Search Results for: Canada

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

CANADIAN publishers have attacked the decision by the country’s biggest bookshop chain Indigo Books & Music Inc, to stock fewer books and evaluate returns on a shorter timeframe. They claim it is putting extra pressure on the publishing industry when digital technology is already imposing major challenges.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project will this month start developing a prototype polymer-zinc car battery, significantly lighter, safer and more environment-friendly than existing batteries. Their lead acid, lithium and nickel bases have waste disposal, weight and chemical stability problems.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, DAVE YIN and WANG FANGQING

A GOOD deal of excitement has been created by the announcement this week in the UK academic journal Nature Geoscience that significant deposits of rare earths have been found in the Pacific Ocean floor.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

IN a drive to combat the illegal exploitation of conflict minerals and create greater transparency of money flows between mining companies and governments, the European Commission is to table a new European Union (EU) law this autumn. It will ask large mining companies to reveal detail about their mining activities and associated financial transactions to shareholders.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE CANADIAN federal government is planning to scrap the legal monopoly operated by Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) for grains grown in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of British Columbia. The legal requirement that farmers in this area sell wheat and barley to the CWB would disappear on August 1, 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU)-funded research project is about to start developing a prototype zinc-polymer car battery, which its scientists hope will be significantly lighter, safer and more environment-friendly than existing batteries. These are of course based on lead acid, lithium and nickel – all carrying problems associated with waste disposal, weight and chemical stability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CANADIAN government has been attacked by environmentalists for blocking an international agreement over the notification of exports of asbestos to importing countries. At a Geneva meeting this week of the fifth conference of parties to the Rotterdam Convention on hazardous chemicals, Canada has opposed placing chrysotile asbestos on the agreement’s Annex III.…

BY MARGUERITE-JEANNE DESCHAMPS, MINI PANT ZACHARIAH and WANG FANGQING

All over the world, when, where and what kind of alcohol consumers can purchase varies between each country’s national – and, occasionally, regional – laws. One would understand if alcoholic beverage manufacturers would prefer operating in markets where retailers are free to sell alcohol, versus those were a limited number of agents can make sales.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE

Airport security operators may soon be using a new breed of scanning technology if innovation from Canadian technology company VOTI is approved by authorities.

At the Dubai Airport Show, VOTI told Jane’s Airport Review that its scanners were already being piloted at some courthouses and prisons in Canada, with good results.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE CANADIAN government’s support for its national asbestos industry could possibly derail Canada-European trade talks if Ottawa does not abandon its laissez faire backing for its lucrative asbestos sector.

While welcoming the progress in negotiations for a broad-based Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada, MEPs on Wednesday June 8 voiced their concerns at a European Parliament debate on the deal.…