Search Results for: United Nations

BY KEITH NUTHALL
UNITED Nations cultural agency UNESCO has welcomed a pledge by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) not to explore or mine in official World Heritage sites. The council includes 15 of the world’s largest mining companies, such as Alcoa, Anglo American, Nippon Mining & Metals, Rio Tinto and Umicore.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE DOMINICAN Republic, Brazil and the Philippines are the key beneficiaries of the latest low tariff import quotas for sugar unveiled by the United States Trade Representative. Out of a total low duty quota for 2003-4 of 1,117,195 metric tonnes, the Dominican Republic commands 185,335 tonnes, Brazil 152,691 and the Philippines 142,160.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TOURISM once was regarded as a key to the developing world’s ills, allowing poor countries to make money out of their natural landscape and cultural attractions, but as with most success stories, there is a downside. In some countries, tourism has boomed so suddenly and aggressively, the development it has sparked has threatened to go out of control, spoiling the delights that lured tourists in the first place and creating a host of new environmental problems for governments to deal with.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have released a set of educational materials on protecting children from ultra-violet radiation, as young people today are, they say, “most vulnerable and most exposed. The information packs point out that annually, there are 2-3 million new cases of non-malignant melanomas and more than 130,000 melanoma skin cancer cases worldwide, causing 66,000 deaths; “children are disproportionately affected,” it warns.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE JAPANESE government has appealed against a World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes panel ruling that supported claims from the United States that it had followed WTO rules when staging a sunset review of its anti-dumping duties on corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from Japan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL in Paris, ALAN OSBORN in London, MARK ROWE in Singapore, ED PETERS and DON GASPER in Hong Kong, RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane and ALEX SMAILES in Port of Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IN 1995, when I visited the Laos capital Vientiane, it was a sleepy place; a quiet low rise French colonial town on the banks of the Mekong, a listless, aimless, but charming mix of Soviet-style socialist monuments, Buddhist temples and Provencal town houses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DATA released by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has shown the wide extent of the fires that have this year ravaged the world’s forests. In Europe, Portugal has been particularly hard hit, with 417,000 hectares being burnt so far this year, compared with 123,910 in all of last year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS the diplomatic impasse crystallised at Cancun recedes into memory, the World Trade Organisation is facing what may be the sternest test of its eight year existence: can a body of 146 members actually agree comprehensive trade deals by consensus?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A SPECIALIST report from the United Nations on the growth in Iraq’s organised crime following the fall of Saddam Hussein has claimed that three million litres of diesel are currently being smuggled from the country every day.

Profits are huge, said the paper by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime: given that Iraq’s oil price is “artificially cheap at 5 cents (US$) a litre”, margins of 500 per cent can be earned on fuel reaching neighbouring Iran and 3,000 per cent to the United Arab Emirates.…