Search Results for: accountancy⊂mit=Search

BY ALAN OSBORN

IT’S COMMONLY acknowledged that, whatever its merits, the globalisation of world trade and commerce brings with it vastly enhanced opportunities for money laundering. As the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) points out, in an online report explaining its work, the world-wide spread of inter-connected financial markets greatly extends the range of countries where anti-money laundering (AML) controls are absent or embryonic and enforcement is weak "and unfortunately, many countries particularly those classified as emerging markets, fall into this category."…

BY ALAN OSBORN

AS befits its wider membership and longer history, Interpol is better known internationally than Europol though it has fewer staff and a smaller budget. But the similarities between the two organisations are more important than the differences. Neither is a hands-on police force.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

By many measures, the Dutch are the world leaders in paint and coatings which is not quite the same as saying they’re the largest suppliers or that Dutch paints are the best known though they do come at or near the top in both categories.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels

WHEN asked about corruption in Belgium by Commercial Crime International, a government official held his nose in the time-honoured gesture. But was he being fair? Some recent high profile cases have brought the nation some lurid publicity.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN research network Eureka has developed a computerised screening process that will help pharmaceutical companies assess thousands of plants for a potentially lucrative source of therapeutic compounds. At present, researchers trawl through plant samples looking for a useful species, but Eureka’s E!…

BY DEIRDRE MASON

FROM the scorching heat of Kenya’s northern border with the Sudan to the unforgiving conditions of Afghanistan, International Red Cross nurse Jenny Hayward-Karlsson has seen it all during a varied and challenging 20-year career working in the world’s war zones.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PUBLISHERS are being asked to comment on draft European Commission plans to reform scientific publishing in Europe. The Commission has suggested an official ranking system for scientific publications: by quality, copyright management, search facilities and archiving. It is also considering using its competition powers to "guarantee a level playing field" in a market where paid-for journals compete with open-access Internet sites.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend up to Euro 150 million to Esso Highlands Ltd, Oil Search Ltd, and the Papua New Guinea government to develop gas reserves in the country’s Southern Highlands. Gas would be piped 3,500km to eastern Australia.…

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London

EUROPEAN and US regulatory bodies have agreed to co-operate to develop common testing and engineering standards for mobile air conditioning systems such as those used in automobiles. Because some of the gases used in these systems, such as HFC 134a, are far more lethal to the environment than carbon dioxide, the European Union (EU) has agreed to start phasing them out in 2011 and stop using them in new autos from 2017.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney

FOR devotees of Captain Kirk, Dr Spock and the original Star Trek crew, the thrilling world of nanotechnology could sound vaguely familiar. It offers the 21st century a swathe of new products and services, from dirt-repelling cars to ‘thinking’ materials that can change colour automatically.…