Search Results for: Australia

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved the acquisition by Australia-based explosives and detonators business Orica Ltd of non-North American and Australian business owned by Norwegian competitor Dyno Nobel ASA. The positive ruling under Brussels’ competition regulation powers follows Orica’s pledge to sell subsidiary Orica Scandinavia Mining Services, which runs explosives services in Norway and Sweden.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

IT is not often that Jan Figel, the European Union (EU) Commissioner for education, training and multilingualism makes headlines. Not only is the Slovak modest to a fault, but as under EU treaties, education policy is controlled by national governments, his responsibilities rarely get the headlines which other policy areas attract.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

IT is not often that Jan Figel, the European Union (EU) Commissioner for education, training and multilingualism makes headlines. Not only is the Slovak modest to a fault, but as under EU treaties, education policy is controlled by national governments, his responsibilities rarely get the headlines which other policy areas attract.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend up to Euro 150 million to Esso Highlands Ltd, Oil Search Ltd, and the Papua New Guinea government to develop gas reserves in the country’s Southern Highlands. Gas would be piped 3,500km to eastern Australia.…

BY MARK ROWE

NANOTECHNOLOGY appears set to push prices for nano-altered minerals into the range of thousands of US dollars a kilogram, according to a leading expert. He claims nanotechnology, which can offer greater strength and yield for less effort, may open up a new global market for the globing mining industry.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

INTRODUCTION

WE’RE barely a third of the way through 2006 but it’s already clear that the year is going to be a hugely important one for European Union (EU) legislation affecting both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks industries.…

BY MARK ROWE

A CARPET that will clean itself sounds like the stuff of dreams for the house-chore weary. But cutting edge developments in nanotechnology means that such products are emerging onto the market.

A lot of work in this field is being conducted by the Institute for Nanoscale Technology, in Sydney, Australia, as part of a wider project called The NanoHouse Initiative, which is exploring the impact of nanotechnology on household items, such as carpets, and how floor tiles might resist build up of soap scum.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

INTRODUCTION

THE WORLD’S multilateral food trading system today stands at a crossroads: faced with the suspension of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha Development Round, it can either retreat to protectionism, leavened by a series of competitive bilateral trade deals, or it can grasp the nettle of liberal free trade, slash subsidies and tariffs, and then watch the economic rewards roll in.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney

IN the rapidly expanding world of nanotechnology (a nano is one billionth of a metre), more and more applications for the adhesives industry are being developed. Many of these inventions are sophisticated, even futuristic in scope, although bizarrely some advances are linked to natural phenomena, with the sector owing a lot of the latest groundbreaking research to the humble gecko.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EASHW) has released a database of good practice information on dealing with risks posed by asbestos. The information has been culled from all European Union (EU) member states, the International Labour Organisation and non-EU countries, including the USA and Australia.…