Search Results for: World Trade Organisation⊂mit=Search

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN 1995, when I visited the Laos capital Vientiane, it was a sleepy place; a quiet low rise French colonial town on the banks of the Mekong, a listless, aimless, but charming mix of Soviet-style socialist monuments, Buddhist temples and Provencal town houses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HOPES that the shrinking of the world’s ozone hole might lead to its disappearance altogether have been shown to be premature. Satellite data from the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute has shown this year’s ozone hole was nearly as large as in 2000, after it shrank by 40 per cent and even split in two during 2002.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EASTERN and southern Europe countries slated to join the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004, have worked small wonders in recent years to set up anti-money laundering regimes, not necessarily because they believe this is good in itself but partly at least because EU entry might not be possible otherwise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A MIDDLE East conference of the Office International des Épizooties, the world animal health organisation, has been staged to improve the region’s weak animal health controls. There was concern at the meeting, in Istanbul, Turkey, that Middle East countries do not have emergency plans to deal with outbreaks of transmissible animal diseases or detection systems for BSE.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD anti-money laundering body, the Financial Action Task Force, has released best practice guidelines to help auditors, police and governments ensure seemingly innocent charities are not being used as fund-raising fronts by bloodthirsty international terrorists.

Indeed, in certain cases, its advice warns, charities have been “a mere sham that existed simply to funnel money to terrorists.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have released a set of educational materials on protecting children from ultra-violet radiation, as young people today are, they say, “most vulnerable and most exposed. The information packs point out that annually, there are 2-3 million new cases of non-malignant melanomas and more than 130,000 melanoma skin cancer cases worldwide, causing 66,000 deaths; “children are disproportionately affected,” it warns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce has launched a Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals Initiative to tackle a problem that it fears has spread from the developing world to industrialised countries. Using its Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau (CIB) staff, the ICC will try to increase the collection and exchange of information on fake medicines between law enforcement teams, pharmaceutical companies, the media, regulators, and customs officials worldwide.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THERE are many sights that one can rely on seeing in Paris every day. Patrons lining up at bakeries for fresh baguettes, traffic-filled streets choked amongst stunning architecture, perfectly lit River Seine views and busy cafes packed with people sitting, side-by-side, sipping over-priced drinks while watching other people walk by.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
OLAF, the European Union’s anti-fraud office, has agreed to electronically transmit intelligence and statistical data on cigarette smuggling to the World Customs Organisation (WCO). A technical option is to be created within OLAF’s Anti-Fraud Information System and Ciginfo databanks allowing their data to be sent to the WCO Customs Enforcement Network system (CEN).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) agency has concluded that chewing betel quid causes oral cancer, whether or not tobacco is included in ‘pan’ mixes especially popular with ethnic south Asians. The problem is of particular concern in the UK, which imports more betel than any country outside of Asia, (imports have doubled since the early 80’s).…