Search Results for: International business

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS a truly global criminal problem, it is only right that fighting money laundering is a key priority of the United Nations (UN). Its general assembly and key committees have made declarations and approved conventions on the subject, and its specialist agencies have also devoted time, money, specialist staff and energy to fighting the problem.…

BY ALAN OSBORN and KEITH NUTHALL
THE SEPTEMBER 11 attacks sparked a major overhaul of national and international money laundering laws around the world, based on concerns that Al Qaida had clearly shifted money into the USA to finance its operations, unnoticed by banks and law enforcement.…

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.…

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.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ONE of the first applications of plastics nanotechnology in the field of ballistic materials was shown to delegates at the conference Advanced Technologies in Crime Prevention and Detection organised by the Institute of Nanotechnology in London earlier this month.…

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.…

Keith Nuthall
INTERNATIONAL tourist travel has rebounded strongly this year from its September 11-attacks induced torpor, the World Tourism Organisation has claimed. Between January and August 2004, the number of international tourist arrivals grew 12% compared to the same months in 2003, said the UN agency.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
COMPENSATION may have to be paid by three large insurance companies who abandoned covering the buildings of the European Parliament against the risk of terrorist damage following the September 11 attacks in the USA.

Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance, AIG Europeet and HDI International should help the parliament meet the additional costs incurred by having to secure alternative cover from Fortis Corporate Insurance, a senior European Court of Justice (ECJ) official has said.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has been told to monitor textile import flows into the European Union (EU) for one year after restrictive import quotas end on January 1, regularly alerting EU ministers to booms maybe harming European producers. The EU Council of Ministers may then approve temporary safeguard duties, especially against Chinese textile imports, hindering importers wanting a completely free hand under the incoming liberal World Trade Organisation regime.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNATIONAL Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohamed ElBaradei wants tightened controls stopping terrorists obtaining radioactive matter. Noting 60 trafficking incidents were reported in 2003, with more likely this year, ElBaradei said discoveries in Iran and Libya of illicit nuclear materials markets were “disturbing”.…