Russia News

EU Leaders Agree on Trade, But Clash over Roma Expulsions

The European Union agreed on Thursday to sign a free-trade pact with South Korea and grant Pakistan trade concessions after floods, but a row over France’s deportation of Roma migrants marred a one-day summit. The agreement on trade issues was …

US to Host Major Economies Climate Forum in New York

The United States will host a meeting of the world’s biggest economies in New York to discuss climate change on Monday and Tuesday [next week], the U.S. State Department said. The Major Economies Forum will bring together 16 of the …

Climate Change May Add to Natural Disaster Death Tolls

Natural disasters are tending to kill fewer people but climate change may add to the toll by unleashing more extreme weather and causing after-effects such as disease and malnutrition, experts say. Better warnings of cyclones or heat waves and an …

Nations Meet on Climate Cash Contributions; UN Sees Long Haul

About 45 nations met on Thursday to seek ways to raise billions of dollars in aid to help the poor combat climate change as the United Nations warned them of a long haul to slow global warming. Environment ministers and …

Aon Monthly Cat Recap Highlights Asia Floods, Atlantic Storms

Aon Benfield’s latest release of its Monthly Cat Recap report, which provides an analysis of global natural perils in August, reports the month was “dominated by historic floods in Pakistan destroying over 1.25 million homes, a massive landslide in China …

Marsh Urges Review of Business Continuity Plans after Russian Fires

Following the devastating peat land and forest fires in Russia and the resultant smog in Moscow and surrounding regions, Marsh has urged affected and potentially affected organizations to “review their current business continuity plans and insurance provision.” According to Marsh, …

80 Nearby Residents Sue Delaware Steel Recycling Plant

At least 80 Claymont, Delaware residents have joined a damage and personal-injury lawsuit targeting a long-troubled steel recycling plant there, in a case that claims owners failed for years to control “poisonous clouds” of toxic dust. The lawsuit surfaced days …

Extreme Weather Seen Unlikely to Help Climate Talks

Extreme weather in 2010 will spur more strident calls for action to combat global warming but is unlikely to break a deadlock at U.N. climate talks about sharing the burden between rich and poor. Islamabad, for instance, has blamed mankind’s …

Despite Claims, Utilities’ Insurance Market Still Softening

Insurance rates in the power sector are expected to soften further in 2010, despite the existence of many of the conditions that would normally presage a hardening market, according to the latest Power Market Review from Willis. Foremost among these …

Scientists Downplay Health Risks of Fires Near Chernobyl Nuclear Plant

Fears that fires scorching forests polluted by Chernobyl fallout may propel dangerous amounts of radioactivity into the air are overblown, scientists say, and the actual health risks are very small. Even firefighters tackling the blazes, which officials say have hit …