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BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

CONTRARY to Islamic stereotyping, lingerie sales are extremely healthy in the Middle East, although the brand is not as important as the style.

Indeed, there is lingerie openly on display that in Europe would usually be confined to sex shops.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHILE personal care product sales for the 15 countries that made up the European Union (EU) before 2003, plus Switzerland and Norway, increased by just 1% in 2005/2006 on the previous year – eastern Europe is a more enticing prospect for the industry, and has been singled out by major organisations and companies as a shining light for sales, investment and production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE USA government is threatening to play hardball with Romania over the eastern European country’s refusal to accept imports of American poultry, unless production plants meet European Union (EU) rules, especially on welfare. No US plants are EU-approved, and faced with a halt to poultry exports to Romania, the US government is threatening to scrap a wide range of trade benefits, under its ‘generalised system of preferences’ regime.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

ONE month into the Israel-Hizbullah conflict, multinational food companies operating in Lebanon have ground to a halt, with the country facing a near total economic blockade and fuel supplies running out.

Since July 12, around 85% of all factories have been forced to close, 35 have been destroyed and distribution is increasingly difficult with over 60 bridges out of action, roads pock-marked with craters and over 450 trucks having been targeted by Israeli warplanes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

OIL and gas companies working in the Caspian Sea will have to comply with a new environmental treaty from August 12, the first legally binding agreement signed by all five coastal states. Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan and companies working within them will henceforth have to follow the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

TNE UNITED Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called for African local authorities and governments to unite with fuel and automobile companies to fight the growing blight of urban smog in the continent’s cities. Air pollution is becoming a serious problem in these booming urban areas and has been discussed at an August conference ‘Better Air Quality for African Cities’, held at UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

SAUDI Arabia’s paint sector is expanding vigorously – it is expected to grow by up to 10% this year on the back of high oil prices spurring on consumer spending, and a multi-billion dollar construction boom.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE WORLD’S trade ministers will this August and September be considering whether they want to make further compromises that could restart the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round, which have been suspended amidst disagreement over its final goals.…

BY MARK ROWE, in Munich

EUROPEAN governments have little choice but to embrace nuclear energy as part of their future power strategies, according to the head of the European Commission’s research and policy body. Roland Schenkel, Director General of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), which operates independently from private or national interests, said nuclear energy would play a hugely significant role in meeting Europe’s energy needs in coming decades, and that the need for European countries to address the issue of energy security was immediate.…

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.…