Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has helped broker a deal with seven Balkans countries involving them reducing the environmental damage caused by their mining industries, especially regarding non-ferrous metals. Welcoming the agreement, UNEP highlighted the potential problems caused by mining for zinc, cadmium, copper, bauxite, silver and gold in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, and (effectively independent) Kosovo.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
THE INCREASING global demand for mineral resources – especially from Asia – has breathed new life into a remote yet highly and diversely mineralised part of Australia. The island of Tasmania, off the south east coast of the continent, is revelling in a mining boom, the like of which it has not seen for more than a century.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD’S crime-fighting great and good met in Bangkok in April, at the United Nations’ 11th Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. They decided rich countries should better help the poor to fight organised crime. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AT least 12.3 million people are trapped in forced labour around the world, says the International Labour Organisation (ILO), with the overwhelming majority being in Asia. A new report said 9.5 million forced labourers were in Asia; 1.3 million in Latin America and the Caribbean; 660,000 in sub-Saharan Africa; 260,000 in the Middle East and North Africa; 360,000 in industrialised countries; and 210,000 in ‘transition’ countries, for instance in eastern Europe.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PAPER released to the United Nations’ 11th Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice has claimed that the overwhelming majority of reported fraud cases are in the developing world, not rich countries. Furthermore, it claimed that – looking at 1999-2002 figures, 51% of such cases are reported in Africa.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BIRD flu is still ravaging Indonesian poultry production, according the latest figures released by the Office International des Épizooties (OIE), the world animal health organisation. They show producers culling millions of chickens across Java and south Celebes farms and villages to prevent the disease spreading.…

KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has thrown in the towel over persuading the USA to sign the Kyoto Protocol. However, the Greek has committed himself to involving Washington in negotiations to create an anti-global warming agreement that takes the world beyond the Kyoto deadline of 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SECONDARY education is expanding rapidly worldwide, with enrolments increasing from 321 million in 1990 to 492 million in 2002/03, says UN education organisation UNESCO. The fastest growth has occurred in South America which, along with Europe, now has the world’s highest enrolment ratios: almost 100%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DEADLINE is approaching for making comments on a draft South Africa law mandating health warnings on packaging and advertising for alcoholic drinks sold in the country. Businesses, non-governmental organisations and foreign governments have until May 11 to comment on a law insisting warnings appear on all labels for drinks with an abv of 1% or more from next February 11.…

BY RICHARD HURST
THE SOUTH African paint and coatings industry is in a state of change as a shift in focus towards overseas markets coupled with a need to protect local markets is pushing manufacturers to reassess their quality and production volume capabilities.…