Members of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) agreed on Wednesday on cattle breeding rules, its first ever deal on livestock production.

The deal, approved by OIE's 178 members apart from South Africa, includes measures such as ensuring cattle beefs' health, breeding environment, genetic selection, Director General Bernard Vallat told reporters at the 80th General Assembly.

A yearly review of countries' greenhouse gas emissions cut pledges under an extension to the global climate pact the Kyoto Protocol could be a way to raise climate ambitions, the European Union's lead climate negotiator said on Wednesday.

Negotiators from over 180 countries are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until Friday to work towards getting a new global climate pact signed by 2015 and to ensure ambitious emissions cuts are made after the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of this year.

BP said Wednesday that it would spend $400 million to install pollution controls at its giant Whiting, Ind., refinery to allow it to process heavy crude oil from Canada, in a deal with federal and state regulators. The consent decree reached with the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency also requires BP, based in London, to pay $8 million to resolve prior claims of clean-air violations at the plant, the sixth-largest American refinery.

A row over planning how to bind all emitters under a global climate pact from 2020 at U.N. climate talks in Germany is blocking negotiations to deepen nearer term emission cuts and raise cash to help poor countries cope with a warming planet, the EU said Tuesday.

Delegates have failed to start work on a new Durban Platform negotiation track after four days of talks in Bonn spent arguing over an agenda to organize work this year and appoint a chair to steer the process.

Environmental scientists have known that high levels of the toxic element, mercury, have been accumulating in the Arctic Ocean for some time. It was believed to be mostly caused by atmospheric sources stemming from the combustion of coal. However, a new study from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard School of Public Health has found that the great majority of Arctic mercury arrives via circumpolar rivers. Some of the largest rivers in the world flow north into the Arctic in Eurasia and North America.

New Delhi Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha on Friday urged the group of ministers on pharma pricing, headed by Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, to extend the regime of price control to all the drugs available in the retail market.

Mirdha argued that profits earned by pharma companies were primarily used in promotional expenses and for foray into other businesses. She claimed that top-50 pharma companies spend over R5,300 crore every year, while generating sales of slightly over R28,769 crore.

Husky Energy Inc said on Thursday it has begun operating a carbon-capture and storage facility at an ethanol manufacturing plant at Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, and will use the gas to boost output from its heavy oil fields in the region.

Husky, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, said the project will capture 250 tonnes a day of carbon-dioxide produced during the ethanol fermentation process, liquefy it and then truck it to Husky's heavy oil fields, where it will be injected into the ground to boost production.

Canadian government moves to quicken economic gains by shortening environmental reviews for big energy projects and de-clawing some oil industry critics are on the right track, a senior executive at Canada's largest independent oil explorer said on Wednesday.

John Langille, vice-chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, said he believes there has been too much compromise with those who do not want projects to move forward under any circumstances, and that has led to overly cumbersome rreviews for developers.