Search Results for: America

By Leah Germain, International News Services

Globalisation has created new opportunities for the transfer of people and products across borders, and broadened the scope of many businesses around the world. But it’s not all good news of course: one of the seamier sides of growing international commerce is the abduction and trafficking of human beings. 

The problem is getting worse. Just over a year since the collapse of the global market, countries around the world have reported a significant increase in cases of the exploitation of people for monetary gain. While cases of kidnapping and ransom continue to be common in African and Latin American countries, such as Nigeria and Venezuela, the majority of organized human trafficking cases are actually in Europe.…

By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut

Sanctions are one of those political issues that can make amiable dinner conversation turn unpleasant, as the battle lines are drawn down the table between those for and against. They have certainly had mixed success, starting with the first recorded case of a trade embargo some 2,400 years ago between Athens and neighboring Megara. That embargo failed and sparked a war.

Some argue they have had a spotty record since, while others prefer to pick-and-mix examples from embargoes through the ages to argue their case. The more pragmatic approach would be not whether sanctions “work,” but when and under what circumstances.

On one hand, those that are meant to oust a dictator but result in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians – in Iraq for instance – can be considered counter-productive.…

By Leah Germain

This week, Cape Town, South Africa will host representatives from the world’s top business schools to receive global rankings at the second annual Eduniversal World Convention. The Paris-based education specialists will rank the best 1,000 business schools from 153 different countries.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ANDREA Perrone talks of when he was a child, and his father – a lawyer and the CEO of Brioni Retail – used to bring home customers from South America for lunch or dinner at the family’s residence in Abruzzi, Italy.…

BY EMMA JACKSON

MEDICINE is meant to treat disease, kill viruses and save lives, but the chemicals used to make pharmaceuticals can sometimes do more harm than good – when they are used to make illicit narcotics and psychotropic drugs.

Illicit drug makers have long targeted the global pharmaceutical industry to source their products’ ingredients to help manufacture illicit street drugs including cocaine, heroin, ecstacy and methamphetamines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AWARENESS amongst British nurses, especially senior nurses, of fraud and corruption in the National Health Service (NHS), is high today – thanks in part to the NHS’ Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (CFSMS). Its work has encouraged honest nurses to blow the whistle on such crimes in British healthcare systems, and has recently been praised by the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Network (EHFCN), which was formed in 2005 to fight the problem across Europe.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

Despite recent efforts by the Chilean government to discourage and reduce smoking, Chileans continue to be amongst the heaviest smokers in Latin America. In fact, the cigarette market in Chile expanded in 2008: Chileans purchased 14.78 billion cigarettes compared to 13.97 billion in 2007 according the United Nations Statistics Division.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

Despite recent efforts by the Chilean government to discourage and reduce smoking, Chileans continue to be amongst the heaviest smokers in Latin America. In fact, the cigarette market in Chile expanded in 2008: Chileans purchased 14.78 billion cigarettes compared to 13.97 billion in 2007 according the United Nations Statistics Division.…

By Katherine Dunn and Alan Osborn, International News Services

Has President Obama lost it? Many Americans are now saying so following the slump in his public approval ratings in recent months. Few presidents were elected with such jubilation as Mr Obama last November, and not just in America. He rode the crest of an unprecedented worldwide wave of acclaim to the presidency. Now the criticism and backbiting has begun.

Is it just the traditional end of the honeymoon, as all new American presidents have suffered? Or is there a more serious factor here – a chilling realisation that there was nothing much behind the hype?  

Obama’s popularity was ramped up to such an extent that the whole world – not just America – felt that something truly historical had occurred.…

By Emma Jackson, International News Services

Global news agency International News Services Ltd – in association with world-leading business publisher Aroq Ltd - has released a major new e-book compiling global textile regulation news and analysis since 2001. This comprehensive 157 page report offers clothing and textile companies, consultants and lobbyists a survey of the sector’s rapid evolution to a free, global market in the last 10 years.

The report is a detailed backgrounder of the last decade’s textile policy, collected and arranged in a concise document with monthly summaries to direct and help select topics and an essential background brief for marketers seeking to break into new markets, or lobbyists wanting to understand the rationale behind trade regulations they want changed.…