"India should be aggressive on energy efficiency. If energy is used differently, if energy demand is managed properly, you don't need to build as many power plants as you need today," Yumkella, who was in India, told IANS in an interview.

"If you promote the three principles of access, efficiency and increase in the share of renewable energy, India can be one of the global leaders in the energy revolution going forward in the next two decades," he added.

The Indian government has started doing its bit. It is today among the top five countries in wind energy. The ministry of new and renewable energy has set an ambitious target of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2020. The government is also promoting biomass plants that can produce one to two MW of power to change the energy mix.

Yumkella, who was in New Delhi to attend the "Delhi Sustainable Development Summit", said companies and funds would be interested to invest in green infrastructure in India, if the government frames promotional policies for the sector.

"There are two sources for funds. We have almost three trillion dollars in cash in a number of companies, funds around the world, which are hesitant to invest because of the global financial crisis. I believe with well-defined policies countries like India with a huge market can attract a huge amount of that cash," Yumkella said.

Clean energy investments in India reached $10.3 billion in 2011, about 52 percent higher than the $6.8 billion invested in 2010. This was the highest growth figure of any significant economy in the world and had been put down to improving cost-competitiveness of wind and solar, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

Yumkella suggested that India should export its green technology solutions to developing countries in Africa and Latin America.

"India has some good programmes like to use waste, biomass to generate electricity and others. These can be scaled up and this would become useful to the rest of the world.

"I should add that your Prime Minister in particular has been a chief driver of South- South corporation. As I speak, my agency is working with Indian firms and taking these energy solutions to Africa."

Industry experts say India with its technology base should accelerate the development of green technologies. Otherwise, it would just be a captive market for developed countries' green industry and its costly technologies.

Agrees Yumkella. "It's a win-win business model where Western companies are making money here which is helping their bottom line in their home base."

Yumkella also praised India for the role it played in the recently concluded United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa.

"India has been a solid voice in all these negotiations and representing the interest and views of developing countries to grow and to create jobs. India's voice has that balanced view for sustainable energy."

Over 500 million Indians will need new homes in a decade
New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS) Over 500 million Indians will need new homes in almost a decade, close to the needs of China, North America and Western Europe put together, as the government and urban local bodies focus more on construction than long-term operation and maintenance, says a study.

"We have to rethink the way we live or there is no tomorrow," said Pradeep Puri, chairman, urban development committee of industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), on the release of the report Sunday.

The report, Urban Infrastructure in India, said the country's population is slated to grow to 1.7 billion by 2050 and rapid urbanization will add nearly 900 million people to Indian cities. And in just over a decade from now, nearly 500 million Indians will need new, urban homes.

According to the report, the problem is accentuated because urban local bodies (ULB) and government procurement in relation to urban infrastructure focus more on construction of the facility than on the long-term operation and maintenance of the facility.

It says that weak fiscal and financial base of Indian ULBs hampers their ability to provide efficient services to citizens. Also, there is no framework that governed maintenance of common spaces such as markets, housing colonies, bridges, footpaths, street lighting and play-grounds.

The report recommends that in respect of all Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) cities and ULBs receiving project assistance from the central government, the appointment of transaction advisors (TA) should be actively encouraged for the duration of JNNURM or other central government assistance.

It says government authorities should be directed to shift the focus of their contracts for new facilities from merely construction works contracts to performance-based maintenance contracts.

Suggesting reviewing planning norms, the report says it should be efficient for both large and small cities taking into consideration the price variation.

"Indian planning norms have been borrowed mainly from the West and need important modifications. Planning norms should be efficient for large cities and small towns due to land price variation and availability of land."

Source: Indo Asian News Service

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST York, UK (SPX) Feb 09, 2012 - An international team of scientists has demonstrated a revolutionary new way of magnetic recording which will allow information to be processed hundreds of times faster than by current hard drive technology.

The researchers found they could record information using only heat - a previously unimaginable scenario. They believe this discovery will not only make future magnetic recording devices faster, but more energy-efficient too.

The results of the research, which was led by the University of York's Department of Physics, are reported in the February edition of Nature Communications.

York physicist Thomas Ostler said: "Instead of using a magnetic field to record information on a magnetic medium, we harnessed much stronger internal forces and recorded information using only heat. This revolutionary method allows the recording of Terabytes (thousands of Gigabytes) of information per second, hundreds of times faster than present hard drive technology. As there is no need for a magnetic field, there is also less energy consumption."

The multinational team of scientists included researchers from Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, Japan and the Netherlands. Experimental work was carried out at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland, the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Dr Alexey Kimel, from the Institute of Molecules and Materials, Radboud University Nijmegen, said: "For centuries it has been believed that heat can only destroy the magnetic order. Now we have successfully demonstrated that it can, in fact, be a sufficient stimulus for recording information on a magnetic medium."

Modern magnetic recording technology employs the principle that the North pole of a magnet is attracted to the South pole of another and two like poles repulse. Until now it has been believed that in order to record one bit of information - by inverting the poles of a magnet - there was a need to apply an external magnetic field. The stronger the applied field, the faster the recording of a magnetic bit of information.

However, the team of scientists has demonstrated that the positions of both the North and South poles of a magnet can be inverted by an ultrashort heat pulse, harnessing the power of much stronger internal forces of magnetic media.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST University Park PA (SPX) Feb 09, 2012 - For the first time, a group of chemists, physicists, and engineers has developed crystalline materials that allow an optical fiber to have integrated, high-speed electronic functions. The potential applications of such optical fibers include improved telecommunications and other hybrid optical and electronic technologies, improved laser technology, and more-accurate remote-sensing devices.

The research was initiated by Rongrui He, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry at Penn State University. The international team, led by John Badding, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, will publish its findings in the journal Nature Photonics.

Badding explained that one of the greatest current technological challenges is exchanging information between optics and electronics rapidly and efficiently. Existing technology has resulted in sometimes-clumsy ways of merging optical fibers with electronic chips - silicon-based integrated circuits that serve as the building blocks for most semiconductor electronic devices such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), computers, and cell phones.

"The optical fiber is usually a passive medium that simply transports light, while the chip is the piece that performs the electrical part of the equation," Badding said.

"For example, light is transmitted from London to New York via fiber-optic cables when two people set up a video call on their computers. But the computer screens and associated electronic devices have to take that light and convert it to an image, which is an electrical process. Light and electricity are working in concert in a process called an OEO conversion, or an optical-electrical-optical conversion."

Badding said that, ideally, rather than coupling the optical fiber to the chip, as is routine in existing technology, a "smart fiber" would have the electronic functions already built in.

The integration of optical fibers and chips is difficult for many reasons. First, fibers are round and cylindrical, while chips are flat, so simply shaping the connection between the two is a challenge. Another challenge is the alignment of pieces that are so small.

"An optical fiber is 10 times smaller than the width of a human hair. On top of that, there are light-guiding pathways that are built onto chips that are even smaller than the fibers by as much as 100 times," Badding said. "So imagine just trying to line those two devices up. That feat is a big challenge for today's technology."

To address these challenges, the team members took a different approach. Rather than merge a flat chip with a round optical fiber, they found a way to build a new kind of optical fiber with its own integrated electronic component, thereby bypassing the need to integrate fiber-optics onto a chip. To do this, they used high-pressure chemistry techniques to deposit semiconducting materials directly, layer by layer, into tiny holes in optical fibers.

"The big breakthrough here is that we don't need the whole chip as part of the finished product. We have managed to build the junction - the active boundary where all the electronic action takes place - right into the fiber," said Pier J. A. Sazio of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and one of the team's leaders.

"Moreover, while conventional chip fabrication requires multimillion-dollar clean-room facilities, our process can be performed with simple equipment that costs much less."

Sazio added that one of the key goals of research in this field is to create a fast, all-fiber network. "If the signal never leaves the fiber, then it is a faster, cheaper, and more efficient technology," said Sazio.

"Moving technology off the chip and directly onto the fiber, which is the more-natural place for light, opens up the potential for embedded semiconductors to carry optoelectronic applications to the next level. At present, you still have electrical switching at both ends of the optical fiber. If we can actually generate signals inside a fiber, a whole range of optoelectronic applications becomes possible."

The research also has many potential non-telecommunications applications. "For example, our work also represents a very different approach to fabricating semiconductor junctions that we are investigating for solar-cell applications," said Badding.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Feb 8, 2012 - Israel is reported to be seeking to deploy fighter aircraft in Cyprus, its partner in developing a natural gas bonanza under the eastern Mediterranean, to protect the vital energy resources.

Turkey is seen as one of the main threats.

The move follows the announcement Sunday by the Noble Energy Co., of Houston and its Israeli partner the Delek Group, that they had made a new discovery off the Israeli coast that could contain 1.2 trillion-1.3 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Israel is already preparing to launch a major security operation to protect the offshore fields and the attendant facilities in its waters.

This will involve missile-armed patrol vessels, round-the-clock aerial surveillance by unmanned drones and other naval detachments, primarily to defend the energy zones against attack by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed force in neighboring Lebanon.

Israel's main gas zones, discovered by Noble in 2009-10, are the Leviathan field holding an estimated 16 tcf and the nearby Tamar field with 8 tcf. These are part of the Levant Basin which the U.S. Geological Survey reported in 2010 contains an estimated 122 tcf of natural gas and around 1.7 billion barrels of oil.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to ask the Cypriot government, which controls the southern two-thirds of the war-divided Mediterranean island, to allow Israeli air force combat jets to use the Andreas Papandreou air base outside the southwestern resort city of Paphos.

"It is unclear if the request will be to station a permanent presence on the island or to establish a base that could provide logistical support for the (air force) during operations in the region," The Jerusalem Post's military analyst Yaakov Katz reported.

Cyprus' Famagusta Gazette newspaper said Tuesday that discussions about providing facilities for the Israeli air force are at "an exploratory stage."

But Katz surmised that Israel's objective is "to be able to more effectively protect the growing number of gas fields it is discovering in the Mediterranean."

The prospect of the air force getting access to the Paphos base was heightened in December when Cypriot Defense Minister Demetris Eliades signed two military cooperation agreements with his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak, during a visit to Tel Aviv.

The Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia has no air force and only a miniscule naval force that's heavily outgunned by the military might of Turkey, its longtime adversary to the north.

Eliades has made it clear the Israelis have approval "in advance" to operate in Cypriot air space and waters. Actually basing Israeli aircraft in southern Cyprus is guaranteed to rile the Turks.

Cyprus has launched its own gas exploration program in waters off its southern coast that abut the northern extremity of Israel's Leviathan field.

Initial results, with Noble Energy handling the drilling, indicate the Greek Cypriots are sitting on an energy bonanza of their own.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded in 1974 after a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece. The Turks seized the northern third of the island and proclaimed it the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It is recognized only by Ankara.

Israel and Cyprus plan to pool resources and jointly export their gas through an underwater pipeline to the European Union via Greece.

Turkey says the Cypriots have no right to do that unilaterally, threatening a possible flare-up of the historic rivalry between the Turks and Greeks.

Ankara has dispatched warships and at least one seismic survey ship into the disputed zone and in 2011 stationed a squadron of F-16 fighter jets at a TRNC airbase.

Turkey is also at odds with Israel, its onetime strategic ally. It reversed the alliance in 2010 after the Israeli Navy killed nine Turks when intercepting a Turkish-run flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks, Barak has pledged to upgrade Israel's defense links with Greece as well.

Debt-ridden Greece, which is staring economic collapse in the face, is only too happy to hook up with a war-seasoned military power like the Israel to confound the Turks.

The Israeli air force has had joint exercises with the Greek air force in recent months.

Israel also faces threats from neighboring Lebanon, which also seeks to benefit from the energy boom. Beirut claims Israel is poaching on its territorial zone, which has yet to be demarcated by treaty.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST Al-Nashwa, Iraq (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - Commercial traffic has resumed on the strategic Shatt al-Arab waterway after a three-decade break with the official opening of a port for oil giant Shell, an Iraqi official said on Tuesday.

Part of the 200-kilometre-long (120 miles) waterway forms a section of the border with Iran.

An unresolved boundary dispute was a major reason for the 1980-1988 war between Iraq and Iran that resulted in the waterway's closure.

"The Shatt al-Arab is reborn again after being closed for 31 years," Mehdi Badah Hussein, head of a joint committee to develop Majnoon oil field, told AFP at a ceremony to open the port.

"There are other harbours on the Shatt al-Arab, but commercially, this is the first time Iraq succeeded in turning the Shatt al-Arab into a maritime passage which will help in transporting heavy equipment," Hussein said.

Dia Khalil, an Iraqi engineer and joint committee member, told AFP the journey up the Shatt al-Arab to the new port is about 80 kilometres (50 miles), and that ships will pay customs fees in Umm Qasr to the south before heading to the new harbour.

A consortium of Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell and Malaysia's Petronas signed a contract with Iraq in January 2010 to operate the enormous Majnoon field.

"We believe this is the first jetty harbour to bring in ships that can come from all over the world back off the river with heavy equipment in 31 years," Shell Majnoon general manager Ole Myklestad told AFP.

"This is very important," Myklestad said at the ceremony. "I hope that ships leaving this harbour in the future will also be carrying goods."

Myklestad said the first ship arrived at the harbour on January 5 and clarified that the port would not be used to export oil which is to be carried by pipeline.

"This is a happy day," said Khalaf Wadi, deputy manager of Iraq's Southern Oil Co, a partner with Shell and Petronas. "We are officially opening the first commercial jetty in the Shatt al-Arab since the start of the war with Iran."

The port's main function will be to facilitate the transportation of equipment to the massive Majnoon oil field.

But ordinance in the field, which was a major battleground during the eight-year war with Iran, poses a danger.

Simon Mawdslag, Shell's Explosive Remnants of War Coordinator, said "over 4,000 individual items of ordinance" have been located and removed from a roughly eight square kilometre (three square mile) area -- the only part cleared so far.

"These items are handed over to the Iraqi armed forces and their explosive ordinance disposal team. They actually do the destruction of the items," he said.

The Majnoon field was discovered in 1975 by Brazilian firm Petrobras but its work was interrupted in 1980 by the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, after it had drilled 20 wells.

In 1990, French firm total negotiated a contract for the field but was unable to sign due to international sanctions after Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of that year.

Oil sales account for the vast majority of Iraqi government income and around two-thirds of gross domestic product.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST London (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - BP returned to profit with a bang last year, posting net earnings of $23.9 billion on Tuesday, as the British energy giant prepared for a criminal trial over the US Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

BP announced adjusted profit after tax equivalent to 18.2 billion euros for 2011, as higher oil prices offset a drop in production, according to a group statement.

The London-listed energy major also signalled its recovery by hiking its shareholder dividend for the first time since the devastating April 2010 spillage that ravaged the company's fortunes.

BP had suffered a net loss of $4.9 billion in 2010 after an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers, sent millions of barrels of oil spewing into the sea and left it with huge compensation costs.

Including changes in the value of BP's energy inventories, net profit hit $25.7 billion in 2011, the group added Tuesday.

"BP is on the right path," the company's chief executive Bob Dudley said in the earnings release.

"2012 will be a year of increasing investment and milestones as we build on the foundations laid last year."

BP said that it had committed $1.0 billion "for the early restoration of natural resources following the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010."

It added that by the end of 2011 it had paid more than $7.8 billion to meet claims and government payments, while $15.1 billion had been paid into the trust fund used to compensate victims of the oil spill disaster.

The British company and its partners are set to face a trial beginning February 27 in New Orleans that consolidates a host of lawsuits seeking damages for economic losses, injury claims and environmental violations.

The trial also aims to resolve competing claims of liability among BP and its subcontractors, rig operator Transocean and Halliburton, which was responsible for faulty cement work on the Macondo well, whose leak triggered the oil spill.

Commenting on the upcoming case, Dudley said on Tuesday: "As I have said before, we are prepared to settle if we can do so on fair and reasonable terms, but equally, if this is not possible, we are preparing vigorously for trial."

BP has already booked a $40 billion charge to cover cleanup efforts, compensation to fishermen and thousands of others affected by the spill and massive government fines and penalties that are still being assessed.

To meet its costs, BP has committed to selling $38 billion worth of assets before the end of 2013 and has so far clawed back roughly half the amount.

On Tuesday, BP said it planned to sell its liquefied petroleum gas filling operations in a number of countries for an undisclosed amount.

"The oil giant has become a leaner and meaner operation as Bob Dudley sold off assets to meet compensation costs," ETX Capital trader Manoj Ladwa said on Tuesday.

"But with Brent Crude firmly trading over $100 per barrel for over a year, BP's reversal in fortunes could be largely due to the price of oil as opposed to any efforts to turn around the business."

Despite the bumper profits, BP's share price dropped 0.62 percent to close at 486.5 pence on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which finished down 0.03 percent at 5,890.26 points.

The group also announced that it was raising its dividend by 14 percent to 8.0 cents a share for the fourth quarter of 2011 -- the first rise since the company resumed paying dividends a year ago.

"Helped along by the strength of the oil price, the company has been able to report a significant upswing in earnings, albeit largely in line with estimates," said Richard J Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.

"Meanwhile, this extra cash generation has allowed a generous increase in the dividend payment which marks a sign of future management confidence."

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST Brussels (AFP) Feb 6, 2012 - Chemicals giant Solvay hailed Monday the successful entry into service in Flanders of what it said was the largest fuel cell of its type in the world.

A super-battery that produces enough electricity to power nearly 1,400 homes, the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell has been producing clean electricity at a "steady rate" for weeks at a SolVin plant part-owned by Germany's BASF in Antwerp, northern Dutch-speaking Belgium.

SolVin is a market leader in vinyl, or PVC production.

The fuel cell converts the chemical energy from hydrogen into clean electricity through an electrochemical reaction with oxygen, and "has generated over 500 MWh in about 800 hours of operation," Solvay said in a news release.

The company said this equates to the electricity consumption of 1,370 families over the same period.

Fuel-cell technology is tipped by developers as a future power solution for everything from cars to ships.

Flanders has benefited from a 14-million-euro investment in this applied technology, with the EU, the Dutch and the Belgian Flemish governments backers of Solvay's 5.0-million euros investment.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST Khartoum (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - A group of 29 Chinese workers taken by rebels in southern Sudan 11 days ago has been freed in good health and flown to Kenya, officials said on Tuesday, after Beijing protested their capture.

Insurgents from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) confirmed the release of the Chinese, who initially spent two or three days walking away from the "front line" in a war zone through sometimes difficult terrain in the Nuba Mountains after their capture, a rebel spokesman told AFP.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it arranged the transport of the 29 Chinese to Kenya on an ICRC aircraft.

"The Sudanese authorities allowed a Red Cross plane to take them from Kauda to Nairobi... this Tuesday morning where they were given to the Chinese embassy there," Sudan's foreign ministry said.

Rebels say they control Kauda town in South Kordofan state, where they have since June been fighting with government troops.

China last week lodged a formal protest with Khartoum over the workers' capture and dispatched a six-member team to help gain their freedom.

Vice Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng summoned a top-level Sudanese embassy diplomat and urged the African nation to "do everything it can to ensure the safety of the Chinese personnel," the ministry's website said.

Late Tuesday the ministry confirmed the workers had arrived in the Kenyan capital, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"The 29 persons are currently in sound physical conditions and stable mood," the ministry said in a statement quoted by Xinhua.

It added the workers were handed over to the Chinese embassy after they landed in Nairobi, where they appeared flanked by ambassador to Kenya Liu Guangyuan and Qiu Xuejun, head of the team sent to help secure their release.

They were due to head home after a short stay in Nairobi, Xinhua said.

"We were told that one of the workers had a problem with his leg" because of the initial walking after their capture, rebel spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi told AFP. They were later moved by car, he said.

The captives, who were involved in a road-building project in South Kordofan, had been held since January 28 when the SPLM-N destroyed a Sudanese military convoy between Rashad town and Al-Abbasiya and took over the area, the rebels said.

ICRC said it was not involved in negotiations to free the Chinese.

According to Xinhua the workers were taken after a rebel attack on their camp.

Sudan's foreign ministry spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh said that in addition to the 29 freed Chinese, 17 others had earlier been "released" by the Sudan Armed Forces but one other Chinese died.

"His body was found yesterday," Meruh said.

Lodi said he did not know about that.

Chinese embassy officials in Khartoum could not be reached on Tuesday.

Lodi said discussions about the Chinese workers began last week when SPLM-N chairman Malik Agar met a Chinese diplomat and asked Beijing to use its influence with Khartoum to help badly needed aid to reach the war zone.

Agar's talks, in Addis Ababa with the Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia, were followed by more negotiations in Kenya, Lodi said.

He added the rebels did not set any pre-conditions for the workers' "evacuation".

"From the beginning we were saying they were not hostages" -- a term used by Sudan's military.

China is Sudan's major trading partner, the largest buyer of Sudanese oil and a key military supplier to the Khartoum regime.

Along with the 29 Chinese, the rebels say they captured seven suspected Sudanese national security agents, one of whom later fled.

"We are now also ready to release the remaining six," Lodi said.

Sudan has severely restricted the work of foreign relief agencies in South Kordofan and nearby Blue Nile state, where a similar war began in September.

About 30,000 people fled when the rebels took control of villages in the Al-Abbasiya area on January 28, the United Nations said.

The UN has backed statements by the United States that there could be a famine unless urgent aid is allowed to enter South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

burs-it/hkb

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST Rome (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - Italy was set to hold emergency talks on Tuesday aimed at maximising gas supplies to vulnerable households as the cold snap tightened its grip on the country and the death toll rose to 26.

Life in the centre of Rome returned to normal after days of chaos in the wake of the heaviest snowfall in 27 years, but schools remained closed and thousands in the surrounding region were still without electricity or heating.

Snow continued to fall in the north of Italy, with temperatures dropping to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit) in Marcesina on the shores of Lake Garda, and black ice in Calabria and Sardegna in the south.

A 68-year-old lorry driver from Bologna, who froze to death in his vehicle after sleeping in it, was found on Monday. The bodies of a pensioner and a homeless Moldovan woman were also discovered several days after they died.

In the town of L'Aquila, devastated by an earthquake in 2009, snowed-in residents warned of food shortages and wolves scavenged in the white, deserted streets of the nearby town of Trasacco, the Corriere della Sera daily said.

The economic development ministry activated a plan Monday to reduce gas supplies to industrial clients and switch from gas to oil-fired power stations amid fears of another cold wave in Russia which could limit supplies to Italy.

"The situation is certainly critical because the flows from Russia and France have diminished but the situation is being monitored," Economic Development Minister Corrado Passera told reporters.

Energy policy expert and former minister Alberto Clo' told Il Mattino newspaper: "There is no need to panic, Italy will not run out of gas."

"There won't be any scenes like The Day After Tomorrow," he said, in reference to the 2004 apocalyptic film about a modern-day ice age.

"After a mild winter and with industry running at low capacity, we haven't drawn very much yet from our reserves," he said.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST Khartoum (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - A group of Chinese workers "kidnapped" by rebels in southern Sudan 11 days ago have been freed and flown to Kenya, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

"The Sudanese authorities allowed a Red Cross plane to take them from Kauda to Nairobi ... this Tuesday morning where they were given to the Chinese embassy there," the statement said.

The statement did not give the number of Chinese freed.

The Kauda area in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state has been the scene of fighting since June between government troops and rebels formerly aligned with the rulers of now independent South Sudan.

Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi told AFP he would comment later Tuesday, but the release comes a day after he said he expected the 29 Chinese workers to be released "very soon."

Lodi said on Monday the rebels were in communication with the Chinese government, although not through a six-member mission sent by Beijing to Khartoum to help secure a release.

The captives, who were involved in a road-building project in South Kordofan, had been held since January 28 when the SPLM-N destroyed a Sudanese military convoy between Rashad town and Al-Abbasiya and took over the area, the rebels said.

A spokeswoman for the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) declined to comment except to say: "We are not involved in negotiations" over the Chinese.

The SPLM-N maintained that all 29 Chinese were safe during their captivity.

According to China's official Xinhua news agency, the workers were taken after a rebel attack on their camp.

It reported on Monday that Beijing had been informed by Sudanese authorities that the body of one Chinese, who went missing in the attack, had been found. That person was apparently not among the 29 captured.

Sudanese official media carried similar reports citing the South Kordofan state government.

Chinese embassy officials in Khartoum could not be reached on Tuesday.

Last week, SPLM-N chairman Malik Agar met a Chinese diplomat and asked Beijing to use its influence with Khartoum to help badly needed aid to reach the war zone, Lodi said.

Agar held the talks in Addis Ababa with the Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia.

China is Sudan's major trading partner, the largest buyer of Sudanese oil and a key military supplier to the Khartoum regime.

Sudan has severely restricted the work of foreign relief agencies in South Kordofan and nearby Blue Nile state, where a similar war began in September.

About 30,000 people fled when the rebels took control of villages in the Al-Abbasiya area on January 28, the United Nations said.

The UN has backed statements by the United States that there could be a famine unless urgent aid is allowed to enter South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:00:01 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D