3 September 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Japan Times

Eric Johnston Staff writer Hiroshima Lower house speakers from the Group of Eight nations promised Tuesday to strengthen efforts to uphold and reinforce the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which comes up for review in 2010. But despite lofty promises of unity in support of long-term nonproliferation efforts, the Hiroshima meeting was marked by political divisions over clashes between Russia and Georgia, as well as concerns over a nuclear deal between the United States and India. “There were strong statements from several speakers that we needed to uphold and reinforce the (nuclear) nonproliferation regime,'’ said Lower House Speaker Yohei Kono at a wrap-up news conference Tuesday evening. Kono admitted there were heated discussions over the growing crisis stemming from Russia’s recognition of the two breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a move that angered Washington and many in Europe. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Energy and Nuclear Safety, Regional Security

28 August 2008
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• Author: Alexander Osipovich, Alexander Osipovich

Russia on Thursday tested an inter-continental missile, heightening tensions with the West as France said the European Union could impose sanctions on Moscow over the Georgia conflict.
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Filed by Anita Li under Energy and Nuclear Safety, East-West Relations and Russia, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD, Regional Security, Conflict Prevention and Human Security

28 August 2008
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• Author: PAUL AMES
• Source: Associated Press Newswires

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - When it comes to action over Georgia, Russia has the European Union over a barrel. In fact, 1.2 million barrels.

That’s how much Russian crude is pumped westward every day down the Druzhba pipeline to fuel Europe’s economies.

This hard economic reality explains why Monday’s emergency EU summit will struggle to produce much more than a slap on the wrist for Russia, despite Europe’s exasperation over Moscow’s invasion of Georgia and backing for its two separatist regions to break away.
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Filed by Anita Li under Energy and Nuclear Safety, East-West Relations and Russia, Regional Security

28 August 2008
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• Source: Nikkei Report

TOKYO (Nikkei)–The tensions between Western countries and Russia over Moscow’s actions in Georgia will test Japan’s diplomatic finesse when it hosts a meeting of Group of Eight nations’ foreign ministers next month.
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Filed by Anita Li under Energy and Nuclear Safety, East-West Relations and Russia, Regional Security

26 August 2008
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• Source: The Statesman

Japan has been increasingly becoming a part of the toothless non-nuclear proliferation regime. Ever since the signing of the US-India nuclear deal on 18 May 2005 and resultant developments, Japan has been fast losing its grip over its cardinal principles of anti-nuclearisation adopted after the devastation of its cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the nuclear bombs dropped by the US on 6 and 9 August 1945.

Notwithstanding the fact that nuclear bombs could destroy all of humanity and living entities, Japan has decided not to oppose the US-India nuclear deal at a meeting of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to be held at the end of August. (more…)

Filed by Ozlem Yucel under Energy and Nuclear Safety

10 August 2008
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• Author: Li Xiang
• Source: China Daily

Italy will seek closer engagement with China on major global issues when Rome holds the presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) next year, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.

“I intend to closely engage with China on key topics on the G8’s agenda such as climate change, sustainable energy policy, global terrorism and poverty,” Frattini said in an interview with China Daily in Beijing on Friday. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Development, Climate Change, Energy and Nuclear Safety

9 August 2008
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• Author: Mie Sakamoto
• Source: Kyodo

NAGASAKI, Aug. 9 — Atomic bomb survivors are concerned about the upcoming deployment of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and calls to promote nuclear energy despite the Hiroshima and Nagasaki declarations calling for a world without nuclear weapons, which were adopted as the two cities marked the 63rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings in 1945.

Noriko Noda, a 63-year-old survivor in Nagasaki, said the word ‘’safe'’ can never be applied to radiation, although the U.S. military claims its nuclear-powered carriers are safe and the Japanese government makes the same claim regarding the country’s nuclear facilities. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Energy and Nuclear Safety

7 August 2008
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• Author: Indrani Bagchi
• Source: The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Japan is likely to swallow its non-proliferation reservations in the interests of a broader and deeper relationship with India as the Indo-US nuclear deal heads towards the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
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Filed by Anita Li under Energy and Nuclear Safety, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD

7 August 2008
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• Author: ANGELA BARNES
• Source: The Globe and Mail

Investors searching for sanctuary in these brutal global markets might want to take a gander at the Middle East as an area to wait out the turmoil.
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Filed by Anita Li under Global Financial Crises, Exchange Rate Management and Monetary Policy, Energy and Nuclear Safety

7 August 2008
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• Author: Farhad Pouladi
• Source: Agence France Presse

The UN atomic watchdog’s number two was in Tehran on Thursday for a new round of talks on Iran’s nuclear drive as Western governments said the time had come for the Security Council to impose more sanctions.
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Filed by Anita Li under Energy and Nuclear Safety, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD, Conflict Prevention and Human Security

7 August 2008
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• Author: Praful Bidwai
• Source: Inter Press Service

NEW DELHI — Two potential stumbling blocks are threatening to block India and the United States’ efforts to secure exemptions for their nuclear cooperation deal from the tough export rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
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Filed by Anita Li under Energy and Nuclear Safety, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD

6 August 2008
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• Source: Korea Newswire

The following is the full text of a joint statement released after the summit between Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President George W. Bush in Seoul on Aug. 6. (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under Other, Multilateral Trade, Energy and Nuclear Safety, Regional Security

6 August 2008
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• Author: James Varley
• Source: Modern Power Systems

Al Gore’s recent call for a “man on the moon” approach to repowering the USA with carbon free electricity certainly went down well with his whooping audience at the Constitution Hall in Washington, thanks to a skilfully crafted script including some very good lines: “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change.” (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under Climate Change, Energy and Nuclear Safety

6 August 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Agence France Presse

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Wednesday that despite Iran’s ambiguous response to an offer of incentives to halt its uranium enrichment there was “potential” in the ongoing dialogue with Tehran. (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under Energy and Nuclear Safety

31 July 2008
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• Author: Liu Junhong
• Source: China Daily

Fortune magazine of the US recently published its list of the 500 biggest companies in the world in terms of market value. The latest Fortune 500 reflected three prominent changes in the political and economic structure of our world, namely the so-called natural resources nationalism, the crackling of the US-led global financial system and the rise of emerging economies.
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Filed by Anita Li under Other, Global Financial Crises, The Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Nuclear Safety

27 July 2008
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• Source: Business Today

A former wrestler, who has been floored several times in the political arena, Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav suddenly appears to have found redemption for his sagging political fortunes, which were being singed by UP Chief Minister Mayawati. From his defeat in the UP Assembly elections in 2007 to becoming the toast of the Congress Party, Yadav has shown that even in his 69th year, he has lost none of his Machiavellian political instincts that have seen him rise every time he has been down. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Energy and Nuclear Safety, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD

25 July 2008
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• Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Ahead of a likely meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) next month, India Friday said it was hopeful of getting China’s support in its quest for global nuclear cooperation. (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under Energy and Nuclear Safety

24 July 2008
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• Source: Agence France Presse

India said Thursday it was sending out envoys to lobby for the final international clearances needed to finalise a controversial nuclear energy deal with the United States.
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Filed by Anita Li under Other, Energy and Nuclear Safety

24 July 2008
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• Source: Europolitics Energy

The European Union’s finance ministers have agreed to publish oil stocks data on a weekly basis, announced the French EU Presidency at the conclusion of the Ecofin Council, on 8 July in Brussels. They agreed “to improve the transparency of management of oil stocks, in particular with a political agreement on weekly publication of data on European stocks of oil products,” French Minister Christine Lagarde told a press conference.
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Filed by Anita Li under Global Financial Crises, Financial Supervision, Corporate and Public Governance, Exchange Rate Management and Monetary Policy, Energy and Nuclear Safety

22 July 2008
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• Author: Janice Tang
• Source: Kyodo News

SINGAPORE, July 22 — Foreign ministers of the 10 ASEAN nations and their counterparts from China, Japan and other key dialogue partners agreed Tuesday on the need to improve crop productivity in the region to overcome the looming food crisis and create a mechanism to deal with rapidly growing energy consumption amid soaring fuel prices. (more…)

Filed by Amadeus Domaradzki under Development, The Environment, Energy and Nuclear Safety, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD, Regional Security

21 July 2008
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• Source: Business Line (The Hindu)

The Hokkaido conference of G-8 nations has gained undue prominence in Indian politics because the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, chose to attend the G-8 meet and had discussions with the US President, Mr George W. Bush, in the face of bitter opposition to the proposed nuclear deal. G-8 has become a well-known but dirty word in the Indian political vocabulary for the wrong reasons. The G-8 conference in Hokkaido was not about the nuclear deal. It was about serious globa l issues, such as global warming, oil prices, inflation and financial instability. (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under Global Financial Crises, Multilateral Trade, Development, The Environment, Climate Change, Health and Infectious Disease, Energy and Nuclear Safety

21 July 2008
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• Author: Leslie Kemeny
• Source: The Age

THE unseemly haste associated with the implementation of Australia’s emission trading scheme seems to be driven more by political aspirations and the pseudo-science of special interest groups than sound environmental concern. On a recent visit to Australia, Jeffrey Sachs, distinguished professor of sustainability from Columbia University, pointed out the futility of a highly politicised debate on emissions trading. He said that the science, technology and economics of any optimal new “clean” energy policy should be properly simulated, studied and understood by all national stakeholders. Sachs endorses nuclear power as the pivotal clean technology. (more…)

Filed by Sarah Cale under Climate Change, Energy and Nuclear Safety

20 July 2008
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• Author: Yoshita Singh
• Source: Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies

Backed by over 100 developing countries, India, Brazil and South Africa will take on the rich nations to get a fair trade deal at the W.T.O. (World Trade Organisation) meeting of key trade ministers’ beginning here Monday.
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Filed by Anita Li under Other, Global Financial Crises, Multilateral Trade, Energy and Nuclear Safety

20 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Hindu Business Line

The Hokkaido conference of G-8 nations has gained undue prominence in Indian politics because the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, chose to attend the G-8 meet and had discussions with the US President, Mr George W. Bush, in the face of bitter opposition to the proposed nuclear deal. G-8 has become a well-known but dirty word in the Indian political vocabulary for the wrong reasons. The G-8 conference in Hokkaido was not about the nuclear deal. It was about serious global issues, such as global warming, oil prices, inflation and financial instability. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Global Financial Crises, The Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Nuclear Safety

20 July 2008
For Personal Use Only

• Source: The Hindu

If the 123 Agreement is not bound by the overarching Hyde Act, then what else is its purpose?

“At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom…” Thus spoke Nehru at midnight on August 14, 1947. Sixty-one years later, as India slept in the wee hours of July 9, 2008, the Congress-led government bartered away our sovereignty in the Japanese scenic town of Tôyako. On the sidelines of the G-8 summit, the repudiation of the Nehruvian principles of foreign policy found its culmination before the American President George Bush, with the brokering of the nuclear deal. (more…)

Filed by Ivana Jankovic under Energy and Nuclear Safety, Arms Control, Proliferation and WMD