And while the Sunshine State dealt with the havoc caused by the steady, heavy rains that touched each of its 67 counties, the bad weather increased the woes of Florida's precarious and crucial $9 billion citrus industry.

Fay is the most significant and widespread inundation of Florida since five hurricanes smacked the state in 2004-05. Aside from knocking fruits off trees, the combination of wind and rain exacerbated citrus canker, a disease that infects leaves and causes fruit to drop prematurely. Fay is likely to have increased the spread of the disease. Canker has destroyed more than 16 million trees in Florida. Despite $600 million in federal and state money spent to eradicate it from 1996-2006, the United States Department of Agriculture deemed eradication impossible after Hurricane Wilma blew through in October 2005.

As a result of storms and canker, orange production declined nearly in half from 242 million 90-lb boxes in 2003 to 129 million boxes by 2006-07. The price for a gallon of not-from-concentrate orange juice has increased by more than $1.50, to $5.90 last month. Several growers have since sold their groves to developers. The number of commercial groves in Florida dropped from about 857,000 acres in 1996 to 621,000 acres in 2006.

The eighth tropical storm of the Atlantic season had top sustained winds near 40 mph Thursday. Its center was about 305 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands and was moving toward the west-northwest near 12 mph. Hanna could produce rainfall of 1 to 4 inches across parts of the Leeward Islands. It's too soon to say if Hanna will affect the U.S.

Nearly three years to the day after hurricane Katrina plowed into the Louisiana coast on August 29, 2005, Port Fourchon is still a glaring Achilles heel in the vulnerable U.S. energy supply chain. Now Port Fourchon and coastal cities like New Orleans are staring down the barrel of Tropical Storm Gustav, which could come ashore next week as the worst hurricane since 2005.

The 1,600-acre (647-hectare) complex is the support nerve center for over half of all offshore drilling operations, and SERVES 90 PERCENT OF THE GULF'S DEEPWATER OIL INSTALLATIONS. Hundreds of large workboats chug between Port Fourchon and the rigs every day, carrying workers, heavy equipment and necessities that range from pipe, drilling mud and diesel fuel to groceries and drinking water.

All those supplies come to Port Fourchon by truck or barge via Louisiana Highway 1 and a waterway called Bayou Lafourche. The exposure of those routes to a surge from the Gulf worries the port's executive director, Ted Falgout. "WE PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE IN 15 TO 18 PERCENT OF THE ENTIRE NATION'S OIL SUPPLY," Falgout said. "If the Lafourche corridor takes a severe hit, everyone in this country will feel the impact."

The growing rift between Russia and the United States over Georgia promises to be a golden opportunity for Damascus as it seeks a weapons deal with Moscow – an agreement that would give it greater leverage in tentative peace talks with Israel and bolster its standing in the Middle East. "Syria saw a lot of opportunity in what happened in Georgia and South Ossetia to advance its own interests in the [region]," says Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst and historian.

Indeed, if the US-Russia rift continues to widen, Moscow could start building greater ties with Washington's Middle East foes. Although Syria's isolation has crumbled in recent years, Damascus remains deeply at odds with Washington over a host of issues: support for Islamist militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, the war in Iraq, and its relationship with Iran.

Syria nonetheless has made a diplomatic comeback in recent months through a carefully calculated balance of patience, stubbornness, and flexibility. Forced into a troop withdrawal from Lebanon in 2005, Syria has seen its Lebanese allies make gains despite the fact that a US-backed political bloc holds a majority in parliament. Also, Syria has managed to balance its key strategic relationship with Iran against a resumption of indirect peace talks with Israel.

Christopher Moreau, who first spotted the tree's markings in his neighbour's garden in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, believes that it may have helped the health of his mother-in-law, who recently recovered from cancer. "At first I thought I was seeing things," the 47-year-old said. "Then I went and got my mother-in-law to tell her. She was overwhelmed by it. She was crying. I don't know why it's there, but I think it's a blessing," he told the Toronto Star newspaper, adding that he hoped it would help others looking for a miracle.

A spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto said that it does not investigate the veracity of such "appearances". There have been hundreds of "sightings" of the Virgin Mary down the centuries, but recent years have seen her appearing in ever more unusual places.

A decade-old toasted cheese sandwich said to bear her image was sold on eBay for $28,000 in 2004.

One in seven children in Britain - almost 1.8m - now live in totally work-free households, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the majority with a single parent. There has been barely any reduction in the number of households where all adults are out of full-time work in the past five years, the figures show.

Using the Labour Force Survey of employment, researchers found that 15.8 per cent of all households in Britain that contain at least one person of working age had no one in full-time employment. It means that there is complete unemployment in a total of 3.06m families in which someone should be able to work.

This represents an improvement of just 0.2 per cent since 2003. Due to the fact that there are now half a million more families living in Britain, there are actually 43,000 more working-age families who have no one in employment than there were five years ago.

The decline, which was bigger than most analysts were expecting, pushed the average price of a property to 164,654 pounds, the lowest since May 2006. The 10th consecutive monthly decline highlights the reversal of fortune for the property market since the credit crunch took hold last summer, bringing an end to a decade in which property values almost trebled.

Nationwide said house prices in August were 10.5 percent lower than a year earlier. Quarterly data recorded prior to the current series suggest August's annual decline was the first double-digit drop since the fourth quarter of 1990 when the nation was mired in recession. Concern has grown in recent months that a sharp property downturn will tip the already stuttering economy into recession.

Some half a million New Yorkers were unemployed by mid-year, the highest number since 2004. More job losses are likely as a national economic downturn is intensified by the problems Wall Street firms are struggling with, according to the Fiscal Policy Institute's study. "At a minimum, it appears that the state's economy will continue declining through the rest of 2008 and possibly into 2009," according to the study by the Albany-based think tank.

New York's economy is dependent on the fortunes of the Wall Street finance industry, so the state's tax collections have plunged with the profit-drought now withering banks and brokerages. Democratic Gov David Paterson recently persuaded the legislature to cut $427 million of spending and prune the three-year deficit by $2 billion to $24.4 billion. But those budget cuts could cause more job losses, which in turn could make it harder for New York to replenish its unemployment insurance fund.

Though Hispanic and African American workers make up 29 percent of the work force, their jobless rates are "roughly double" those of their white counterparts, the study said.

But he effectively rules out imposing a windfall tax on energy firms because it would only lead to higher charges for customers. And he warns that Russian aggression in Georgia has cast doubt over Britain's future energy supplies.

Mr Hutton's refusal to levy a windfall tax on power firms will dismay many who had hoped for extra government help to pay for heating this winter. Millions of homes have been hit by a wave of recent energy price rises of more than 35 per cent, while petrol and food bills have also soared. Seventy Labour MPs have signed a petition calling for a one-off tax on the "excessive profits" of the energy companies.

He says: "The era of cheap energy is over. The question is how are we going to adjust to that and what sort of help can we provide to those who are going to struggle the most. There is genuine concern about the difficulties that people will face paying their heating bills over the coming winter and we are looking at extra support."

Former President Bill Clinton, who has been slow to warm to Obama after the bruising primary battle that his wife lost, gave Obama an unwavering seal of approval in a speech to a packed convention hall where delegates cheered his appearance for so long that he had to ask them to sit down.

"My fellow Democrats, I say to you: Barack Obama is ready to lead America and to restore American leadership in the world," former President Clinton told flag-waving delegates who interrupted him repeatedly with roars of approval. "Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States," he said.

Not since Katrina struck on August 29, 2005, have residents faced a forced departure from their homes and businesses as many still struggle to rebuild their lives in a city famed for its jazz clubs and Mardi Gras festival. Storm levees broke under the onslaught of Katrina, flooding 80 percent of New Orleans and killing 1,500 people in the city and along the Gulf of Mexico coast. The hurricane caused $125 billion in wind and flood damage.

With Tropical Storm Gustav swirling near Cuba and likely to enter the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane this weekend, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said an evacuation could begin as early as Friday - three years to the day after Katrina inundated New Orleans. Jindal said he had activated the state's catastrophic action team and could declare a state of emergency as early as Thursday. He also put the Louisiana National Guard on alert.

Jindal, elected as governor in October 2007, is hoping to avoid heavy criticism that fell on his predecessor, Kathleen Blanco, for not reacting quickly enough after Katrina. Federal agencies and the New Orleans city government also faced the wrath of residents over their response to the disaster, while President George W. Bush was criticized for his role, including his initial decision to view the devastated city only from the air.

"Ahmadinejad is not complying with the will of the people," The Financial Times Deutschland quoted Grand Ayatollah Bajat Sanjani as saying. "This is a major threat, a big danger," the cleric added in an unusually direct personal attack. The newspaper also said Sanjani accused Ahmadinejad's government of breaking the law, seriously violating personal freedom and illegally empowering the Revolutionary Guard.

Ahmadinejad is expected to run for a second term in Iran's next presidential election, slated to take place early in 2009. His reformist rivals are expected to attack him especially on his economic policies. Iran suffers from a rising consumer price index, high percentage of unemployment and inflation of 26 percent.

This allows them to hand out fines for a raft of offences, from dropping litter to riding a bike on the pavement. They can also stop cars to check their tax discs, seize alcohol from underage drinkers and demand people's names and addresses. The hope is that they will free up rank-and-file officers from having to perform these unpopular tasks. The uniformed, badged army of snoopers will become a vital part of the 'extended police family', ministers say.

But privacy campaigners have dubbed them Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's 'Stasi' after the East German secret police. Phil Booth of NO2ID said: 'This is a sinister move towards a Stasi snooper state in which jobsworths are devolved the powers of the police - including the right to demand you identify yourself.' Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve added: 'This is a consequence of the Government's obsession with policing on the cheap as well as their staggering complacency towards the extension of surveillance by an increasing amount of different bodies.

'The public will be angered that the Home Office is seeking to take serious powers that should be appropriately applied by the police and encouraging them to be given not just to local councils, but also to private firms. The public want to see real police on the streets discharging these responsibilities, not private firms who may use them inappropriately - including unnecessarily snooping on the lives of ordinary citizens.'

A spokeswoman says more than 100 of those caught up in Monday's raid on Howard Industries were released based on humanitarian concerns, mostly because they have children. Most of the rest were transferred to a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Jena, Los Angeles. Nine 17-year-olds were transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

The Mississippi raid was one of a series of recent high-profile crackdowns on illegal immigrants. In May, officials swept into the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa and detained 400 workers.

The potential for Gustav to become a major hurricane over the next four days depends primarily on two factors - how close it tracks to Cuba and the interaction it has with the island. According to Expert Senior Meteorologist John Kocet, "The longer Gustav stays over the warm water in the Caribbean, the stronger it gets and the greater the chance that it will become a Category 3 hurricane by Saturday."

Kocet adds, "The storm will weaken if it moves close to Cuba, but it will strengthen if it tracks farther south across the Caribbean." If Gustav is able to thread the needle, passing through the Yucatan Channel into the Gulf of Mexico, it could intensify to Category 4 or 5 strength over the warm water in the Gulf. If it makes it to the Gulf, Gustav could be the first major hurricane (Category 3 or greater) in the Gulf since Hurricane Wilma reached Category 3 strength as it steered from the Yucatan Peninsula to South Florida in October 2005. ALL INTERESTS IN THE CARIBBEAN, THE GULF OF MEXICO AND FLORIDA SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR GUSTAV AS IT MOVES THROUGH THE CARIBBEAN.

Gustav is already having an impact on world oil markets. The Associated Press reports that oil prices swung in both directions in trading Tuesday before news that Gustav could threaten oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico sent prices rapidly higher.