Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
GALILEO
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Euro 2.5 billion Galileo programme to set up a global positioning system by 2008 is firmly back on track in spite of concerns expressed by Britain, Germany and others about the cost.
Telecom ministers of the 15 EU countries have now pledged finance of up to Euro 100 million, (Pounds 60 million), for 2001 and have agreed to take a decision on a further Euro 450 million, (Pounds 270 million) at the end of the year.…
INTERPOL
BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERPOL has launched an international 24-hour early warning system, which can alert the world’s police forces to an Internet emergency sparked by cybercrime, such as the circulation of a dangerous virus, such as the love-bug ‘worm.’ The system enables the global police agency to mobilise resources in any time-zone, alerting public authorities, which can in turn warn private companies of any risks.…
RESEARCH TENDERS
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has appealed for information technology research teams to become involved in a project to identify common content characteristics of the most internationally popular European Union-designed websites.
Its directorate general for Information Society said that it wanted to “benchmark availability and usage of European digital content,” focusing on sites receiving the most hits in the EU Member States, Norway, Iceland and the United States.…
FAO SUB COMMITTEE
KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation has formally decided to set up a new Sub-Committee on Aquaculture, serve as an intergovernmental forum for information exchange, discussion and consensus-building on emerging issues in fish farming. The FAO said that the sub-committee would provide guidance for governments and international bodies on technical and policy matters.…
AIRLINE CASE
BY MONICA DOBIE
TOBACCO manufacturers RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris, Brown and Williamson, Lorillard Tobacco and the American Tobacco Company have won a lawsuit in Miami in what was the first passive smoking lawsuit by an airline cabin crew-member to reach a jury.…
MARYLAND LAW
BY KATE REW
TOBACCO farmers in Maryland are being asked to give up growing one of America’s most lucrative cash crops and sign up to a compensation programme, bringing to an end a tradition stretching back 350 years. The Governor of Maryland, Parris N.…
SMUGGLING CASE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
PHILIP Morris has launched a case at the European Court of Justice, which seeks to stop the European Commission from launching its own law-suit in New York, claiming damages from it and RJ Reynolds for allegedly promoting smuggling within the European Union and hence losing it customs revenue.…
CUBAN CIGARS TEST
BY MONICA DOBIE
A TEST to detect counterfeit Cuban cigars has been developed by scientists at Canada Customs where fakes are smuggled in by the thousands by Canadian tourists travelling to Cuba.
The test detects the unique chemical structure found in tobacco leaves grown and processed in Cuba and are compared to counterfeits that do not have the same chemical signature.…
TOBACCO AUCTION
BY MONICA DOBIE
ONE OF two remaining tobacco auction exchanges in Ontario will close due to cuts in crop sizes for this year.
To date, the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers’ Marketing Board has not yet decided which auction exchange to close.…
OECD
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REPORT has been released by the OECD, on the impact on the trade in agricultural goods of the WTO’s Uruguay Round. It says that its effect “has been limited,” noting that: “agricultural tariffs remain high.” The report says that average bound tariffs on agricultural products are still over 40 per cent, compared to 4 per cent for manufactured goods.…