Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE NEED to limit particulate matter in Britain and continental western Europe has been underlined by the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) latest assessment of pollution in Europe. In its fourth annual environmental health check of Europe, central Asia and Asiatic Russia, the agency concluded that much of western, central and south east Europe, especially urban areas, "experience daily average PM10 concentrations in excess of 50 ?g/m3…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A CHINK of light has emerged in the perennially taut energy relations between the European Union (EU) and Russia: both sides have agreed to establish a committee to examine how a system of gas unbundling ‘reciprocity’ might work.…

BY KARRYN CARTELLE

THE SIGNING of a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the United States is expected to fuel an already booming seafood trade. And with the Koreans having a host of other FTAs in the works, it appears this seafood-producing nation will use free trade agreements to push its seafood products to every continent.…

BY BILL CORCORAN, in Johannesburg

LAST year, South Africa’s Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni openly accused South African casino resorts, such as Sun City and Johannesburg’s Emperor’s Palace of undermining the state’s attempts to catch money launderers.

Mboweni alleged the country’s casinos were thwarting efforts to combat cash-in-transit heists because they continued to accept banknotes previously stained to render them unusable in case they are stolen, either over the counter or through casino bill validating machines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

APPALLING drinking water quality problems still pose major health hazards for some south-eastern Europe countries wanting to join the European Union (EU), the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) latest assessment of European pollution has concluded. For example, Albania’s "urban water rarely has even preliminary treatment" through "the lack of adequate…facilities and the unreliable supply of chemicals."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, in the real world, and BELINDA BLESSED, in Second Life

EVERY decade or so comes a technology that is so new, comprehensive, interesting, and damn useful, that it completely changes the way that we have fun and do business.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT is common currency amongst extreme British Eurosceptics that business and government on the continent of Europe is a cesspit of dishonesty and corruption, against which Britain shines like a beacon of virtue and decency.

Allowing "Europeans" who lack Britain’s traditional sense of fair play and transparency control over the laws and regulations mandated by the "Mother of Parliaments" is heresy to such folk.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WITH the Asia Pacific paint industry being increasingly innovative in its development of paints and seeking specialist overseas markets for its products, the relevance of international standards for its manufacturing processes is becoming increasingly apparent.

Indeed, the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) (NOTE: ISO USES AMERICAN SPELLING FOR ITS NAME) last year picked the paint and coatings sector to launch its new collection of CD compilations of its standards.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has warned that the rapid industrialisation of global animal food production is increasing the risk of disease transmission from animals to humans, especially given expanding global trade networks. In a policy paper Industrial Livestock Production and Global Health Risks, the FAO said: "The risk of disease transmission from animals to humans will increase…due to human and livestock population growth, dynamic changes in livestock production, the emergence of worldwide agro-food networks and a significant increase in the mobility of people and goods."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to open negotiations with European and Asian automobile manufacturing associations to press for all major car-makers to install the pan-European in-vehicle emergency communications system eCall. Brussels wants this to become a standard option in all new cars from 2010, as way of kick starting a system it values highly and has promoted enthusiastically, but whose take up has been anaemic.…