NEW YORK - World oil prices spiked on Tuesday close to record high points as supply concerns were stoked by a recent fire at a Finnish refinery and comments from the OPEC cartel, traders said.
LONDON - Lord Coe last night condemned the army of Chinese "thugs" who accompanied the Olympic torch relay through London.
OAKLAND, FLORIDA - A small town in Central Florida is considering forcing a 100-gallon-per-person daily limit on water for its residents.
USA - "We have no better example than Al Gore's alarmist and inaccurate movie which is being shown in our schools and being hawked by warming activists with little or no meteorological-climate background," Gray wrote.
NEW YORK - The head of the World Meteorological Organisation said La Nina - the weather phenomenon which is cooling the Pacific - is likely to trigger a small drop in average global temperatures compared with last year.
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Just as violent crime remains a hot topic of headlines and social conversation, so has it become the hot literary genre in a society plagued by a daily surfeit of true-life horror stories.
RUSSIA - In a Russia where he has brought most things under his control, even the weather seemed to do President Vladimir Putin's bidding last Friday when his U.S. counterpart flew in for a valedictory summit.
LONDON - Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed were unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of their chauffeur and paparazzi photographers pursuing them into a Paris road tunnel 10 years ago, an inquest ruled.
NAJAF, IRAQ - Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is ready to disband his militia if Shi'ite religious leaders demand it, his aides said on Monday, a surprising offer given renewed clashes between his fighters and security forces.
LONDON - British bank account details are on sale online for as little as £5 in so-called cyber-crime supermarkets, a report says.
CHINA - Beijing has said no force can stop the world relay of the Olympic flame as it faces new protests on the Californian leg of its journey.
USA - "The budget should be balanced. Public spending should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt." - Marcus Tulius Cicero 45 B.C.
GERMANY - Last year a record number of attacks were carried out by right-wing extremists in Germany, a prominent anti-racism campaigner said. The problem is especially bad in eastern Germany.
VIENTIANE, LAOS - A high-rise Chinatown that is to go up by Laos' laid-back capital has ignited fears that this nation's giant northern neighbor is moving to engulf this nation.
PARIS - Security officials have extinguished the Olympic torch amid heavy protests during the relay in Paris. Police in jogging gear put the torch out and brought it aboard a bus, apparently to move it away from protesters. Officials were forced to abandon the Paris leg of the parade.