Search Results for: united nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COALITION of major business groups has filed an amicus brief at the United States Supreme Court, calling on it to “clarify” the USA’s 1789 Alien Tort Statute, which they claim is being abused by special interest groups.…

BY PHILIP FINE

A UNITED States Department of Energy scientist has developed a process (using a metal catalyst, nitrogen, methanol, and water) that could extend the life of the catalysts that make fuel cells work. Chemist Devinder Mahajan’s low-temperature system avoids the usual degrading to expensive catalysts that convert hydrogen into electricity, turning almost 100 per cent of the carbon monoxide in the hydrogen feed into carbon dioxide and additional hydrogen, he claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) law enforcement agencies are intensifying their fight against the counterfeiting of the Euro currency, as European Central Bank (ECB) figures show an increase in seizures of forged banknotes. In the second half of 2003, 311,925 counterfeit notes were discovered in Euro and non-Euro countries, a 30 per cent increase over the first six months of 2003, when counterfeit seizures had been 59 per cent more numerous than in the previous half-year.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA is lifting export duties on unalloyed aluminium and primary aluminium alloys. The export duty on raw aluminium will amount to 5 per cent, while unalloyed aluminium and primary aluminium alloys will be exported duty free, according to a statement issued by the Russian government’s information department.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
ADDING Vitamin E to the diets of turkeys may reduce the instances of people contracting listeriosis, the potentially deadly bacterial foodborne illness. Scientists from the United States’ Agricultural Research Service have found that supplementing turkeys’ diets with the vitamin stimulates their immune responses, helping them clear the gut of the microorganism that causes the disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AMERICAN Indians and Alaskan natives (such as Inuit peoples) are more likely to smoke than any other group in the United States, with 40 per cent of adults defined as smokers, whilst Chinese Americans were least likely to smoke, making up 12 per cent, according to a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.…

BY RICHARD HURST
The former British colony of Sierra Leone has been a focus of a money laundering scandal since the September 11 attacks in the US, when it was uncovered (in the New York Times) that a senior member of the al Qaeda organisation, Ibrahim Bah, had been purchasing and stockpiling diamonds mined by the country’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has requested formal consultations with Egypt at the World Trade Organisation over duties imposed on some textile and clothing products in December 2001. These range from 141 to 51,296 per cent, well above bound rates agreed by Cairo in the WTO’s last general (Uruguay round) agreement.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has requested formal consultations with Egypt at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over duties imposed by Cairo on some clothing and textile products in December 2001, the first stage of formal disputes proceedings. The row is over promises made in the WTO’s 1990’s Uruguay Round, where Egypt agreed to remove a general ban on the importation of apparel and made?up…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
Fast food restaurants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are expecting a drop in business following a recent decision by the government there to ban beef products from U.S, according to trade sources. The country imports about 1,387 metric tons of beef each year.…