<p>Asia's confidence in nuclear power continued to falter as Taiwan said that a plant may have been leaking radioactive water for three years, and as the Fukushima site faces additional complications. In Taiwan, the government's watchdog released a report warning that the First Nuclear Power Plant, located near densely populated Taipei, has been leaking toxic water from the storage pools of two reactors.

<p>Protestors in the Philippines destroyed a trial plot of "Golden Rice," a strain developed to combat vitamin A deficiency. The crop was a few weeks away from being submitted to authorities for safety evaluation, but a group of roughly 400 local farmers and protestors attacked the field and uprooted all the plants. The rice, which has been given extra genes that turn on the plant's ability to produce beta carotene, first entered development 20 years ago with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

<p>As the United Nations body responsible for world heritage sites expressed concern that Australia did not inform it of plans to create one of the world's largest coalports adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, environment minister Mark Butler deferred the decision, citing new reports that may influence whether the project is approved. Butler was due to decide by last Friday whether to allow the dredging of 3 million cubic meters of seabed to double Abbot Point port's coal capacity, but the minister pushed the deadline back to November 8, after the election.