Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has banned EU imports of ostrich meat and related products from Mossel Bay and Riversdale districts in South Africa’s Western Cape Province because of a bird flu outbreak.

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST annual report from European Union (EU) anti-fraud unit OLAF has revealed how an accounts department staff member of a European Commission delegation to Africa diverted Euro 300,000 of EU money to his own bank account. The official, who had been recruited locally, "systematically falsified the signatures of duly authorised delegation staff on several cheques, payment orders and other accounting documents," noted OLAF, which has kept the country of operation under wraps.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Damascus

FOLLOWING a sizeable reduction in import duties last year, Syria’s fledgling car market has grown by up to 60% in under a year.

A mere decade ago Syria’s roads were full of ageing cars, such as 1950s and 1960s Chevrolets, Dodges and Plymouths that were either lovingly maintained or had had one paint job too many.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHINESE exporters have been fraudulently routing clothing and textile exports via Hong Kong and South Korea to evade quota limits imposed last year, following the ‘bra wars’ spat with the European Union (EU). Swedish government figures claim Hong Kong clothing and textile exports to the EU rose by 234% in the past year, which would mean every Hong Konger was employed in the textile industry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHINESE exporters have been fraudulently routing clothing and textile exports via Hong Kong and South Korea to evade quota limits imposed last year, following the ‘bra wars’ spat with the European Union (EU). Swedish government figures claim Hong Kong clothing and textile exports to the EU rose by 234% in the past year, which would mean every Hong Konger was employed in the textile industry.…

BY TIMON MOLLOY and KEITH NUTHALL

SUSPECTED fraud notifications to OLAF, the European Union’s (EU) anti fraud office rose 20% in 2005, according to its activity report for the period July 2004 to December 2005, which was published in July. The agency received 857 new pieces of information, of which 560 were assessed as potential opening leads.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

COSTLY, time consuming and often-ineffective new initiatives and strategies to make British hospitals cleaner may become less necessary in the near future. Why? Well, wouldn’t you know, hospitals are going to start cleaning themselves. Yes, forget the idea of motivated and eager cleaning staff wanting to counter recent reports of unsatisfactory conditions in British hospitals, and instead welcome a new application of nanotechnology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S largest solar photovoltaic power plant is now under construction in Portugal’s sunny Algarve region. When it starts generating electricity early next year, it should power 8,000 homes, saving 30,000 tonnes annually in greenhouse gas emissions. There will be 52,000 photovoltaic modules on the plant on the 60-hectare site located on a south-facing hillside at Serpa, which is one of the sunniest spots in Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Bank has granted the Afghanistan government US$30 million to fund plans to strengthen its Ministry of Mining as an effective and transparent regulator for mineral extraction, notably of large copper reserves south of Kabul. The ministry is already contracting a transaction advisor to conduct an internationally competitive tender for the Aynak deposit, which the bank calls "a world-class copper resource".…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE ORGANISATION for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Kyrgyz Republic government are teaming up to assess the environmental danger posed by radioactive dumps left from closed uranium mines. The OSCE said it would secure funding to examine dumps in the country’s south-eastern Minkush region, created in Soviet times from 1958-1969.…