Search Results for: Climate change

BY MARK GODFREY

EVEN as the Burmese government embarks on construction of an airport in its middle-of-nowhere capital Naypyidaw, traffic remains underwhelming at the county’s main international hub in Rangoon, officially known as Yangon.

Officially opened in May 2007, Yangon International Airport has so far struggled to justify its ambitious capacity of 2.7 million passengers per year set by Burma’s (official name Myanmar) Department of Transportation, which oversees the country’s airports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AN INFLUENTIAL European Parliament committee is pushing for a steep increase in plastics recycled and reused within the European Union (EU) by proposing that more electrical waste ends up in green collection schemes. This move comes in amendments tabled to planned reforms of the EU’s waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) directive by the parliament’s environment committee.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE OIL palm is a prolific shrub that can be converted into palm oil, one of the most versatile fats known to man – rich in solid saturated fatty acids and able to withstand refining at high temperatures.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

CORRUPTION, bribery and cronyism have long been a part of business in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with media reports of such malpractice few and far between yet alone prosecutions. But this taboo topic has started to hit headlines in the Gulf over the past year as prominent businessmen have been arrested for fraud, bribery cases investigated and governmental units set up to tackle the problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) is considering taking the lead in refinancing the bulk of the debt owed by south-east Europe’s largest aluminium producer – Romania’s Alro.

The London-based EBRD has drafted a plan to lend Alro up to US dollars USD180 million, of which at least USD105 million would be syndicated to commercial banks (including the company’s current lenders).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is helping the USA deal with the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Coordinated by the EU emergency response group, the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), the EU will send oil skimmers and oil spill experts.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

DEMAND for more environmentally-friendly coatings and paints is on the rise in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, driven by government-backed infrastructure projects that are forcing paint manufacturers to comply with strict requirements.

Still a specialised product, ‘green’ paints account for less than 10% of sales in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) US dollar USD$300 million paint market and the USD$1 billion Saudi Arabian market, according to Bassam Bizri, general manager of Chemipaint in the UAE (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT).…

BY DAVID HAWORTH

THE EUROPEAN Commission vice president, Neelie Kroes, the European Union (EU) Commissioner responsible for Europe’s Digital Agenda, is not a woman to be trifled with.

As the former EU Competition Commissioner, she has notches on her sword with names such as Microsoft and Ryanair who were among many companies to underestimate her.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW European Union (EU) body coordinating around Euro EUR1 billion in food-related research from 20 European countries has started work. The ‘scientific advisory board for the EU joint programming initiative (JPI) on agriculture, food security and climate change’ will plan and manage national food industry research securing future supplies and reducing climate emissions.…

By Keith Nuthall, International News Services 

With the British general election looming this week and the prospect of a change in government, one issue seems to electrify UK electors and politicians above all others, and that is immigration. In a sense, this is not surprising. What could be more an issue of public policy that affects people’s daily lives that the management of who lives in a city, community, neighbourhood or even street?

We all interested in the culture, language, shopping needs, personalities and religion of our neighbours. How they live affects everyone. And when there is change in a community, that can be difficult to deal with – because new friends and acquaintances impact on daily lives.…