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Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED Nations’ in-house audit office has claimed to have saved the world body more than US$26 million in the past year, with other recommendations on further eliminating waste and improving efficiency in the pipeline. In its annual report to the UN general assembly, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) stated that more than half of the 541 recommendations it made during 2003-04 have been implemented or are being worked upon.…

Keith Nuthall
THE JAPANESE government has come under pressure from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) office to cut landing and user fees at its major international airports. The call came in advice from USTR deputy Josette Sheeran Shiner, handed over to Japan foreign minister Ichiro Fujisaki, in Washington.…

BY MARK ROWE
CHOCOLATE sells in eastern Europe. One of the curiosities of the old Soviet Empire was that, even in the darkest days of rule by Stalin and Brezhnev, the USSR imported vast amounts of cocoa, simply because the Kremlin thought it was good for the masses.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States is pressing the European Union (EU) at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for changes to its administration of pig meat import quotas. Washington is annoyed that individual exporters cannot sell more than 10% of the total quota, saying this “imposes trade distorting effects, is administratively burdensome, (is) more restrictive than necessary”, said the USA.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has lost patience with the United States and Canada’s refusal to lift retaliatory tariffs targeting meat products, in place since 1999 because of Brussels’ import ban on certain beef treated with growth hormones. It has launched a World Trade Organisation (WTO) case claiming that Ottawa and Washington are breaking WTO rules by refusing to lift the duties on foodstuffs including Danish premium-quality hams French hams and goose liver pate, and German pork.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A COBALT and uranium mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is too dangerous for workers and should remain closed, a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) assessment has concluded. UN officials have examined Shinkolobwe mine since a June collapse killing eight miners.…

BY DAVID HAWORTH, in Brussels
THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) incoming agriculture Commissioner signalled a tough approach to New World wine and spirit producers who exploit traditional European geographic names on wine products after she takes up her post on November 1.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE LONG-AWAITED civil racketeering trial is under way in the United States, where the US federal government is seeking a record US$280 billion from the American tobacco industry for allegedly misleading the public about the dangers of smoking since the 1960’s.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank has called on emerging market eastern European and central Asian governments not to slavishly follow the priorities of United Nations’ (UN) millennium development goals for health in their region. A new report says these targets “do not address fully the main causes of poor health in Europe and Central Asia, where high burdens of heart disease, lung cancer and injuries reduce life expectancy in many countries”.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED States has confirmed its appeal against a World Trade Organisation (WTO) panel ruling that some of its cotton production and export subsidies break global commerce rules.…