Search Results for: United Nations

BY MARK ROWE and MONICA DOBIE

GENETICALLY modified foods have split opinion across the world; hugely unpopular in Europe but embraced in the United States. But GM technology does not only apply to foodstuffs. Increasingly, scientists are looking at the extent to which altering the genetic components of a range of products that are used for textiles can influence the make-up of the clothes we wear.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, in Caracas

LATIN AMERICA has long been notorious for its high levels of corruption, especially through money laundering, bribery and the illicit drug trade. And although the recent years of relative stability and democratisation in the region have brought economic progress, this has also widened the opportunities for fraudulent activities and fuelled an increasing sophistication by which they are performed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UN World Tourism Organisation wants the global tourism sector to use CO2 efficient cars to serve growing demand for international leisure motoring. It warns road transport tourism already accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions, and this proportion is expected to rise, especially with the growing middle classes of China, India and Brazil taking more holidays.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

NEW biofuels could be created as a result of a trans-Atlantic scientific workshop of specialists tasked with developing new biofuel technologies being created by a United States-European Union summit in Slovenia. Its work will include using plant cell walls in bio-refining and new plant oils as biofuel feedstocks, being coordinated by the EU-US Task-Force on Biotechnology Research.…

BY MARK ROWE

ONE of the first responses to concerns about climate change involved the search to sequester carbon, a component of the major greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Increasingly, efforts are focussing on how to deal with another greenhouse gas, methane.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

TURKISH clothing and textile manufacturers are ramping up production of mid- to high-end garments for the European market in the face of strong competition from China and other apparel producing countries, while also preparing for Turkey’s eventual membership of the European Union (EU).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A POWERFUL international bloc is debating forging an international anti-counterfeiting of goods agreement insisting upon cooperation over fighting fake food products. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States have been discussing the idea in Geneva.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A GROUP of influential countries are debating forging an international anti-counterfeiting of goods agreement, which would see them cooperate against the production and trade in fake tobacco products. Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States have been discussing the idea in Geneva.…

By Alan Osborn

A committee of the European Parliament is seeking a number of improvements in the EU’s Erasmus Mundus university co-operation and student mobility programme (2009-13), including the introduction of a specific visa for the students taking part. The MEPs say also that if tuition fees are claimed by universities taking part, these fees should always comply with national legislation, making it possible to include countries where the fees are not allowed, like Denmark.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

WORRIES about inflation and food shortages have left the Chinese government struggling to balance efforts to temper inflation with its ambitious biofuels development programme. Increasing demand for food and biofuels in China have been a key driver in increasing global consumption of fats and oils at an average 4% per year according to the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO).…