British Airways, Qantas and other airlines are calling on governments to find a swift resolution to a political dispute over the European Union's carbon scheme, because the deadlock may create competitive distortions.

Since the start of 2012, EU law obliges all airlines using EU airports to be included in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the 27-nation bloc's main policy to fight global warming as it caps emissions on over 11,000 power and industrial plants.

The overall environmental performance is improving in Sri Lanka and it has been ranked as a moderate performer, according to the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) released during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week.

More than 10,000 Australians were Friday stranded by flooding in the country’s east, with thousands ordered to leave their homes or businesses and the military called in to airlift supplies.

The New South Wales State Emergency Service said about 10,500 people were thought to be isolated by the waters that have rushed across the state’s north and southeast Queensland after days of constant rain.

More than 2,000 people have been ordered to evacuate buildings in the New South Wales town of Moree, which is preparing for its second flood in a matter of months.

Heavy summer rains across eastern Australia prompted authorities to issue flood warnings for vast areas of Queensland and New South Wales states on Thursday, including coal mining areas in the Hunter Valley.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued the flood warnings with heavy rain expected over the next 24 hours, following saturating rains over the past week which have already swelled rivers in New South Wales and Queensland.

Heavy summer rains across eastern Australia prompted authorities to issue flood warnings for vast areas of Queensland and New South Wales states on Thursday, including coal mining areas in the Hunter Valley.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued the flood warnings with heavy rain expected over the next 24 hours, following saturating rains over the past week which have already swelled rivers in New South Wales and Queensland.

An integrated approach to supply and demand side water management is the best response to water stress and climate change, experts from Australia and India pointed out at a panel discussion here on Wednesday.

With the success story of integrated approach in the Murray-Darling basin, the Australian experience in water management is seen as a natural area of collaboration with India.

GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat's dream of becoming the 'gas gateway' to North India received strong financial backing worth Rs 4,500 crore from a dozen-odd nationalized banks on Monday, when state-sector company, Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL), signed up an agreement with the consortium led by Bank of India to fund the 2,200-km-long gas pipeline project from Mehsana to Jammu, via Bathinda in Punjab. The project will take three years to complete.

DURBAN: Major polluters in the ongoing climate talks here debated one more major issue while South African International Relations Minister and Cop- 17 President Maite Nkoana-Mashabane called them to an informal meeting to resolve it.
The parties are now scuffling on the issue on the comprehensive legally binding deal to continue the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, world's lone legally binding deal to cut greenhouse emission keeping the global temperature below two degree Celsius.

Dhaka Bangladesh on Sunday signed a $1.5-billion deal with NTPC to build a 1,320 -MW coal-fired power plant, the country's biggest, to help ease acute power shortages.

Bangladesh's state-owned Power Development Board (PDB) struck the 50:50 joint venture deal with public sector National Thermal Power Company (NTPC). Under the pact, a JV company will be floated to install and operate the plant, while the PDB and the NTPC will implement the $1.5-billion project.