Search Results for: Zambia

BY BILL CORCORAN, in Lilongwe, Malawi

THE WIDESPREAD implementation of new technological developments in Malawi’s flue-cured tobacco process could enable local producers to dramatically increase their output and its quality, according to industry experts.

Results from tests run during Malawi’s latest tobacco curing season using a new method of heating have shown a dramatic improvement in energy efficiency over standard methods, and an improved quality of the end product compared to traditionally cured tobacco.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

"TEA is known to be good for you, now it is also getting better for the environment:" so said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Achim Steiner, when launching renewable power initiatives in east Africa. UNEP is coordinating two Global Environment Facility (GEF)-financed projects greening tea production in the region, where it is a pivotal industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is common currency amongst extreme British Eurosceptics that business and government on the continent of Europe is a cesspit of dishonesty and corruption, against which Britain shines like a beacon of virtue and decency.

Allowing "Europeans" who lack Britain’s traditional sense of fair play and transparency control over the laws and regulations mandated by the "Mother of Parliaments" is heresy to such folk.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, at Lake Kariba, Zambia

THE SIGHT of thousands of decomposing semi-submerged trees protruding from its murky waters is an eerie clue to the traumatic origins of southern Africa’s Lake Kariba, a 200km long manmade reservoir wedged between Zimbabwe and Zambia.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

FEW issues have proved as globally divisive as the ability to modify crops genetically. For years, a line has been drawn between the cautious European Union (EU) and the go-for-it United States, which has seen them at loggerheads over trading genetically modified crops.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SECURITY of nuclear power installations may be a priority in terrorism-fearing rich countries, but not in poorer states, with many other problems. But it is equally important of course: nuclear accidents, sabotage and terror attacks are devastating wherever they occur.…

BY MARK ROWE

A FUEL marker so complex that it is all but impossible for thieves to replicate has been developed by scientists; the marker is so sensitive, it can identify illegal stolen fuel by using nanotechnology-based components.
This nanotech-based tracer, developed by Authentix, a nano-science company based in Dallas, Texas, uses hand-held LSX-based technology, and which has already been taken up by Luke Oil, Shell and BP in the United States.…

BY MARK ROWE, in London
NANOTECHNOLOGY has huge implications for the oil and gas industry, according to leading scientists who attended a conference on the impact of this cutting edge science on the environment at the Royal Society in London. They stressed the technology offers the prospect of carbon emission reduction, resource use minimisation, hazardous chemical substitution, the chance to dramatically reduce fraud, and pollution reversal techniques.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has drawn up plans to lend Australia-controlled Albidon Zambia Limited Euro 32 million (US$40 million) to create a new medium-scale underground nickel sulphide mine in Munali, southern Zambia. The money would also help Albidon build and operate an associated ore processing plant and related infrastructure and provide the company enough capital to continue other exploration and business activities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations University’s Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) has launched a research project in Zambia, to identify failings within its important non-ferrous metals sector, regarding sustainable development, general wealth and environmental management.

The Tokyo-based international higher education institution wants to publish findings generating “clear policy implications” for the Zambian government, noting while copper exports have increased from 201,000 tonnes in 2000 to 423,000 in 2005 – generating GDP growth averaging 4.8% per annum – in December 2005, 67% of the population lived on under US$1 a day.…