Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that from January 1, all vehicle fuels sold in sub-Saharan Africa will be lead-free. Ironically, the last country to abandon lead was the region’s most developed – South Africa. The phase-out follows pledges made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg, 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

BANKS in Surinam and Guyana have been asked to operate a rice production improvement fund worth Euro 10 million, aimed at helping these South American countries prosper in world food markets. The Caribbean Forum of the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) States, or CARIFORUM, is spending Euro 6.5 million in Guyana and Euro 3.5 million in Surinam, to invest in rice processors, millers and growers, increasing the sector’s "efficiency and competitiveness".…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OUT of 60 recommendations made in a report last December by the European Parliament on strategies to prevent human trafficking only one specifically mentioned money laundering and even there the message was essentially "carry on as before" and "keep your eyes open".…

BY Raghavendra Verma in New Delhi

Astrology, philosophy, cookery and international bestsellers led December sales in the booming billion-pound book market in India. The country is also the world’s third largest producer of English titles.

"Reading habits are picking up and so is purchasing power but retailers are reluctant to provide sales figures so even a rough estimate of total sales is next to impossible."…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has demonstrated that there are limits to the authority coastal states may have over its fishing fleets in international access deals by refusing to renew a protocol with Angola. Indeed, the European Commission has asked EU ministers to denounce a 1989 agreement underpinning a series of access deals, after refusing to accept a new Angolan law on ‘biological aquatic resources’.…

BY RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg

THE PAINT and coatings industries in the Southern African states of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho and Zambia are closely linked to that of the regional economic giant South Africa in the that the major manufacturing plants are located in the industrialised area of South Africa’s Gauteng province with branch offices in the neighbouring states acting as agents for the parent companies in South Africa.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union and Norway have divided up common stocks within the North Sea for 2006, overcoming difficult conservation problems, especially regarding cod. Brussels and Oslo have agreed on a long-term management plan for cod, to come into effect when the stock has returned to safe biological levels.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
A NEW genetic test that can detect devastating clam disease QPX has been developed by American scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in Cape Cod Massachusetts. They claim the test is sensitive enough to detect the QPX organism not only in clams, but also in seawater and sediment.…

BY KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

A YEAR after the Boxing Day tsunami, the four badly affected universities in Sri Lanka’s north, south and east are boxing on, with a bare minimum of repairs and reconstruction for want of funds. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had estimated the damage to the buildings and hostels at Ruhunu, South Eastern, Jaffna and Eastern universities to be SL Rupees 72 million (Pounds 387,000 at local prices), but its Chairman Professor Ranjith Mendis regretted that "the government and foreign donors had not been able" to find these sums.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) general council has permanently amended the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to make permanent the 2003 waiver helping poor countries obtain generic medicines during health emergencies. The TRIPS amendment enables any WTO member country to export generic pharmaceuticals made under a compulsory licence to assist countries lacking their own manufacturing capacity.…