN officials have examined Shinkolobwe mine since a June collapse killing eight miners.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has lost patience with the United States and Canada’s refusal to lift retaliatory tariffs targeting meat products, in place since 1999 because of Brussels’ import ban on certain beef treated with growth hormones. It has launched a World Trade Organisation (WTO) case claiming that Ottawa and Washington are breaking WTO rules by refusing to lift the duties on foodstuffs including Danish premium-quality hams French hams and goose liver pate, and German pork.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS a truly global criminal problem, it is only right that fighting money laundering is a key priority of the United Nations (UN). Its general assembly and key committees have made declarations and approved conventions on the subject, and its specialist agencies have also devoted time, money, specialist staff and energy to fighting the problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND ALAN OSBORN
THE TOP selling guidebook Lonely Planet is rather dismissive of San Marino, calling the world’s oldest republic and Europe’s third smallest state “a silly place”. True, there is a touch of the comic opera about this Italian-speaking enclave, with it spiffily unformed ceremonial guards and its reliance on sales of colourful stamps, but San Marino does have a significant financial sector, and so is of interest to anti-money laundering professionals.…

BY MARK ROWE
CHOCOLATE sells in eastern Europe. One of the curiosities of the old Soviet Empire was that, even in the darkest days of rule by Stalin and Brezhnev, the USSR imported vast amounts of cocoa, simply because the Kremlin thought it was good for the masses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States is pressing the European Union (EU) at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for changes to its administration of pig meat import quotas. Washington is annoyed that individual exporters cannot sell more than 10% of the total quota, saying this “imposes trade distorting effects, is administratively burdensome, (is) more restrictive than necessary”, said the USA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has predicted western European life expectancy is being reduced by two years on average because of fine particulate matter air pollution. These are created when fossils fuels (especially in cars) and wood are burnt, staying in the air for a long time and travelling far from their source.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GOVERNMENT of the traditional southern African kingdom of Swaziland is taking proactive steps to promote traditional cooking in a country that is developing health problems through its adoption of modern processed foods. The United Nations (UN) Food & Agriculture Organisation has reported rises in hypertension and sugar diabetes.…