Ahead of the move on Friday, Garcia had faced calls from opposition leaders to sack cabinet members after audio tapes emerged linking some of them to a plan to award oil contracts in exchange for bribes.

…Unfortunately, as governor of a state with a birth-defect rate that's twice the national average, and which has the gloomy status as repository of toxic chemicals from around the world, Palin has pursued environmental policies that seem perfectly crafted to swell the ranks of special-needs kids. It's true that Alaska's top leaders have placed industry wishes over environmental protection for years. But, instead of correcting this problem, she's compounded it.

Today's action waives the requirement that gasoline distributed and sold after Nov. 1, 2008 must meet wintertime clean burning gasoline (CBG) requirements, as specified in Arizona's federally-approved state implementation plan (SIP). The waiver is in effect in all of Maricopa County, and in those parts of Yavapai and Pinal Counties where CBG is required.

September passenger car sales shrank 1.44 percent from September last year to 552,800 after the August sales contracted 6.24 percent from a year earlier.

Speaking a day after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced an emergency meeting to discuss oil prices, which have dipped below $80 a barrel, he urged its leaders to be ‘statesmanlike.’

The decision followed a diplomatic row that was sparked three months ago when a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was arrested in Geneva on July 15 and charged with mistreating two domestic employees.

The agreement will open the door for U.S. companies to provide billions of dollars of equipment and expertise to the Indian nuclear power industry.

WWF regrets, however, that the European Union has not committed yet to a binding target reducing primary energy consumption by 20% by 2020 to boost energy conservation in all sectors. Although it was discussed by the European Council in 2007, so far this objective is only applied by European countries on a voluntary basis.

It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

A study released by Bernstein Research of New York this week argues that oil prices will remain linked to the cost of producing supplies from difficult but crucial fields deep offshore and elsewhere, a cost the research firm puts at between $75 and $80 a barrel. By 2012, the firm said, that cost likely will have jumped to $105 a barrel.

The Arctic has become more stormy in the past 50 years due to the warming climate, which in turn has quickened the pace of drifting sea ice, a new NASA study finds.

"Those companies that are able to keep costs under control continue to do okay. Those that can't are in a world of hurt," said Rick Kment, analyst at DTN in Nebraska.

Corn ethanol caught the imagination of U.S. policymakers as a way to fix multiple problems: rising oil prices, dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuel pollution. But the use of corn for ethanol is now embroiled in controversy, being held responsible by critics for recent spikes in food prices that spurred riots in some countries.