The first consignment of enriched uranium fuel for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) arrived from the Russian Federation at the Thiruvananthapuram airport on Sunday night. S.K. Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), said on Monday that the first consignment formed part of the supply for the first unit of the project. The Russian Federation would continue to send the entire fuel needed for the two reactors coming up at the project site in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.

Russia, India, China and Brazil on Friday vowed to turn their four-way group into a powerful instrument for changing the world. At their first stand-alone meeting here, the Foreign Ministers institutionalised BRIC, agreeing to hold regular meetings at the level of Foreign Ministers. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee hailed BRIC as a "unique combination of mutually complementary economies' and platform to promote energy and food security, fight terrorism and reform global political and financial bodies.

Russia may decide to hold onto its greenhouse gas emissions rights under the Kyoto Protocol, at least until the details of a successor treaty are clearer, a Russian expert said. The United Nations' Kyoto Protocol allows industrialised countries to meet greenhouse gas targets by buying emissions rights from each other or from clean energy projects in developing nations.

GM foods can save the day

Crude oil prices could surge to $200 a barrel in the next two years, according to theGoldman Sachs analyst who three years ago correctly predicted a price "super-spike" above $100 a barrel. The warning by Arjun Murti came as oil prices hit a fresh record high above $122 a barrel, boosted by supply disruptions in Nigeria, lower output in Russia and continued robust demand in China ahead of the Olympics. Mr Murti said the energy crisis could be coming to a head as a lack of adequate supply growth was becoming apparent.

Russia on Tuesday signed off on a series of steep price rises for domestic gas, power and railway services for the next four years on the eve of Dmitry Medvedev's inauguration as the country's new president.

Russian and U.S. officials signed an important agreement on civilian nuclear power on Tuesday that will give the U.S. access to Russian technology and could hand Moscow lucrative deals for storing spent fuel. The deal, signed on the eve of Dmitry Medvedev's inauguration as President, signals a reversal in U.S. policy on cooperating with Russia on nuclear issues. Cooperation had cooled in recent years, mainly due to disagreements over how to handle the perceived nuclear threat from Iran.

When Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, was asked to ponder the future of the world before an audience of powerful businessmen and politicians, at a meeting in Switzerland earlier this year, he could have chosen any topic he liked. What he focused on was both a hoary old favourite, and a newly popular preoccupation, of debates on world affairs: the rising risk of wars over fresh water, as populations increase and the world gets drier.

MOSCOW: Chinese engineers are coming to the rescue of the Russian electricity sector under a five-year expansion plan that will rival the efforts of Lenin and Stalin to electrify the Soviet Union. An estimated 41,000 megawatts of new generating capacity is expected by 2011, much of it powered by coal rather than natural gas. This goal is way out of reach for Russian machine builders and even threatens to swamp the order books of global companies like General Electric and Siemens.

In what could open new doors towards development, Russia is keen to invest in areas like oil and gas, tourism, power and infrastructure development in Assam. Russian ambassador to India, Vyacheslav Trubnikov, disclosed this to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at a meeting attended by senior officials of the Government of Russian Federation and the Assam Government at Gogoi's official residence here today, a press release stated. Trubnikov, during the meeting, said that his country wants to develop close ties with the North East part of India and help the region in the process of development.