Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCANDINAVIA dominates the top rankings of a new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) global index on information and communication technology (ICT) access, with Sweden, Denmark and Iceland scoring the highest marks. The ITU says that the league table distinguishes itself from other indices by including new variables, such as education and affordability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFTER a long period of consultation, a comprehensive directive protecting the European Union’s (EU) groundwater reserves has been proposed by the European Commission, which would force Member States to establish and police locally sensitive pollution limits. The legislation would insist that national governments carefully monitor groundwater quality and take steps to reverse its pollution, where it has exceeded these self-imposed thresholds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INNOVATIVE nanotechnology technology has been trialled in the United States, effectively spraying a protective crystal crust on a New Mexico mountainside that had been left exposed to erosion by a fire. Its flames destroyed 5,000 acres of land considered sacred by the Taos Pueblo Native Indian group.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL leather trade is facing a fall in demand for American raw hides, skin and finished leather exports, as well as leather finished goods and components, with the European Union (EU) planning to impose heavy duties such exports from the United States.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE UNITED States is to slap quota limits on imports of Chinese knitted fabrics, brassieres and dressing gowns, because it claims a surge in imports from China has disrupted its markets and could endanger US textile industry employment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A UNITED Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Protocol on Heavy Metals will come into force on December 29 following its ratification by Germany. It is the 16th country to confirm the treaty, the minimum number required for it to be binding on all 35 signatory countries, covering western and eastern Europe.…

BY MARK ROWE
UZBEKISTAN has been at the forefront of international AML efforts in the central Asia region, a spokesman for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) told the Money Laundering Bulletin. Uzbekistan has the most advanced AML legislation and apparatus of all the former Soviet Central Asia and has signed more than 20 bilateral and multilateral agreements on cooperation in fighting illicit drug trafficking with its Central Asian neighbours, as well as with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, according to the International Money Laundering Information Network (IMOLIN), (whose contributing members include the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering, the United Nations and the World Customs Organisation).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A UNITED Nations (UN) Convention against Transnational Organised Crime has come into force, imposing a duty on ratifying countries to outlaw membership of an organised criminal group, which it defines legally. So far, said the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 48 countries have ratified it, including Monaco, Nigeria, Serbia & Montenegro, Peru, Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Philippines, Tajikistan, Albania, France, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey, China, Norway and Afghanistan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations is warning that without speedier action by the US-run Coalition Provisional Authority to assume the responsibilities of the UN Oil for Food Programme, a November 21 scheme closure deadline could be missed. UN Office of the Iraq Programme executive director Benon Sevan also blamed deteriorating security.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SUPERMARKET boom in sub-Saharan Africa is raising standards in food production and distribution, which many small producers struggle to meet, said the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It says the growth of mass retail in South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland is having “a direct impact on the lives of millions of small farmers.”…