Search Results for: saudi arabia⊂mit=Search

BY JONATHAN THOMSON, in Newcastle, England, MATTHEW BRACE, in Brisbane and RICHARD HURST, in Johannesburg
ASK a human to find a needle in a haystack and they would probably spend five minutes at the most sifting through the stalks, then get bored and walk away.…

BY MARK ROWE
INTERPOL has agreed to a request from Russian authorities to help locate the missing vodka magnate Yury Shefler, wanted by Russian prosecutors in connection with allegations of threatening to kill a government official.

A spokesman for the organisation’s Moscow bureau confirmed that Interpol offices across Western Europe were now liaising in the search for SPI Group owner Shefler.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PHD in rocket science is not required to understand that corruption is a problem worldwide. But such a qualification – and more – would be required to devise an effective plan to fight this financial plague. The United Nations’ (UN) is drafting an international convention on corruption and asked a string of experts to write reports to illuminate some issues.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
TWO international organisations have highlighted opportunities for European water companies, which may be called upon in the next few decades to boost supplies to arid parts of the world, notably the Middle East.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) World Water Development Report says this region is the poorest in terms of water availability, with Kuwait being the most parched (10 m³ is available per person annually), followed by Gaza Strip (52 m³), the United Arab Emirates (58 m³), Bahamas (66 m³), Qatar (94 m³), Maldives (103 m³), Libya (113 m³), Saudi Arabia (118 m³), and Malta (129 m³).…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
BRITISH government backed scientists have launched a pioneering research project that could see natural plant fibres being used to manufacture car body shells. Biomat is a four-year project using various forms of flax and hemp fibre, as well as willow, and is being funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and MARK ROWE, in London, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane, and RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg

Introduction

Europe

Cuts to EU catch quotas

New sources of fish

Affect on fish producers

Wild alternatives to cod

Farmed cod

North America

USA – Healthier local stocks

USA – Demand up

USA – Fish imports

Canada – Farmed fish exports

Canada – GM issues

Australasia

Australia – New wild sources

Australia – Aquaculture

Australia – Wild fish innovation

Australia and New Zealand – sustainability

South Africa – Export increase and conservation

Japan – Local and regional supply

Japan – Maintaining quality

Japan – Non-Asian sources

Introduction

ONCE it was said, cod was so abundant that fishermen in some parts of the world boasted they could walk on the backs of the fish to find their catch.…

BY MARK ROWE
IF you open the window, flies will enter your home but in post-Soviet Russia it wasn’t just the windows but the doors too that were flung wide open.

Organised gangs, drawn by the sweet smell of easy pickings, duly swarmed all over the decaying house of Lenin.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHEN the New Year is upon us, pessimists tend to herald the approach of apocalypse, gloomy tidings and battening down the hatches. And in a year that may see war in the Middle East, the naysayers may say more in 2003 than usual.…

BY MATTHEW WELLS
A UNITED Nations (UN) envoy is urging the Saudi Arabian government to speed up an unprecedented, yet tentative, judicial reform process.

Speaking after a week-long mission to the country, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Dato Param Cumaraswamy, said the kingdom’s legal system was improving following the introduction of a new criminal procedure code in May.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GENERAL Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation has streamlined and simplified the international patent application filing system as operated under its Patent Cooperation Treaty. Delegates agreed to integrate two key processes, namely an international search looking for existing patents that might throw doubt on the uniqueness of an invention and an examination of the application itself, checking whether it is novel, involves an inventive step and can be exploited industrially.…