CUBA

Oil was under pressure on Thursday from a stronger dollar and brimming U.S. petroleum inventories, while modest gains in Asian equities provided support to a market focused on the prospects for economic growth.

Oil rose on Thursday after better than expected euro zone manufacturing and services data, but rising U.S. oil inventories and fears about the broader U.S. economy, the world's largest, kept prices in check. The euro zone's private sector surged this month, according to a survey released on Thursday, reassuring markets spooked by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke describing the prospects for the United States as unusually uncertain.

Oil slid for a second day on Thursday, a day after Fed chief Ben Bernanke rekindled unease across financial markets over the pace of economic recovery, while rising U.S. inventories also kept prices in check.

The United States is urging Syria to open up its markets to U.S. companies' computers and software, but fears over piracy and Internet access restrictions are holding back American technology companies from investing there.

Oil prices fell for a third day to beneath $76 a barrel on Thursday after a jump in U.S. crude oil inventories outweighed the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates near zero. A dip in European shares on Thursday also dampened sentiment and reinforced the correlation between oil and equities. EU

Oil prices fell for a third day to around $76 a barrel on Thursday after a jump in U.S. crude oil inventories outweighed the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates near zero.

Cubans' ability to communicate with one another and the world remained well below the norm for the Caribbean and Latin America in 2009, according to a government report released this week.

Here are developments in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the largest in U.S. history:

President Barack Obama will meet with the leaders of a panel he created to probe the worst oil spill in U.S. history on Tuesday, as a giant slick from BP's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well poses a new threat to the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama.

Oil from BP's out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, U.S. forecasters said on Monday, as public anger surged over the country's worst environmental disaster.

In an exclusive for Oilprice.com, the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) has learned from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sources that U.S. Navy submarines deployed to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast have detected what amounts to a frozen oil blob from the oil geyser at the destroyed Deep Horizon off-shore oil rig south of Louisiana. The Navy submarines have trained video cameras on the moving blob, which remains frozen at depths of ...

U.S. prosecutors have accused ABN Amro, now largely part of Royal Bank of Scotland , of turning a blind eye to U.S. laws, using special procedures to bypass U.S. sanctions against Cuba, Iran and other countries.

Delighted at his cyber success, Venezuela's new Twitter convert President Hugo Chavez on Thursday invited Cuba's Fidel Castro and Bolivian President Evo Morales to join the micro-blogging site too.

Delighted at his cyber success, Venezuela's new Twitter convert President Hugo Chavez on Thursday praised the micro-blogging site and invited Cuba's Fidel Castro and Bolivian President Evo Morales to join.

(Reuters) - The World Health Organization conceded shortcomings on Monday in its handling of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, including a failure to communicate uncertainties about the new virus as it swept around the globe.

President Hugo Chavez denied on Sunday that he planned to censor or limit the Internet in Venezuela, saying on the contrary Web use had shot up more than nine fold during his decade in power.

Venezuela is not planning to censor the Web or to shut down social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, officials said on Monday, after President Hugo Chavez called for regulation of the Internet.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who is criticized by media freedom groups, called on Saturday for regulation of the Internet and singled out a website that he said falsely reported the murder of one of his ministers.

U.S. officials said they were allowing U.S. technology companies to export chat and social media software to Iran, Sudan and Cuba, with the hope it will help their citizens communicate with the outside world.

The European Union's top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, has had a tough time since taking on the job four months ago, but will try to turn things around this week as she sets out her foreign policy goals.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flies to Latin America on Sunday, working to buff a lackluster U.S. image in a region where Brazil is emerging as a regional power with global aspirations.