Search Results for: Australia

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICA’S National Milk Producers Federation has come out against a

recently-announced free trade agreement between Australia and the United

States. Next February, the two governments will be entering trade negotiations, with the goal of completing a bilateral free trade pact by 2004.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane, Australia
A NUCLEAR probe developed in Australia for minerals exploration and mining has the potential to reduce rates of acid rain and other environmental pollution, its developers claim.

The device, designed by Australia’s chief science authority CSIRO, can detect the concentrations of sulphur in coal seams and mine waste rock underground, allowing miners to choose those with lower levels and leave the higher sulphur coals embedded.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MALE-MENOPAUSE ridden men buying powerful motorcycles that they cannot ride properly is one of two reasons for a levelling off in a 10-year decline in road accidents in rich countries, an OECD report claims. The other problem is an increase in illicit drug use by drivers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union and its allies at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) negotiations over the creation of a global register for protected geographical indications in the wine and spirit trade have made a significant concession, which may be the basis for a future deal.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane, Australia
TWO Australian single fathers have invented a child-tracking device that works indoors as well as out. Scott Rickaby and Mark Tunstall, researchers at Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, say they were inspired to make the device by the abduction and killing of Merseyside toddler James Bulger almost ten years ago.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane, Australia
MARINE scientists are tracing the 2,000km journey of billions of lobster larvae in the swirling currents off northern Australia, collating potentially important information about farming ornate rock lobsters. The project should also help safeguard the future of Queensland’s A$7m (£2.5m) wild fishery of the species.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
US poultry producers have slaughtered 9,600 chickens after an outbreak of Newcastle Disease in California, which health officials have been trying to prevent infecting large-scale commercial poultry producers. They have reported that outbreaks were discovered in 25 smallholdings in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PORTUGAL has called for the resumption of EU funding of the International Olive Oil Council’s promotion of olive oil in non-EU countries with low demand, (including the USA, Australia and Japan). Payments were suspended over council tendering concerns.…

Keith Nuthall
THE HIGH risk of healthcare workers worldwide becoming victims of violence has sparked four international organisations into drawing up guidelines advising managers on how to reduce the exposure of their staff to physical attack or threats.

These draft Framework Guidelines for addressing Workplace Violence in the Health Sector are being produced by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Health Organisation (WHO), Public Services International (PSI) and the International Council of Nurses (ICN).…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London, PHILIP FINE, in Montreal, and MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney

WITH a new crackdown on counterfeiting being prepared by the

European Commission, some industry watchers will be surprised to hear that soft drinks is one the sectors that Brussels thinks needs close attention.…