Search Results for: Libya

By Keith Nuthall

Historians are working with Unesco and educationalists to try to develop a common African history syllabus, including the teaching approach and pedagogical materials. The ambitious project will initially focus on helping primary and secondary schools across the continent and, this coming year, an assessment will consider how universities in Africa could benefit from such work.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

IT has been a tough last few years for north African knitwear, clothing and textile manufacturers, but the signs are that the knitwear sub-sector is outperforming its woven textile partners. With the European Union (EU) the region’s primary export destination, the region’s manufacturers have been hit by the end of restrictive quotas on imports from China in 2008, and then by the impact of the global financial crisis when demand slumped.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

HISTORIANS are working with Unesco (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and educationalists to try and develop a common African history syllabus, teaching approach and pedagogical materials. The ambitious project will initially focus on helping primary and secondary schools across Africa, and this coming year an assessment will consider how universities in Africa could benefit from such work.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

PIRACY has increased exponentially off the coast of Somalia in recent years, with ships hijacked deep into international waters despite the presence of a multi-national naval task force, and pirates demanding ever higher ransoms from shipping companies. But while the spoils of piracy are evident in coastal Somali towns, tracking down where the remaining millions of dollars disappear to is hard to pin down, with allegations circulating of ransom money entering the real estate markets of Kenya, to money laundering in Yemen and Dubai.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

WHEN Libya came in from the diplomatic cold in 2004 after international sanctions were lifted amidst a flurry of good behaviour, oil companies considered the former rogue state a new frontier, keen to return after a 30-year hiatus.…

BY EMMA JACKSON, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, PAUL COCHRANE and BILL CORCORAN

WEST Africa is becoming a key region in the booming trade of illicit cigarettes, counterfeit copies of premium brands and smuggled properly branded and manufactured sticks. So much money is being made by criminals using this often-chaotic region as a hub to receive illicit sticks and then distribute them throughout Africa that this trade is becoming a matter of serious concern to the United Nations and even NATO.…

BY GEORGE STONE

GHANA, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are Africa’s latest upstream hotspots as major energy firms seek new provinces outside of regional heavyweight oil producers Nigeria and Angola. But jockeying for position has already led to friction between governments and the industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Find has praised anti-recession strategies amongst Middle East and north Africa oil and gas exporting countries. It said using "reserve buffers for countercyclical spending by [Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen] mitigated the impact on their own economies and generated positive spillovers for neighbours."…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

IRAN has been under international financial and other trading scrutiny since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago, with sanctions by the United States tightened under the Clinton administration through the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. And since Iran’s decision to embark on a nuclear programme, US sanctions have intensified, but in the face of such restrictions Iranian banks and individuals are increasingly using joint venture banks in the Middle East and South America to bypass scrutiny.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AGREEMENT has been struck over future European Union (EU) targets for CO2 emissions from cars, with an informal deal being forged by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. The agreement is a compromise, with energy and automobile companies securing a phase-in between 2012 and 2015 of an agreed 120g/km target.…