Search Results for: United Nations

BY MONICA DOBIE

PEOPLE who are continually exposed to low-dose pesticides have a staggering 70% higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease than those who are not, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States. An increased incidence to Parkinson’s did not follow an exposure to other occupational hazards, including asbestos, coal or stone dust, chemicals, acids, or solvents.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

URBANISATION in developing countries will inflate demand for meat and processed foods generally from this year to 2015, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has predicted. In a new ‘Agricultural Outlook’ written with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the OECD says "growing market opportunities in certain developing countries" (notably Brazil, China and India) will cause a "shift in production and export of farm commodities away from [developed] OECD countries and more towards other developing economies".…

BY MARK ROWE, in Munich

EUROPEAN governments have little choice but to embrace nuclear energy as part of their future power strategies, according to the head of the European Commission’s research and policy body. Roland Schenkel, Director General of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), which operates independently from private or national interests, said nuclear energy would play a hugely significant role in meeting Europe’s energy needs in coming decades, and that the need for European countries to address the issue of energy security was immediate.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S trade ministers will this August and September be considering whether they want to make further compromises that could restart the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round, which have been suspended amidst disagreement over its final goals.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED States and the European Union (EU) have agreed to set up joint-border enforcement cooperation to detect counterfeit goods, including clothing, and to create teams of diplomats in third country embassies tasked with sharing data and intelligence on counterfeiting.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha round food trade talks collapsed today, with diplomats floundering about how to recover from damaging political deadlock. European Union (EU) trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has bluntly blamed the Americans for refusing to yield on reducing farm production subsidies.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

SAUDI Arabia’s paint sector is expanding vigorously – it is expected to grow by up to 10% this year on the back of high oil prices spurring on consumer spending, and a multi-billion dollar construction boom.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

YOUNG adults in Germany – long seen as Europe’s technological powerhouse – are turning away from science and engineering, with just 16% of tertiary educated professionals in these fields being aged 25-34. The figures are the worst in the European Economic Area (EEA), and show that without change, Germany could face a shortage of engineers and scientists in the medium term.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

VENDING machines called Zoom Shops selling high-end electronics and expensive perfumes alongside the usual crisps and sweets are cropping up in malls, hotels, grocery stores and airports across the United States.

Consumers can select items such as iPods, digital cameras or indeed beef jerky using a touch screen.…

BY MONICA DOBIE

THE DEADLY viral hemorrhagic septicaemia virus (VHSV), which causes fatal anaemia and haemorrhaging in many fish species, has been discovered for the first time in norther-eastern north America, in upstate New York, by Cornell University researchers.
In May 2006, scientists isolated the virus in round gobies that died in a massive fish kill in the southern St Lawrence River and in Irondequoit Bay, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario near Rochester, New York.…