Search Results for: Lebanon

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has visited Syria, pressing its government to reform its gas infrastructure and regulation so it can play a key role in creating a Middle East-to-Europe network. The European Commission sees Syria as a key link, notably in the so-called Arab pipeline, linking Egypt to Syria and the Lebanon through Jordan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NOBODY likes to be on a blacklist, especially one written by the American government. But every year, the US state department issues a comprehensive rogues gallery of countries involved in the narcotics trade and related criminal problems. One surprising entrant: the United States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
MONACO is all about money. A glamorous speck of high-rises looming above the French Riviera, it is famous for wealthy glamour, tax exiles, racing-cars and gambling. Given this cocktail, it is hardly surprising that this, Europe’s second smallest country by geography, has attracted allegations that it has been the site of money laundering.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BANS have been slapped on 10 ships from entering any European Union port because of concerns they are poorly maintained safety risks, potentially spilling pollution into Europe’s seas. The ships (seven bulk carriers, one chemical tanker and one oil tanker) are from Cambodia, Cyprus, Honduras, the Lebanon, Panama, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Turkey.…

BY MARK ROWE
PEPSICO, which is marking 50 years of operations in the Middle East, finds itself at something of a crossroads. An all-American company, in a region where anti-Americanism has rarely been so widespread, it faces several challenges to ensure that it will continue to operate successfully in the Middle East for a further half a century.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROGAS and the European Commission have welcomed a deal between two of Europe’s historic enemies – Greece and Turkey – to bury the hatchet and build a Euro 250 million, 285 kilometre, gas pipeline between Komotini in Greek Thrace, with Karacabey, in Turkey, near Istanbul.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
CEDARS are elegant ornamental and timber evergreen conifers of the genus Cedrus (family Pinaceae); three are native to Mediterranean mountains and one to the western Himalayas. Cedrus libani, the Lebanon’s native species is also found in the Taurus Mountains, Syria and southern and northern Turkey.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A PHD in rocket science is not required to understand that corruption is a problem worldwide. But such a qualification – and more – would be required to devise an effective plan to fight this financial plague. The United Nations’ (UN) is drafting an international convention on corruption and asked a string of experts to write reports to illuminate some issues.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL team of experts has successfully controlled a newly discovered species of parasitic wasp that was threatening to destroy the Lebanon’s iconic cedar woodlands, descended from Levantine forests probably walked by Jesus Christ. From Biblical times to the Nineteenth Century, much of the steep Mount Lebanon range that towers over the eastern Mediterranean was cloaked in ancient cedars.…

Keith Nuthall
A CRIMINAL group based in the Lebanon is stealing multi-million dollar cargoes, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has warned. It has reported that the group is running at least two vessels off the eastern Mediterranean, north African, and west African coasts, which they use to divert cargoes from their agreed destination.…