Search Results for: South Africa

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Telecommunication Union (ITU) will establish at least 100 rural telecommunication centres in sub-Saharan Africa, where local women manage open access public telephone, fax and Internet services. “They create employment, provide basic information services and establish community focal points for e-Education, e-Health and e-Governance initiatives through web-based multimedia content,” it said.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation has helped select a preferred partner for a new aviation joint venture handling Samoa’s state-owned Polynesian Airlines long-haul flights. Richard Branson’s Virgin Blue was chosen because it would “improve air transport links” to Samoa and boost coordination with other south Pacific air services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
ALTHOUGH the south Asian Tsunami meant 2004 was a terrible year for deaths caused by natural disasters, personal damage caused by such events was actually less than in 2003, the United Nations has reported. Its Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) said that more than 320,000 people perished last year in 366 natural disasters, with the Tsunami killing at least 300,000.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FORGET about global warming, European scientists are currently more concerned about record low temperatures in the Arctic region, which they claim are thinning the northern hemisphere’s ozone layer to dangerously thin depths. Although Europe, Asia and north America have pumped most of the world’s ozone-depleting chemicals into the atmosphere, it is in the south where the notorious ozone hole has appeared, bringing skin cancers to Australasia and other regions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE LEATHER industry could shed significant numbers of jobs in poor and rich countries following a successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha Development Round agreement on industrial and textile goods. Its aim is to slash tariffs across the board, and in that instance, said a UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report, there will be winners and losers.…

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

COSMETICS and soap trademark holders must be able to prove they are acting on firm knowledge when insisting a consignment of their products owned by a third party be blocked over concerns that they are counterfeit, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.…

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 LIZ HALL, in Alicante

SINCE March 2005, Operation White Whale, an extensive international anti-money-laundering operation spearheaded by the Spain’s National Police (the Policia Nacional), has produced the arrest of 57 people and the laundering of at least Euro 250 million euros obtained through illegal drug trafficking, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry (Ministerio del Interior).…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
AUSTRALIA’S paint and coatings industry has been enjoying a period of stability and steady prosperity of late, as a mature sector that is generally growing at the same rate as the country’s robust economy. Despite suffering the effects of the general downturn in the Asian economy after SARS and terrorism fears, the industry has remained highly competitive throughout the five-year period to 2003-2004.…