Search Results for: United Nations

BY ALAN OSBORN
TINY, mountainous and very very friendly to rich people with plenty of cash to stash away, Andorra ought to be a money launderer’s paradise. On balance, anti money laundering people say that it is not, though the relentless culture of secrecy about financial matters makes this impossible to say with certainty.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GOVERNMENT of the traditional southern African kingdom of Swaziland is taking proactive steps to promote traditional cooking in a country that is developing health problems through its adoption of modern processed foods. The United Nations (UN) Food & Agriculture Organisation has reported rises in hypertension and sugar diabetes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WANT to sell cigarettes? Go east, young man. That might be the advice that tobacco companies could glean from the latest set of World Health Organisation (WHO) smoking figures. Using 2003 or latest available data, the WHO has collated percentage rate proportions of smoking adults (18 and over), compared with total populations of all but 56 countries: the overwhelming majority of nations.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE COST of the proposed Mackenzie Delta pipeline in Canada’s Northwest Territories has skyrocketed 40% to CDN$7 billion from CDN$5 billion. Imperial Oil has expanded its planned capacity, adding a separate parallel LNG line. The pipeline should be able to move 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas daily to the United States.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) is pressing the United States to further delay a rule insisting that passports used in its visa-waiving programme contain biometric features. Following EU calls, Congress delayed its introduction until next October, but the European Commission now wants this postponed until 2006, saying some member states cannot meet the deadline.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN governments should exploit the scare tactics of the 1980’s when AIDS campaigns shocked promiscuous sex devotees and intravenous drug users into changing their behaviour, stemming HIV infections, the World Health Organisation has claimed. It fears dramatic increases in HIV cases in eastern Europe that are amongst the world’s worst, notably in Estonia, Latvia, Russia and the Ukraine “where the epidemic continues to spread unchecked”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NASCENT tourism hotspot is being nurtured by the United Nations in Afghanistan, where the former Taliban government exploded the famous Bamiyan Buddha statues. The site also sports other archaeological remains and the scenic Band-i-Amir Lake, so the UN is training local war widows in providing travel hospitality services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
HIV and AIDS are savagely shrinking life expectancy rates in southern Africa, said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In Zambia, 32.7% HIV infection rates for adults aged 15-49 has cut average mortality ages from 47.4 in 1990 to 32.7 in 2002.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Plant Genetic Resources Institute and United Nations Environment Programme have launched an In-Situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives Through Enhanced Management and Field Application scheme preserving biodiversity in species rich Armenia, Bolivia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations agency coordinating the world’s airlines has claimed the industry is finally shaking off its post-September 11 gloom and will post robust growth figures this year and onto 2006. Predictions released by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) say that global airline passenger traffic should grow by 6.2% this year and continue to expand by 5.4% in 2005 and 5.2% in 2006.…