Search Results for: United Nations

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Development Programme is implementing a plan to build 15 digester units to generate biogas from animal manure for home heating and cooking in and around Kazakhstan’s second city Karaganda, population 600,000. The UNDP says that the pilot project exploits an ancient technology that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago.…

BY MARK ROWE
RUSSIA and vodka are inseparable bedfellows but is there room for a ménage-a-trois? Its domestic market for beer is booming, while abroad both Russian immigrant communities and western European and north American drinkers are enjoying the novelty factor of a quality brew from the traditional home of vodka.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) has released a detailed report warning that the globalisation of the world’s utilities is leading to job losses in the energy and water sectors, with only the roll-out of new infrastructure and services in developing countries likely to generate employment.…

BY PHILIP FINE

UNITED States national and regional administrations need to better link their federal and state food safety rules, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences. In their report called Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food, the official Washington think tank recommends that a national plan be drawn up that would integrate the information on pathogens that US Department of Agriculture and the national Food and Drug Administration gather through food sampling with public health agencies’ surveillance data on food-borne disease.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE UNITED States needs to better link its federal and state food safety rules, says a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Washington’s official think-tank. It also recommends integrating information on pathogens that US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration gather through food sampling, with public health agencies’ surveillance data on food-borne diseases.…

BY PHILIP FINE

THE UNITED States senate is examining a new air cargo bill that would impact upon British security companies and professionals working in the shipping and airline industries. The senate’s committee on commerce, science, and transportation has approved and moved an Air Cargo Security Act aimed to strengthen security on flights into the US, notably on the busy trans-Atlantic run.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE RUSSIAN agriculture minister Alexei Gordeyev is flying to the United States later this month (May) to secure a formal end the poultry dispute between the two countries. Russia banned US chicken imports last year over health concerns.…

BY PHILIP FINE

SEVERAL major bacterial food-borne illnesses seem to be on the decline in the United States, according to a recent survey of clinical laboratories that test for infection. In their annual release of data, the US Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveyed labs that serve 13 per cent of the American population and found that sustained progress is being made in meeting the national health objectives for illnesses caused by listeria and campylobacter, when comparing 2002 data with 1996-2001 numbers.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States Trade Representative office has published the details of the unconfirmed textile trade agreement that the USA has negotiated with Vietnam. It is available on the Internet at

http://www.ustr.gov/regions/asia-pacific/2003-04-25-Vietnam-textiles-summary.pdf…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE MEXICAN government is has launched formal disputes talks at the World Trade Organisation, over claims that the United States’ reimposition of anti-dumping duties on its exports of ‘oil country tubular goods’ broke global trading regulations. Mexico City says Washington’s erred during its 2001 sunset review of the duties, assessing whether abolition might attract cut-priced Mexican pipelines.…