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BY MONICA DOBIE
THE CANADIAN asbestos industry is redoubling its efforts to persuade the European Union to reverse its ban on chrysotile asbestos using the findings of a new study, which backs arguments that the mineral is safer for human use than some alternative materials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNITED Nations cultural agency UNESCO has welcomed a pledge by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) not to explore or mine in official World Heritage sites. The council includes 15 of the world’s largest mining companies, such as Alcoa, Anglo American, Nippon Mining & Metals, Rio Tinto and Umicore.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has started to get tough with the United States over the ongoing controversy regarding the use by Washington of air passenger data handed over by European Union airlines. Internal market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein said in a speech to the European Parliament justice and home affairs committee in Brussels: “We cannot let this process go on indefinitely.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPECIALIST report from the United Nations on the growth in Iraq’s organised crime following the fall of Saddam Hussein has claimed that three million litres of diesel are currently being smuggled from the country every day.

Profits are huge, said the paper by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime: given that Iraq’s oil price is “artificially cheap at 5 cents (US$) a litre”, margins of 500 per cent can be earned on fuel reaching neighbouring Iran and 3,000 per cent to the United Arab Emirates.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EASTERN and southern Europe countries slated to join the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004, have worked small wonders in recent years to set up anti-money laundering regimes, not necessarily because they believe this is good in itself but partly at least because EU entry might not be possible otherwise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A UNITED Nations fact-finding mission sent to investigate the growth in organised crime in Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein has concluded that cigarette smuggling is a key problem facing the occupation authorities. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said that the illicit trafficking of cigarettes had grown, with the trade being underpinned by past custom, especially on the Iran-Iraq border.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN 1995, when I visited the Laos capital Vientiane, it was a sleepy place; a quiet low rise French colonial town on the banks of the Mekong, a listless, aimless, but charming mix of Soviet-style socialist monuments, Buddhist temples and Provencal town houses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A DETAILED and global draft code of practice on reducing violence and stress suffered by service industry employees has been released by the International Labour Organisation, which says the problems are a “threat to productivity and decent work”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE JAPANESE government has appealed against a World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel ruling that supported claims from the United States that it had followed WTO rules when staging a sunset review of its anti-dumping duties on corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from Japan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has welcomed Canada’s push to enact legislation allowing makers of generic medicines to export cheaper versions of patented HIV/AIDS drugs to poor countries. The UN agency says that Canada is the first developed country to take advantage of the recent World Trade Organisation deal over generic medicine exports.…