Search Results for: Environmental Health⊂mit=Search

BY ALAN OSBORN
LIFE isn’t going to get any easier for hill and mountain farmers if Dr Franz Fischler, EU farm commissioner, has his way. He wants to “de-couple” payments from production for farmers generally and introduce direct fixed supports based on farm size, past output and acceptance of environmental and other standards.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERPOL has agreed to a request from Russian authorities to help locate the missing vodka magnate Yury Shefler, wanted by Russian prosecutors in connection with allegations of threatening to kill a government official.

A spokesman for the organisation’s Moscow bureau confirmed that Interpol offices across Western Europe were now liaising in the search for SPI Group owner Shefler.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development is talking closely to concerned environmental groups before agreeing to release US$300 million to build the planned key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE MOST important driver of reform in the institutions of the European Union today is the impending enlargement of the EU eastwards, to take in (Greek) Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IF there was ever a good example to show how the economic interests of humankind generally trump those of the environment, look no further than the Aral Sea, or rather, seas, as it is today. Once a beautiful 66,900 square km inland great lake, it has since the 1960’s shrunk to less than half this size and split in two.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has agreed to admit officials from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and representatives from secretariats for other multilateral environmental agreements as observers to its ongoing Doha Development Round negotiations. The move has been welcomed by the European Commission, which wants these representatives to point out when the free trade talks are in danger of creating an agreement that may undermine or conflict with existing international environmental agreements.…

BY MARK ROWE and ALAN OSBORN, in London, PHILIP FINE and MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal, and RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg

RATCHETING up security has been a prime concern of the nuclear industry since the September 11 attacks, with all countries possessing commercial reactors addressing the issue to some extent.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICA is experiencing a rash of mould-related lawsuits. Recent cases have included a US$14 million judgment in Florida against a contractor for alleged toxic mould-related construction defects at a courthouse and a US$65 million lawsuit against a New York community college by one of its former employees for injuries and damages allegedly caused by mould exposure.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE UNITED States is offering to eliminate tariffs on imported mining equipment and unspecified "energy products" as part of their initial offer to create the proposed 34-country Free Trade Area of the Americas. Those sectors join a number of other goods, including steel, and environmental and wood products, for which Washington wants to offer duty free access to its markets under a reciprocal agreement, as well as improving market access for a range of services, including "energy services."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank is planning to provide Italy’s electricity generator EniPower with a substantial Euro 400 million loan to help design, construct and operate a series of combined cycle gas turbines, which would provide electricity to Italy’s national grid, whilst supplying steam to be used by associated industrial sites.…