Search Results for: Australia

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS; DAVID HAYHURST, IN PARIS; MICHAEL KOSMIDES; AND KEITH NUTHALL

THE DEBATE about whether compulsion or voluntarism best aids energy efficiency is one of the oldest in the electricity sectors: do we save more energy by being ordered to switch off the lights; or by being advised our bills will fall if we do?…

BY KITTY SO

THE ANTI-COUNTERFEITING Trade Agreement (ACTA), a multilateral treaty designed to strengthen anti-copying laws worldwide, has been rejected by the European Parliament, which means it will not apply in the European Union (EU).

MEPs accepted concerns that the treaty was too vague, and hence open to misinterpretation, opening the door for court rulings that might overly restrict freedom of speech and commercial innovation.…

BY ANDREW GREEN, IN KAMPALA

Uganda is undergoing a higher education boom. The result of introducing universal primary education in 1997 and universal secondary education a decade later is a surplus of students looking for a university placement. Uganda’s 30 public and private universities offer 50,000 spots for qualified secondary school graduates.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, IN CAPE TOWN

SOUTH Africa has deposits of rare earth elements (REEs) to rival that of Australia, and the country is poised to take advantage of this increasingly strategic resource, according to Mintek, the government’s mineral technology organisation.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

INTERNATIONAL travel in the last decade has become exponentially more secure, with countries all around the globe having reformed their systems to cope with transnational crime in a post-9/11 world – largely, through the increased collection, processing and legislation of passenger information.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

NANOMATERIALS have been finding their way into cosmetics and personal care products for years now, but until recently, the term meant different things to different manufacturers – and almost nothing to consumers. It is not until the European Commission came out with a common European Union (EU) definition for nanomaterials last October – materials whose main constituents have a dimension of between 1 billionth and 100 billionth of a metre (or 0.000000001 metre) – that cosmetics companies finally gained a clear guideline under which to define certain properties of their products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission and Greenland have signed a letter of intent that could increase the role of European Union (EU) mining companies in the development of the autonomous territory’s considerable mineral resources.

EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani and development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs have struck a deal with Greenland Prime Minister Kuupik Kleis over future EU involvement in exploration and exploitation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

The European Commission and Greenland have signed a letter of intent that could increase the role of European Union (EU) industrial mineral companies in the development of Greenlandic mineral resources, including rare earths.

EU industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani and development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs have struck a deal with Greenland Prime Minister Kuupik Kleis over future EU involvement in exploration and exploitation.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

Fast fashion has had a fundamental impact on the apparel industry in the space of just a few decades, with global fashion giants such as Zara and H&M demonstrating a previously unthinkable production speed, with the ability to get a garment from concept to store in less than 12 weeks.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WHILE cities such as Milan, Paris, New York City, and London have historically been seen as the global ‘fashion hubs’ – acting as meeting spots for high-end designers, fashion shows, luxury retail outlets and fashionistas – the rise of fast fashion has been diffusing that concentration a bit; making cutting-edge trends more accessible to the rest of the world.…