Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has helped broker a deal with seven Balkans countries involving them reducing the environmental damage caused by their mining industries. Welcoming the agreement, UNEP highlighted the potential problems caused by mining for zinc, cadmium, copper, bauxite, silver and gold in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, and (effectively independent) Kosovo.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has helped broker a deal with seven Balkans countries involving them reducing the environmental damage caused by their mining industries, especially regarding non-ferrous metals. Welcoming the agreement, UNEP highlighted the potential problems caused by mining for zinc, cadmium, copper, bauxite, silver and gold in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, and (effectively independent) Kosovo.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
Two new schemes aimed at resolving the differences between the European Union and the US over the posting of collateral by non-American re-insurers in the US market are to be considered by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) of the US at its summer meeting in Boston June 11-14th.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BETTER efforts need to be made to ensure a “culture of safety” exists in nuclear power plants worldwide, a meeting of the parties to the United Nations Convention on Nuclear Safety has concluded. Debating the current problems the idea at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, the meeting noted “in some instances…safety culture in nuclear power plants should be strengthened as deficiencies were reported in areas of decision-making, even management and internal communications”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILED negotiations on promoting the mutual recognition (of qualification) agreements, which could cover the legal profession, should be launched following an European Union (EU)-United States summit in Washington next month, the European Commission has advised. In a detailed policy paper, preparing for the June 20 meeting in Washington, the Commission said negotiations should focus on sectors where an “economic interest or need” for such agreements “has been substantiated”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FOOD and Drug Administration (FDA), of the United States, is planning to authorise US food manufacturers to make health claims that sucralose can help prevent tooth decay as a safe alternative to sugar, adding it to a list containing other noncariogenic carbohydrate sweeteners.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
SCIENTISTS from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in the United States have developed a industrially-usable manufacturing technique that takes the itch out of wool, makes it whiter and makes it shrink-proof. Its “biopolishing” process involves pre-treating wool with a stable, activated peroxide, which is followed by a treatment with either serine or cysteine protease cellular enzymes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DISCUSSIONS between the European Union (EU) and the United States on the mutual recognition of insurance of commercial risks in both jurisdictions will start “in the near future”, a European Commission policy paper has claimed. ‘A stronger EU-US Partnership and a more open market for the 21st century’ also notes optimism that “solutions to remove collateral requirements for EU reinsurers doing business in the US should be found” by Brussels and Washington working together.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADA’S federal health ministry has lowered maximum levels for lead and mercury in paints, enamels, varnishes, lacquers, shellacs or similar materials that dry to a solid film on the application surface. The lead content limit has been reduced from 5000 mg/kg to 600 mg/kg for surface coating materials used in or around the home on furniture, toys and other articles used by children.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILED negotiations on further converging accounting and auditing standards of the United States and the European Union (EU) should follow next month’s EU-US summit in Washington, the European Commission has said. In a detailed policy paper, preparing for the June 20 meeting, Brussels said: “The EU and the US are convinced of the need to increase convergence and acceptance of functional equivalence in key areas such as accounting and audit standards”.…