Bernadette Felix

Suu Kyi to address US Congress

Nobel laureate and Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will deliver her first ever address to members of the U.S. Congress this week.

G8 meeting all set amid tight security

Leaders of the 8 most powerful nations will be meeting on Thursday and Friday at the French seaside town of Deauville in Normandy for an annual summit amidst very tight security.

Japan to review energy policy

In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis and three days after a top official announced Japan’s commitment to atomic power for its energy policy, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the government will rethink its plan to increase reliance on nuclear power.

Limited number of Japanese evacuees allowed brief visit to no-go zone

About 100 residents from the village of Kawauchi, Japan were allowed to return home briefly on Tuesday to gather belongings left behind when they were asked to evacuate after the massive earthquake and tsunami damaged the nuclear reactors of the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant last March 11.

Nuclear still cheapest, low carbon energy for UK

A day after Japan announced its commitment to atomic power for its energy policy, the UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC) announced that nuclear power will remain the cheapest way for the UK to grow its low-carbon energy supply for at least a decade.

Millionaires boom in the next decade

The number of millionaires worldwide will grow more than 70% by 2020 with the U.S. expected to have double the total number of families with a net worth of over $1 million, according to a report by the Deloitte Center for Financial Services.

Little progress in UN Green Climate Fund meet

A two-day meeting of climate change finance negotiators in the United Nations sponsored summit in Mexico City resulted in little progress for the Transnational Committee (TC) of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the fund that will help poor and developing nations cope with the adverse effects of climate change.

World Donors pledge $785M to permanently seal Chernobyl

A high-profile gathering of international donors gathered in Kiev last week and came up with $785 million or roughly €550 million for the construction of a steel shield for the ruined nuclear reactor at Chernobyl to prevent further radiation leaks in 100 years

Toyota cuts production until yearend

The world’s biggest carmaker has announced it will have a drastic cut in production at its factories in Japan and overseas as it continues to face a shortfall in supply of parts after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.

EU proposes new green energy taxes

The European Commission recently unveiled its proposal for minimum levels of fuel taxation for energy products of all European Union member states taking into account the correlation of the fuel's carbon emission and its energy content.

Tsunami ravage Sendai airport opens

For the first time in a little over a month, the first commercial aircraft landed in the airport of Sendai, the largest city in the northeast of Japan devastated by a powerful 10-meter high tsunami.

Experts say Fukushima crisis level 7 not parallel to Chernobyl

Nuclear and health experts said an increase in the crisis level of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident from level 5 to level 7 does not mean that the public health risk is any worse or that the disaster resembles Chernobyl in 1986, the worst nuclear power accident in history, which was also a 7.

Two major aftershocks hit Japan within a week

Exactly a month after the magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a massive tsunami hit the eastern coast of Japan, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake again shook its northeastern region Monday afternoon. The quake resulted to a landslide in Iwaki City.

After reactor 2 leak, reactor 1 heats up

Hardly had the operator of Japan’s damaged nuclear plant announced that they have stopped a leak of highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean early Wednesday morning from reactor 2, they are now preparing to inject nitrogen to the containment vessel of reactor 1 to prevent a possible hydrogen explosion.