BRUSSELS, Dec. 5  -- The European Union has agreed to have 10 percent of its vehicle fuels sourced with renewable fuels by 2020 in spite of warnings from scientists.

Scientists have said that turning forests or grasslands into farmland to make up for acreage lost to biofuel production undermines the claim that biofuels is a clean source of energy, Deutsche Welle reported Friday.

But an agreement between the European Parliament, the European Commission and European Union member states, upholds the 10 percent target proposed in January, as the three parties agreed to count non-food source biofuels twice.

NEW YORK, Dec. 4  -- Crude oil prices dropped to less than $44 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, hitting its lowest closing price in 35 months.

Tokyo - Nippon Oil Corp, Japan's largest refine

Budapest  - Turkey has accepted a Hungarian proposal to set up an international advocacy body to push for the quick realisation of the planned Nabucco gas pipeline, the head of a Hungarian committee said on Wednesday after talks.

The Turkish parliamentary trade and energy commissioner Soner Aksoy was in Budapest heading his country's delegation for talks with the leaders of the Hungarian parliament's ad hoc Nabucco committee.

After the meeting, the committee chairman Janos Koka told the state news agency MTI that Aksoy had expressed support for Hungary's recent proposal to set up an Nabucco advocacy committee.

CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 27 -- The presidents of Russia and Venezuela have signed bilateral agreements, including construction of a nuclear power plant in the South American country.

The BBC reported the two leaders signed the nuclear power agreement Wednesday night.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said President Dmitry Medvedev, the first Russian head of state to visit Caracas in 150 years, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a 25-year plan to cooperate with oil, gas and power generation, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

The chief election commission of India has served a notice to union petroleum minister Murli Deora for his alleged announcement on fuel price reduction.

Mr. Deora had announced price reduction in line with falling international prices of crude oil, after completion of the ongoing election process and opposition parties, especially, BJP, objected to the comments of the Union Minister. It filed a complaint against him before the election commission. Now, the EC has asked the union minister to file his reply by November 27 on his comments regarding price cut.