Oil prices rose modestly on Monday after the EU slapped an embargo on Iran's crude exports as part of tough new sanctions aimed at stopping Tehran from funding its disputed nuclear program.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery gained $1.25 to $99.58 a barrel after the widely-expected embargo was announced.

Sun-baked and debt-choked Greece presented on Monday a plan to become Europe's solar energy powerhouse, attracting up to 20 billion euros of investment in the decades to come to lift its economy out of the doldrums.

The cash-strapped country regards clean energy as one of the few advantages of its uncompetitive economy, which is going through its longest and deepest recession in decades as a result of a debt crisis.

Bulgaria has given investors in a trans-Balkan oil pipeline aimed at transporting Russian crude through Bulgaria to Greece more time to improve their environment plans, the environment ministry said on Monday.

The company which manages the 300-km Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project has been given one more month by the end of September to resubmit their environment assessment impact study.

Greece could save billions of euros by 2050 by capturing and storing greenhouse gases from its coal-dependent economy, assuming a surge in penalties for emitting carbon, an environmental group said on Wednesday.

Norwegian group Bellona said Greece had good storage potential for greenhouse gases as part of measures to slow climate change, for instance in depleted oilfields in the Aegean Sea and

A tough new smoking ban that goes into effect Wednesday outlaws lighting up in all public indoor areas and prohibits most tobacco advertising. But how effective it will be is an open question. Greece

Oslo: The ocean depths are home to myriad species of microbes, mostly hard to see but including spaghetti-like bacteria that form whitish mats the size of Greece on the floor of the Pacific, scientists said.

Pallavi Aiyar / Brussels April 20, 2010, 1:26 IST

Vital talks between Greek officials, the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank were put off due to the havoc wreaked by Eyjafjallajokul

Cancun (Mexico): India and China will account for most of the growth in demand for oil this year, which is expected to rise by 900,000 barrels per day, even as oil exporters

NEW DELHI: Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday emphasised that the world must agree on a legally-binding deal at the next major U.N. climate talks in Mexico at the end of the year.