Search Results for: Australia

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane, Australia
AUSTRALIAN scientists have invented a “contraband scanner” which accurately and rapidly detects illicit drugs and explosives. Now being introduced by the Australian Customs Service, at Brisbane airport, it uses gamma rays and neutron analysis to build a real time image and composition of the scanned object, predicting its shape and density in real-time on the tarmac.…

BY EDWARD PETERS
THE PAST decade has seen China grasp an increasing share of the world’s cosmetic packaging industry. Low production prices and international manufacturing standards — to say nothing of an increasing appreciation of the beauty business — have all contributed to the People’s Republic upping its packaging profile.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AMERICAN researchers have developed a ‘curtain of air’ system that could keep disease-carrying insects from boarding civil aeroplanes. The technology, created by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in the United States, is a high velocity fan system used in passenger walkways that excludes 99 per cent of mosquitoes and flies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S increasing reliance on cars is threatening efforts to combat climate change, according to a report published by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). Although its report ‘Oil Crises and Climate Challenges’ found that oil consumption has been declining since 1973 in every other industrial and service sector, soaring transport demands meant overall levels have not declined.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPECIALIST United States government committee has criticised the USA-Australia free trade agreement. The agricultural technical advisory committee for trade in animal and animal products said the deal failed to remove “unscientific” sanitary regulations restricting US pork and poultry exports, and noted opposition from American cattle producers to widening import quotas for Australian beef.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVELY gloomy forecast for the future of the European Union (EU) coal industry has been issued by the European Commission, underlining its determination to press for closures of most unprofitable mines to trim Brussels’ and Member States’ state aid budgets.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIAN researchers have developed what they say is a cheaper and safer way of producing iron nano-particles crucial for cleaning up contaminated sites, notably those containing waste solvents. The particles chemically modify polluting compounds by removing chlorine atoms, replacing them with hydrogen atoms.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIA’S valuable minerals industry has welcomed the controversial draft US-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which will remove tariffs from almost all non-metallic industrial minerals on both sides of the Pacific Ocean upon ratification. The Minerals Council of Australia said the deal would directly improve its exports of non-metallic minerals such as rutile and zircon, of which Australia is the world’s leading producer.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
THE INDIAN government has been pushing Australian coking coal exporters to resume full deliveries to India’s steel sector, hit by these mining companies citing emergency contractual clauses to reduce supplies. New Delhi has sent high level officials to Australia to solve the problem; it says alternative sources of coking coal are unavailable, especially since China ceased exporting to fuel its own steel sector.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIAN smokers have undergone a quantum leap in the past 10 years. From smoking the notorious unfiltered Soviet-era papirossi, they now have a wide choice of international brands, for whom this liberalisation has been commercially significant. Russia remains one of the more appealing markets for tobacco companies, with fewer barriers and, for the time being, a fairly laissez faire approach to advertising, as well as a burgeoning middle class with the disposable incomes to afford premium cigarettes.…