After the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Vietnam suspended its nuclear plans and waited for more than a decade before reviving them.

But Vietnam was undeterred by last year's Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan, the world's worst atomic accident since Chernobyl, and is racing ahead with plans to start construction of its first reactor in 2014, which should go online six years later.

It aims to follow that up with another 14 reactors by 2030.

The National Highways Authority on Monday awarded the Rs24.93 billion Karachi Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) project to a Malaysian construction company.The company will complete the project on a Build Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis in three years, according to the agreement signed at the NHA headquarters.

Moscow Russian conglomerate Sistema is exploring opportunities for setting up power plants and tapping the budding retail sector in India and is ready to invest up to USD one billion in such ventures.

The prevalence is 18 per cent in South India, says UNAIDS report

India houses half of Asia's HIV patients and is way ahead of China in disease burden. It also finds a place in the list of 22 countries prioritised for preventing mother to child transmission infection, according to the latest UNAIDS report, drafted jointly with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

From January 1 all airlines flying in and out of the European Union will need to meet a specific carbon emission requirement. Though protests have been voiced from various countries, the European Union is going ahead with the emission caps for the airlines.
A senior oil industry official said, “We are at present producing jet fuels which meets the specifications laid out. Currently, there is no communications for any change in these specifications like was in the case of auto fuels – upgradation to Euro I-IV.”

The company is making arrangements for coal supplies from its subsidiary, PT Madhucon Malaysia, after it secured in-principle clearance for jetty construction. The coal production is expected to begin in January 2012. Madhucon has also been chosen as a preferred bidder in a 300-MW power project in Indonesia.

The power project, being executed through Simhapuri Energy, a company arm, is coming up at Thamminapatnam in Nellore district, close to the Krishnapatnam port. The thermal plant is under execution over three phases of 2x150, 2x150 and 2x660 MW supercritical units.

With the Kyoto Protocol unlikely to produce a new set of targets, Carbon Forum Asia 2011 which concluded in Singapore last week, released IETA’s Greenhouse Gas Market Report for the first time in Asia Pacific, lending credence to the region’s increasing importance in the global emissions trading market.