Search Results for: South Africa

BY PHILIP FINE

WHILE genetic modification (GM) seems to have scored a public relations disaster in the area of food, many health advocates are putting support behind the emerging area of GM insects. Three of the most promising ongoing projects are investigating the development of mosquitoes incapable of transmitting malaria, which could be released into the wild, maybe replacing insects that can carry the disease.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COMPREHENSIVELY gloomy forecast for the future of the European Union (EU) coal industry has been issued by the European Commission, underlining its determination to press for closures of most unprofitable mines to trim Brussels’ and Member States’ state aid budgets.…

BY PHILIP FINE

A NUMBER of major American drinks companies have signed up with

online music operators in a flurry of cross-promotional activity following growing public awareness of the fact that illegal music downloading could run the risk of legal action for consumers.…

BY PHILIP FINE

GRAZING cattle beef is leaner and more tender than their feed-lot counterparts, with half the saturated fat and higher levels of the more healthy types of fat, according to preliminary American research. The US Agriculture Research Service is conducting a study that will help eventually market to natural food market niches the mostly grass-fed cattle of the Appalachian mountain range in the American South.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ABUSE of drugs and alcohol in the workplace may be a growing concern in European Union (EU) countries but there seems little evidence that the relevant authorities are unduly alarmed by it. An informal survey by Occupational Health of organisations and government departments suggests that little attempt has been made so far to assess the scale of the problem, still less to devise legislation aimed at workers, as distinct from society in general.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) have developed a joint blueprint for generating a prosperous African leather production sector. Their development, investment and trade guide has been written for aid agencies, policy makers, industrialists, financiers, investors, traders and farmers “to open up new opportunities for adding value to and commercially exploiting hides and skins.”…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
SRI Lanka’s consumer affairs authority (CAA) has ruled that sugar in packs and containers and confectioneries such as cakes and sweets (also in packs or containers), sold in the south Asian country should display maximum retail prices, batch numbers and expiry dates on packaging.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITISH American Tobacco in South Africa is holding private parties for established consumers to market their cigarette brands, after a ban on the advertising, sponsorship and promotion of tobacco was imposed in 2001. BAT, which holds about 95 per cent of the South African market, said the aim of the parties was to switch users to upscale brands rather than encourage non-smokers to take up the habit.…

BY RICHARD HURST
The Ivory Coast used to be a model of stability in west Africa, but the outbreak of civil war has done little to improve the country’s status in terms of money laundering, said an assessment by the US State Department.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKE
INDIA’S civil aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy has told the Indian parliament that southern India airports will be made, while plans to upgrade the terminals at Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi are delayed. Rudy said extension and resurfacing work at Hyderabad airport would be completed next June and the development of Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam airport would finish by September 2005.…