Search Results for: United Nations

BY EMMA JACKSON, KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, PAUL COCHRANE and BILL CORCORAN

WEST Africa is becoming a key region in the booming trade of illicit cigarettes, counterfeit copies of premium brands and smuggled properly branded and manufactured sticks. So much money is being made by criminals using this often-chaotic region as a hub to receive illicit sticks and then distribute them throughout Africa that this trade is becoming a matter of serious concern to the United Nations and even NATO.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has brought together tribal leaders in Sudan’s oil-rich Abyei region to discuss border security, arms control, migration and peaceful coexistence if the area is divided between two countries. That is the expected result of a 2011 referendum on whether Southern Sudan should become independent.…

By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut

For business journalists, writing about the Gulf from 2004 to 2008 was often a repetitive process. Regardless of the sector being covered, the opening paragraph would invariably have a growth figure in the double digits, and the projection for the next year would also be very healthy. The global financial crisis in the autumn of 2008 dimmed the region's business fortunes, flipping that opening paragraph to negative double-digit growth or, for some sectors, growth in the low single-digits.

This change was welcomed by many business journalists, if only to spice up their writing, but of course not by the business community. The reasons behind strong growth can be easily explained, but a downturn and a serious contraction in revenues requires a different explanation, and it was time for journalists to start asking hard questions – at least it should have been time to play hardball.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations has said 15 countries (including five European Union member states) have now signed a new UN Convention on the Carriage of Goods (Wholly or Partly) by Sea, dubbed the Rotterdam Rules. These provide global rules on shipping liability, covering issues such as multi-modal deliveries, ecommerce and risk allocation.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA and RUSSEL BERMAN

AMERICAN and Indian officials are keeping upbeat about the prospects of 2010 being the year when the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement finally comes into force and becomes an operational reality. A whirl of recent diplomacy is expected to lead to another round of talks by senior officials charged with ironing out the remaining technical problems that are holding up implementation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A YEAR of struggle would be the best way to sum up 2009 as far as the global clothing and textile industry is concerned. The depth and severity of the worldwide recession left many clothing and textile companies reeling, even impacting upon China, which had previously been dominating global markets.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF, ERIC LYMAN and KEITH NUTHALL

INTRODUCTION

THE ITALIAN wine industry hit rock bottom a generation ago, when thousands of bottles of Italian wine were found laced with deadly levels of methanol, a key ingredient in antifreeze that had been used to raise the alcohol content of the wine.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ERIC LYMAN

THE COPENHAGEN climate change conference ended on December 18 with an accord where key world economies promised to make binding agreements to cut carbon emissions. But detail on exactly how much will be settled at a later date, meaning its long term effects on the oil and gas industry are unclear.…

BY CRAIG HOWIE

GERI Jenkins has seen more than most in her 32 years as a registered nurse in California.

Recently, she said, an uninsured patient was admitted to San Diego Medical Center suffering from acute respiratory failure. Rather than demand immediate care, the desperately ill patient requested that his treatment wait for a week – until he turned 65 – when it would be paid for by the government’s medicare programme for senior citizens.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CHINA has come under increased pressure to scrap export restrictions on certain key non-ferrous metals, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) establishing a disputes panel to adjudicate complaints about these rules. With the European Union (EU) being joined by the United States and Mexico as formal parties to this dispute, the outlook could be serious for China if it loses.…