Search Results for: Climate change

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
AUSTRALIAN scientists are experimenting with an early warning device that monitors water quality in tuna cages and phones its vital information back to shore. The aim of the machine is to save the fish farming industry in Australia and others around the world millions of dollars.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
AN AUSTRALIAN early warning device that monitors water quality in tuna cages and phones its information back to shore is proving to be a lifesaver for aquaculture fish stocks; the slightest change in conditions can wipe out millions of dollars worth of marine stocks and cripple sectors of the industry.…

Keith Nuthall
FINLAND has been ordered by the European Commission to change legislation that disqualifies car passengers from insurance cover when the driver is drunk and involved in an accident. Brussels says this exclusion of passengers’ injuries contravenes the EU’s second motor insurance directive which seeks to facilitate free movement within the EU and to safeguard the interests of persons who may be injured in a motor vehicle accident.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
THE SEAS around Australia are among the cleanest in the world, partly thanks to the ingenuity of local scientists, who are pioneering two projects to ensure local waters remain healthy, while assisting other more stressed ocean regions.

One involves an electronic mapping system developed by the Australian Marine Safety Authority (AMSA), which is being used to predict the effects of dangerous chemicals in the ocean.…

BY PHILIP FINE

BP Exploration has outlined its plan for oil-leak prevention to Alaska state regulators after calls for improvements in its operations. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission had ordered the company to explain how it would better monitor and maintain the more than 1,000 critical valves at the biggest and oldest oil field at the state’s North Slope patch.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
ONTARIO tobacco growers have recently rejected the idea of selling their individual crops directly to buyers by an overwhelming margin of 98.5 per cent in a plebiscite organized by the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers’ Marketing Board. The organisation who say it is “in response to extensive efforts by Imperial Tobacco to convince producers to support its self-serving proposal for direct contracting.”…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has voted to accept the latest European Commission airport noise directive, while passing some technical amendments that would make the legislation tougher than originally proposed.

MEP’s voted for changes time-limiting for 10 years an exemption allowing the noisiest aircraft registered in developing countries to continue operating in Europe, adding that these aeroplanes must be prevented from moving to new routes in the EU.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH government has been ordered by the European Commission to change legislation that disqualifies car passengers from insurance cover when the driver is drunk and involved in an accident. Brussels says this exclusion of passengers’ injuries contravenes the EU’s second motor insurance directive, which seeks to harmonise national regulations for the sector and to safeguard the interests of persons who may be injured in a motor vehicle accident.…

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States government has claimed that Egypt is breaking its World Trade Organisation treaty commitments to bind textile and clothing tariffs, in its new system of specific duties on imports of these products.

Washington has complained to the WTO’s market access committee, claiming that Cairo’s action breaks article two of the GATT agreement on goods tariffs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank is to extend for another five years a stipend scheme that has successfully encouraged poor and rural families in Bangladesh to send their girls to secondary schools that were until recently predominantly male.

Working with the country’s directorate of secondary and higher education, which operates the programme, the bank is to loan Dhaka US$120.9 million interest free.…