Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is to stage negotiations with the Peruvian government on forging a fishing access agreement with the European Union (EU), its first struck with a South American country. If successful, a deal would be a rich prize for EU fishermen, given the plentiful stocks that teem Peru’s deep Pacific Ocean territorial waters.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

AFRICA’S tobacco leaf producers are facing troubled times.

Instead of capitalising on crop and currency woes in rival Brazil, too many producers across the world’s poorest continent are battling drought and low selling prices.

Brazil’s problems should have opened a door of opportunity for leading African producers to claim back at least part of the world leaf market lost to south American and other producers when Zimbabwe’s crop collapsed amid the violent seizure of white-owned farm land.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin has sought to shore up Russia’s damaged reputation as a reliable energy partner for eastern Europe, by suggesting Hungary take part in the Blue Stream gas pipeline project. In a visit to Budapest, Putin said Russia and Turkey were considering an extension of the Black Sea project "into south Europe, and our partners in that area have shown interests."…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

CENTRAL bankers, drug barons, warlords, corporate bosses and small town crooks in Africa are all washing their money despite attempts by governments and international law enforcement agencies to bring them to book. But financial crime has never been as lucrative as now on the world’s poorest continent.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is launching a call for proposals this week from water specialists to secure grants from a Euro 178 million-fund earmarked for improving water supplies in developing countries. Past projects involving money drawn from the Commission’s ‘water facility’ have included rehabilitating water collection and distribution in north Africa and Middle East countries, and improving water management in growing cities in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been authorised to renegotiate clothing and textile trade agreements with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, given that existing deals are about to lapse. The European Union (EU) Council of Ministers told the Commission to "modify provisions on trade in textiles" contained in the EU’s general partnership and cooperation agreements with both countries, although it did not give further guidance.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney

NON-metallic minerals, long considered the poor relations in the extended family of industrial minerals, are suddenly popular again.

They have found favour once more because of their molecular structures and their usefulness in the rapidly advancing world of nanotechnology.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

THE INDIAN economy is booming and so, as a result, is the country’s US$1.8 billion paint and coating industry, which registered a 10 to 12% annual growth for third consecutive year, taking 2002-03, 2003-04, and 2004-05 into account.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A DIPLOMATIC row between Germany and Denmark could have important implications for future drink can recycling levies that might be introduced in the UK. Denmark has formally requested the European Commission forces the German government to restrict an annual cross-border shopping trade involving Danish consumers buying around 400 million cans of beer in Germany.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

ONGOING recruitment of South African nurses to the UK is pushing South Africa’s already hard pressed public health system close to the brink of collapse and putting patient care at risk, the country’s lead nursing union and health experts have warned.…