Search Results for: japan

BY ALAN OSBORN, in London

EUROPEAN Union (EU) lawmakers are stepping up the development of a legally binding technical standard to ensure the safe operation of hydrogen fuel cells in road vehicles. The European Commission has begun a public consultation (which runs until September 15) on the matter, seeking to ensure that the rapid technical development of hydrogen power by automakers is not held back by safety fears and conflicting national safety rules.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha round food trade talks collapsed today, with diplomats floundering about how to recover from damaging political deadlock. European Union (EU) trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has bluntly blamed the Americans for refusing to yield on reducing farm production subsidies.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

THE WORLD’S top anti-money laundering body has warned that organised criminals have used French fashion purchases to help hide their ill-gotten gains. The Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) latest report on money laundering techniques has written about how illicit drug dealers have smuggled into France the cash proceeds of Japan drug sales.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Damascus

FOLLOWING a sizeable reduction in import duties last year, Syria’s fledgling car market has grown by up to 60% in under a year.

A mere decade ago Syria’s roads were full of ageing cars, such as 1950s and 1960s Chevrolets, Dodges and Plymouths that were either lovingly maintained or had had one paint job too many.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice (ECJ) has upheld or strengthened two fines originally imposed by the European Commission on seven graphite electrode producers from Germany, Japan and the USA for operating a global cartel. These penalties had been appealed, and eased somewhat by the ECJ’s junior Court of First Instance.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) has warned of both an increase in violence at work worldwide and of an increasing variety of threats, which are increasingly psychological rather than purely physical. In its latest global study of workplace violence, ILO says: "Bullying, harassment, mobbing and allied behaviours can be just as damaging as outright physical violence.…

BY SYMON ROSS, in Auckland

INTERNATIONAL law enforcement agencies acknowledge that the laundering of criminal proceeds generated by transnational crime remains a problem in the Pacific region despite increased legislation designed to curb the cleaning of dirty money.

With no Pacific countries now on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklist of uncooperative territories, international monitors could be forgiven for focusing their attentions elsewhere.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has approved linking the European Union’s (EU) design protection system to that run globally by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). This will formally tie the EU’s design protection regulation to WIPO’s Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement concerning the international registration of industrial designs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has reduced European Commission fines on Germany’s BASF for participating in several vitamin cartels, from Euro 296.16 to 236.84 million, and on Japan’s Daiichi from Euro 23.4 to 18 million.

ENDS…

BY JULIAN RYALL, in Tokyo

THE HEADLINES in the Japanese press in recent months are likely to have

piqued the interest of anyone looking for a destination where ill-gotten

gains can be made to appear legitimate, let alone the concern of global

money-laundering authorities.…