Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SATELLITE images of the shrinking Aral Sea in central Asia have long horrified environmentalists, but now similar creeping disasters are threatening the many fresh water and brackish lakes of Africa. These are illustrated by disturbing satellite images within an atlas produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

COSMETICS and soap trademark holders must be able to prove they are acting on firm knowledge when insisting a consignment of their products owned by a third party be blocked over concerns that they are counterfeit, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

COSMETICS, perfume and personal hygiene companies in the Mercosur region of South America will have to stage annual health inspections of their manufacturing systems under a resolution agreed by member states Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. These will have to demonstrate that companies are following prescribed Mercosur standards of good practice, with written reports being produced by in-house laboratories, detailing results and any reforms that are required.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has acted to simplify the approval of ‘intelligent’ adaptive front-lighting systems (AFS) that boost illumination for drivers, while cutting the risk of glare for fellow motorists. It is proposing that manufacturers should bypass existing European Union (EU) complicated approval procedures for new technologies, by writing a draft United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) technical regulation for this kit into EU type-approval rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FIRST-EVER multilateral treaty covering the Balkans has been signed in Athens, creating a European Energy Community, linking the gas and electricity policies of south-eastern Europe with those of the European Union (EU). Indeed, under the treaty, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and Kosovo must apply EU energy legislation in full, including related environmental and competition laws.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FERROUS and non-ferrous metal companies paid together millions of dollars in kickbacks to the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Iraq Oil for Food programme scandal has claimed. More than 150 suppliers of ferrous metal products ranging from carbon steel plates, steel coil, steel joists, galvanised steel cores, steel bars, steel pipes, fabricated steel and others are named in the report, as are around 50 suppliers of aluminium, copper and lead.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has raised concerns about bird flu spreading to Africa, where poverty is so rife and governments so weak, eradication would be practically impossible. With the disease spreading to Croatia from Turkey and Romania (and a quarantine outbreak in Britain), the FAO’s chief veterinary officer Joseph Domenech warned of the disease taking hold in sub-Saharan Africa.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE
IN the Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian paint markets there is always an extra ingredient that must be thrown into the mix: politics. The political situation, internal or external, can have positive knock-on effects, such as Jordan’s booming construction market due to an influx of Iraqi refugees, or negatively, such as in Lebanon, where the sector is experiencing something of a slump due to political instability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has warned “bottlenecks in Indian and Pakistan airspace” are being caused by “route and level restrictions and limitations within the Kabul FIR”, in Afghanistan. The problem has caused traffic intended for the Kabul-controlled area to be diverted via Iran.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
BURGERS and pork pies could become healthier by adding a tasteless but fibre-rich extract from seaweed, scientists from the University of Newcastle have claimed. Their research has examined a brown seaweed Lessonia and Laminaria, found in east Asia, south America, Norway and Scotland.…