MIAMI, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Heat and drought are parching the
southern U.S. plains, floods and tornadoes have shattered
long-standing records, and the tropical Atlantic is steaming
into the traditionally busiest part of the hurricane season.

With commodity markets across the globe in the thrall of
extreme weather, private-sector meteorologists are increasingly
providing custom-tailored weather intelligence to the financial
world. This time of year their services are in high demand.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A spike in gold prices prompted the U.S. Mint to suspend the online sale of gold collector coins on Tuesday for the first time in recent memory, a mint spokesman said.

The move affects only the gold numismatic products sold to collectors and not the gold bullion coins sold to investors, Mint spokesman Mike White said from Washington.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Raising its forecast, the U.S. government’s weather agency on Thursday predicted the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will produce 14 to 19 named storms, 7 to 10 of them becoming hurricanes.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said three to five of the storms could turn into major Category 3 or above hurricanes, with winds of more than 110 miles per hour (177 km per hour).

MIAMI, July 19 (Reuters) – The Florida Supreme Court on
Tuesday upheld a jury’s order that the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co
pay nearly $30 million to a woman whose husband died of lung
cancer after decades of smoking its cigarettes.

The court issued a brief ruling saying it would not review
the product liability award nor entertain any further motions
for rehearing. The tobacco company, a unit of Reynolds American
Inc (RAI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), argued the award was excessive.

MIAMI (Reuters) – When the United States embarked on its shuttle program decades ago, it set out to build a workhorse vehicle that would make space travel routine and beat the Soviets during the Cold War struggle for dominance in space.

The resulting spaceship had 2.5 million parts and was nine times faster than a speeding bullet as it climbed heavenward. It was the first reusable spacecraft, capable of gliding back to Earth like an airplane.

MIAMI (Reuters) – An American man who ran a home for impoverished boys in Haiti has been arrested on charges that he forced them to perform sex acts in exchange for food, shelter and schooling, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday.

Matthew Andrew Carter, the 66-year-old operator of the Morning Star Center in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, was arrested in Miami on May 8. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday to four counts of child sex tourism, or traveling in foreign commerce to engage in illicit sex with minors.

MIAMI (Reuters) – U.S. military prosecutors have filed new charges against the self-described mastermind of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four alleged co-conspirators held at the Guantanamo detention camp.

The conspiracy and mass murder charges were expected to be announced later on Tuesday, according to sources involved in the war crimes tribunals at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – For the residents of Florida’s Space Coast, the approaching end of the shuttle program brings a mix of pride in what they helped build and frustration that America has no new spacecraft ready to launch the next generation of explorers.

NASA is set to launch the shuttle Endeavour on its final voyage Friday, and sister ship Atlantis will close out the 30-year-old shuttle program when it returns from a mission set for launch in June.

MIAMI (Reuters) – The United States violated global trade law by shutting down Internet gambling sites based in Antigua and elsewhere and prosecuting their owners, according to Antigua and Barbuda officials considering action in the World Trade Organization.

Antigua and Barbuda, which licenses Internet gambling companies, has waged a long battle in the WTO over U.S. efforts to keep Americans from patronizing offshore betting sites. Last week’s shutdown of the three biggest online poker sites has the Caribbean nation ready to go another round.

, March 15 (Reuters) – Rising fuel prices
and political upheaval are creating headwinds for the global
cruise industry but the recession left a few legacies that have
made cruise company executives optimistic about their future.

With people forced to work harder and longer during the
downturn, they have come to value their vacations more,
Celebrity Cruises Chief Executive Daniel Hanrahan told the
Cruise Shipping Miami conference in Miami Beach on Tuesday.