Search Results for: France
10 results out of 2834 results found for 'France'.
LITHIUM TO BECOME THE NEW OIL IN HYBRID/ELECTRIC AUTO WORLD
BY PACIFICA GODDARD, ANCA GURZU, GAVIN BLAIR and KEITH NUTHALL
NEW technologies devour new resources and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles could make some currently impoverished countries rich. As the world moves away from fossil fuels, the soft metal lithium will become increasingly in demand as a critical component of auto batteries for green cars.…
GLOBAL ROUND UP OF 2009 CLOTHING AND TEXTILE NEWS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A YEAR of struggle would be the best way to sum up 2009 as far as the global clothing and textile industry is concerned. The depth and severity of the worldwide recession left many clothing and textile companies reeling, even impacting upon China, which had previously been dominating global markets.…
Van Rompuy, Ashton appointments could boost French protectionism within Europe
By Alan Osborn, International News Services
The share-out of top jobs in the EU announced last Thursday night after weeks of political maneouvring has had an almost universally poor reception. The appointment of Mr Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister, to be the first full-time EU president, and that of the British peer baroness Catherine Ashton to be the EU’s foreign policy chief, (both of them relative unknowns) have been widely seen as disappointments and the waste of a chance to put the EU on the world stage by appointing well-known, assertive figures.
Not everybody will see it negatively though. As the realpolitik behind these moves becomes plainer, we can see that France and Germany have done a lot better than other countries – apparently at the expense of the United Kingdom. As part of the deal to install Lady Ashton, Britain has agreed to allow Michel Barnier, a centre-right French politician, to take responsibility for the internal market in the new EU Commission next year.…
Should cultural clothing rules be imposed in age of globalisation?
By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut
In an age of mass migration on a global scale, is it possible for governments to impose on the public, particularly immigrants, what they can and cannot wear? Take the diktats on women's wear in France versus Iran. In the Islamic Republic, females above the age of nine are required to wear the hijab (veil) and cover up their bodies.
Conversely, in France the authorities have talked of banning the burka and succeeded several years ago in banning the hijab in public offices and schools. Turkey has also done the same in the name of secularism.
Many argue that the French and Turkish are right to do so, to stem the tide of Islamisation and, moreover, for women – in most cases girls – to have the individual choice as to whether they want to wear a hijab, not decided upon by parents or family.…
Lisbon treaty passed: now politicians must persuade citizens to think European
By Keith
Nuthall, International News Services
So the Treaty of Lisbon has been ratified. With the Czech Constitutional Court backing its contents as legal and a new national opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights portion of the treaty given to his country, Czech president Václav Klaus has at last signed the treaty.
It should now come into force by the end of the year. So we will see a permanent president of the European Council of Ministers (albeit probably low profile Belgian prime minister Herman van Rompuy rather than pushy ex-UK PM Tony Blair); an EU foreign minister; and more power for the European Parliament.…
CHINA'S NUCLEAR POWER SPAWNING DIVERSE LOCAL EQUIPMENT MAKERS
BY MARK GODFREY
CHINA’S ambitious expansion of nuclear power capacity is driving a booming supply industry, with companies quickly diversifying into the sector. For instance, based in southerly Guangxi province, engineering firm OVM Co has segued into nuclear equipment after making cables and pipes for civil engineering.…
TOBACCO TRAVELLER - COLLECTION 2009 - ARGENTINA
BY PACIFICA GODDARD
THE CIGARETTE market in Argentina remained strong in 2008: the retail volume increased 3.12% from 2007 to 42.47 billion sticks, valued at Euro 1.72 billion, a 17.6% increase from 2007, according to the Argentine ministry of the economy.…
MOROCCAN PAINT SECTOR DODGES GLOBAL RECESSION BULLET
BY PAUL COCHRANE
MOROCCO’S 150,000 tonnes per year decorative paint market, worth Moroccan Dirham (MAD) 2 billion (GBPounds 157.4 million), grew by an estimated 5 to 8% in 2008, but plunged by 30% in December in the wake of the financial crisis, according to paint manufacturer Hempel Morocco (NOTE – SPELLING IS CORRECT).…
ROMANIANS PICK UP FOOD PORTFOLIO AT BRUSSELS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
ROMANIA has been awarded the powerful agriculture portfolio in a proposed new European Commission, with former agriculture minister Dacian Ciolo?, 40, being formally proposed to take over from Mariann Fischer Boel. The announcement today by reappointed Commission president José Manuel Barroso is sure to worry supporters of a leaner Common Agricultural Policy.…
ICELAND'S FOOD SECTOR STRUGGLES WITH INPUT PRICE HIKES, BUT EXPORTERS PROSPER FROM WEAK CURRENCY
BY GERARD O’DWYER
THE EXODUS of the McDonald’s restaurant franchise from Iceland may have captured the international headlines. But the rest of the island nation’s food sector and 300 production companies face a great deal of change, uncertainty, debt financing challenges and initiatives driven by cost-reduction imperatives, particularly small to medium-sized enterprises.…