Hurricane Dolly moved inland after tearing into the South Texas coast on Wednesday with 95 mph (150 kph) winds, pouring torrential rain on the U.S.-Mexico border area before being downgraded to a tropical storm.

A chemical tanker split a fuel barge in half on the Mississippi River on Wednesday, spilling thousands of gallons of fuel oil and forcing the closure of a 58-mile (93-km) stretch from New Orleans southward that could last for days, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said.

A strong earthquake jolted northern Japan early on Thursday, injuring at least 76 people, trapping hundreds in halted trains and temporarily cutting off electric power to thousands of homes.

Hurricane Dolly left more than 27,000 electric customers without power in South Texas by midmorning Wednesday as bands of heavy wind and rain came ashore near Brownsville, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico producers had shut 5 percent of natural gas production and nearly as much oil output on Tuesday ahead of Tropical Storm Dolly, which is expected to hit the U.S.-Mexican border on Wednesday, the U.S. government said.

Tropical Storm Dolly continued to strengthen slightly early Tuesday as it moved over the warm waters of the western Gulf of Mexico towards the Texas-Mexico border.

Tropical Storm Dolly headed for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Sunday bearing heavy rains and winds, but it posed no immediate threat to Gulf oil installations slightly south of its projected path.

Oil workers in Brazil started a 5-day strike on Monday but state-run energy company Petrobras said it had already reversed most  of the production losses on its platforms.

It's summer in the United States, but many Americans are already fretting about winter.

Iran test fired nine long- and medium-range missiles on Wednesday, state media said, including one which it has said could reach Israel and U.S. bases in the region.

Investors with an appetite for wildcat oil exploration plays can now thank - of all people  - former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Because of his decades-long suppression of Kurds in northern Iraq, the region’s extensive petroleum reserves have gone untapped.

Prices are not driven by speculation and the short-term target is still $150 a barrel, Boone Pickens told CNBC. But they could dip to $100 over 2 years.

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Florida officials agreed to pay Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway  $224 million for a conditional pledge to buy $4 billion of state hurricane bonds during 2008, a state spokesman said on.

There is "no shortage" in the oil market and OPEC member countries and would prefer a lower price than the current highs, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri told CNBC on Tuesday.