Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has initialled new fishing access deals with two African island nations: São Tomé e Principe, off west Africa, and Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean. The Madagascan deal will last six years from January 2007, and exclusively covers tuna.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank has hailed the development opportunities offered by a new on-demand book publishing machine, that prints, cuts and binds up to 20 books an hour, recently launched at the bank’s Washington DC bookstore. The Espresso Book Machine uses digital files to make books listed on a catalogue submitted by publishers or institutions such as universities.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

SECURITY specialists and risk assessors will be increasingly in demand within oil majors seeking to tap sub-Saharan Africa’s oil and gas riches in the next few years, experts say, with available resources and political uncertainty growing in an uneasy parallel.…

BY LIZ HALL, in Alicante

IMPROVEMENTS in Portugal’s ability to detect crime detection, combined with increased vulnerability within the tourist property development arena, mean we could see another Operation White Whale in the next few years, its tip emerging in Portugal rather than Spain, experts warn.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHRONIC shortages of nurses and doctors in developing countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa, are to be tackled by a new World Health Organisation (WHO)-brokered initiative pumping million of US dollars into training. The Global Health Workforce Alliance will involve organisations such as the International Council of Nurses, Harvard University, the European Commission, Physicians for Human Rights and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

WHEN asked about corruption in Belgium by Commercial Crime International, a government official held his nose in the time-honoured gesture. But was he being fair? Some recent high profile cases have brought the nation some lurid publicity.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

SUB-SAHARAN Africa’s biggest cotton producer Mali is mulling GM cotton trials, a development which could open up cheap cotton supplies for the textile and clothing trade.

But resistance from local farmers to high seed costs and tough times for existing GM cotton growers in South Africa – the only African country where GM is commercially grown – may mean that Africa’s potential as a key supplier is still some way off.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg, South Africa and DAVID HAWORTH, in Taiwan

TRADITIONAL health care systems do not always get a good press, being accused of incorporating superstition and poor medical practice. To some western public health advocates, they are akin to bringing back the leach.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

THE COSMETICS and toiletries market in the Middle East is booming with 12% growth expected this year in a US$2.1 billion sector. Market trends differ from country to country, but the general trend is rising demand for European cosmetics over local products in the wealthier Arab countries, largely due to aggressive marketing campaigns by the major brands, and high demand for unregistered, fake brand name perfumes in countries with sizeable low-income populaces, such as Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank ‘global gas flaring reduction partnership’ (GGFR) says more than 150 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas is flared and vented annually worldwide, with the 40 bcm of gas flared in Africa equalling half the continent’s power consumption.…