News of the imports prompted the environmental group Greenpeace to say Wednesday that this was further proof that France's policy of producing three quarters of its electricity from nuclear power was a big mistake.

Valero Energy Corp., which shuttered a major refinery over the summer, said Friday it would permanently close its Delaware City oil refinery and layoff 550 workers."

But just as Cuba’s petroleum trade has soared, revenue is plummeting from other key exports like nickel, pharmaceuticals and tobacco products. Foreign trade is down 36 percent this year, as the global recession and $10 billion in damage from three 2008 hurricanes have drained Cuba’s finances.

For the 12 months that ended in August, 91,393 low-income households lost their utility service, compared with 52,202 in the previous 12-month period. Most soon paid to have service restored.

Ukpong Udofia of the Department of Home Economics, at the University of Uyo, has looked at the moisture levels, protein content, and iron composition of the flesh of the giant West African land snail and compared it to beef steak. Snail pie is much more nutritious than a beef pie, she says."

In some cases they emit just 60% as much light as traditional models which are being phased out of shops, it says. "

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) wanted them to promise to end hunger by 2025, but the delegates declined. They said instead that they would keep trying to meet their previous goal: to halve chronic hunger from 20 per cent of people in developing countries to 10 per cent by 2015 (see graph). But can they? Based on their performance so far, the FAO considers it "unlikely". "

Local residents say that some of the tankers have been there for months.

Maxine Savitz, vice president of the National Academy of Engineering, former deputy assistant secretary for conservation in the U.S. Department of Energy, and a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said the energy efficiency gained through new technologies in buildings, cars, and industry could reduce energy use as much as 30 percent by 2030.

Nations with highly developed economies rely extensively on the 'oil majors' to supply fuel. Doesn't matter how big global estimated potential oil reserves are in total: when an oil company has diminishing access to state-controlled fossil fuels it may be experiencing its own peak - as a corporation. What evidence do we have that 'oil majors' could be experiencing political peak oil? Anecdotes only: as in a recent quote from a French oil executive.

The Consumer Price Index, the government's key inflation reading, is now down only 0.2% during the past 12 months compared to the same period a year ago. This is the smallest 12-month rate of decline since February."

The U.S. economy remains weak and one in six Americans can't find enough work. Yet oil prices have risen steadily this year. A barrel of crude costs $79 and change, more than double its price at the end of 2008. "

The U.N. Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter also said a U.N. food summit in Rome failed to address the domination of global food markets by large agri-business corporations.

High distillate stocks in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the group of 30 rich nations, underscored the sluggish rebound in those economies, since diesel is a key indicator of industrial activity, IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka said.

Gas supplies for taxis in Wuhan, capital of the central province of Hubei, were halted from Monday while 11 industrial companies in Hanzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, were shut as a result of gas shortages, China National Radio said. "