Sofia  - The Bulgarian government Wednesday launched the construction of the nuclear power plant at Belene, which Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev described as the "largest project in the last 18 years."

The 5.8-billion-dollar plant with two 1,000 megawatt generators is being built on the Danube 220 kilometres northeast of Sofia. Bulgaria already runs the Russian-built Kosloduy plant some 100 kilometres upstream of Belene.

Bulgaria, a member of the European Union since 2007, awarded the Belene project to the Russian firm Atomexportstroy in late 2006. French and German giants Areva and Siemens were hired as sub- contractors in the project.

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has plunged to its lowest level since early April, according to OPEC data released on Wednesday.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC-produced crude stood at 103.40 dollars Tuesday, 6.62 dollars less than 110.02 dollars on the previous day.

Markets were affected by the fact that Hurricane Gustav had mostly spared oil facilities, as well as by the stronger US dollar against the euro, Vienna-based energy analysts JBC said.

Karvy Stock Broking Limited has maintained ‘buy’ rating on Cairn India stock with an intraday target of Rs 252.

According to Karvy, interested traders can purchase the stock between Rs 242-244 with a strict stop loss of Rs 240. If the stock market remains on positive track, the stock pricing becomes more attractive, and reach above Rs 255.
 
Shares of the company, on Monday (Sep 01), closed at Rs 248.05 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of shares traded at the BSE was 706439. The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 342.50 and a low of Rs 136 on BSE.

Sydney - Events in Georgia show Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin can't be trusted to abide by an undertaking not to use Australia uranium to make nuclear weapons, a Canberra parliamentary committee said Monday.

"I don't know if you've looked on the TV into Vladimir Putin's eyes," Treaties Committee chairman Kelvin Thomson said. "He's one tough son-of-a-gun and I don't think he cares about what we think. Recently he's taken South Ossetia and another province off Georgia, and there's no real come-back over that."