Search Results for: Lebanon

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the European Union’s (EU) flagship Erasmus student exchange programme approaches its 20th birthday, EU education Commissioner Jan Figel has criticised it for failing poorer students across Europe. The Slovak said: "The Erasmus grant remains far too low to allow students from less favourable financial backgrounds to enjoy the benefits of the programme.…

BY WESLEY GIBBINGS, in Port of Spain

TIME-WAS that food production in the Caribbean was dominated by commodities, with sugar and bananas being king and queen of island economies. Protected from the rigours of world markets by age-old ties to current or former colonial markets, these cash crop supplies remained largely unchanged for centuries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has highlighted countries with particularly significant counterfeiting and piracy of medicinal products. Following 290 replies from businesses, trade associations and diplomatic missions, covering 63 countries, its survey report named Egypt as a real problem zone, criticising the December 2004 approval of 850 local copies of pharmaceuticals "without generic companies having to "prove the efficiency and safety of the copy".…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

FOR nearly two months this summer, Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport was out of action, crippled by Israel’s aerial attacks on the runways during its war with Hizbullah and by an air blockade that lasted long after the ceasefire was in place.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

LEBANON’S food manufacturing sector took a heavy blow during the 34-day conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hizbullah, recording tens of millions of US dollars in direct damages and more than US$500 million in indirect losses.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

CONTRARY to all assumptions, Lebanese universities have not experienced the student exodus they thought might happen following the month long war between Israel and Hizbullah, but the conflict did cost lives, financial losses and a sizeable reduction in the number of Western students.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

LEBANON’S paint sector took a heavy blow during the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hizbullah this summer, recording millions of dollars in direct and indirect losses.

Shaker Saab, business development manager for Tinol Paints, said July and August sales dropped 95%.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

LEBANON’S clothing sector – manufacturing and retail – was crippled by the month long war between Israel and Hizbullah, and the knock-on effects of the conflict have proved equally problematic for a sector that was just recovering from a slump caused by political turbulence in 2005.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Damascus and Amman

JORDAN and Syria both have large tobacco markets, with a third of Jordan’s population, and around 60% of Syria’s male population, being smokers. Both markets are growing, spurred on by large young populations and the cultural prevalence of smoking cigarettes and nargileh (water pipes), but not all is rosy in the sector.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

BEIRUT: The month long war waged by Israel against Hizbullah has caused considerable damage to Lebanon’s environment.

The coastline is marred by an oil spill, the air has been polluted by burning fuel oil, destroyed factories, forest fires and dust kicked up from bombings, and there is the possibility that depleted uranium (DU) and phosphorous bombs were used by the Israeli military.…