MEXICO

Katia weakened slightly to a tropical storm, but could still head towards the U.S. coast as a major hurricane. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Lee is expected to hit the Louisiana Gulf Coast this weekend.

Tropical Depression 13, which continued to move toward the Gulf Coast on Friday, has winds up to 35 miles per hour, but the region can't rest easy. The storm may not be packing hurricane-force winds when it hits New Orleans, but it could drench the city with up to 20 inches of rain and cause severe flooding.

Oil and an oil sheen covering several square miles of water are surfacing near the site of last year’s BP Macondo Well disaster, prompting concerns that the well might not be plugged.

Tropical Katia is not expected to strengthen much on Friday, as wind shear clips the system, but forecasters say the storm will likely regain hurricane strength and perhaps cut a path toward the U.S. coast by the middle of next week. At 8 a.m. Friday, Katia was in the Atlantic, 700 miles east of the Leeward Islands. The storm is moving northwest at 15 miles per hour with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour, just below hurricane strength.

A California man who hacked into hundreds of women’s and teenage girls' computers, for extorting sexually explicit videos and photos from them, has been sentenced to six years in prison.

Mexican authorities have arrested a police officer in connection with an attack last week on a Monterrey casino that killed 52 people, the attorney general's office said Thursday.

Brent crude hovered at $114 a barrel Friday, on track for its second consecutive weekly gain, as investors eyed U.S. jobs data for clues on whether the world's largest oil consumer will be able to dodge a recession.

The tropical depression will be called Lee if it upgrades to a tropical storm. It is currently creeping north through the Gulf of Mexico. It could spur torrential rains and coastal flooding from the Florida Panhandle to Texas-Louisiana border, National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read told the media.

Whether Hurricane Katia will have any impact on the United States is still uncertain, but forecasters are keeping a watchful eye on a new tropical threat in the Gulf of Mexico.

Prolonged periods of heavy rain from the new tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico will do little to alleviate severe drought conditions that have plagued the nation's midsection.

As the chances of a low-pressure system in the Gulf of Mexico turning into a tropical depression in next two days increase and reach around 70 percent, major oil and natural gas companies functioning in the U.S-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico have stopped their operations and started evacuating their employees.

Texas has prayed for rain during months-long drought that has escalated in recent weeks with severe heat but the Lonestar state probably didn't want a hurricane to solve the dilemma. Forecasters say, however, that the next hurricane serious hurricane threat to the U.S. may not be Hurricane Katia. A new low-pressure system has developed in the Gulf of Mexico that the National Hurricane Center says is likely to become a tropical cyclone in the next two days before possibly threatening the U.S.,...

If a new tropical storm gains momentum and becomes a hurricane, it could wreak havoc on oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

One person's savior is another's curse. That's one thing we've learned through history and experience, since good news in one way often means bad news in another -- the balanced scale of life and nature that's often so conflicting and confusing, if not damaging. Such is the case with a developing storm in the Gulf of Mexico, likely to become a tropical cyclone, and eventually a tropical storm and hurricane that will threaten a direct hit on Texas.

The next hurricane serious hurricane threat to the U.S. may not be Hurricane Katia, but a new low-pressure system that developed in the Gulf of Mexico that the National Hurricane Center says is likely to become a tropical cyclone in the next two days. The unnamed storm has a good chance of threatening U.S. states on the northern Gulf Coast -- potentially areas hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A summary of some of the secrets that have emerged so far from Wikileaks.

Tropical Storm Katia is now a Category 1 hurricane, but its impact on the United States, if any, remained unclear as it continued to strengthen on Thursday.

A low pressure located in the central Gulf of Mexico could strengthen into a tropical storm or depression in the next 24 hours as Hurricane Katia churns in the Atlantic.

Hurricane Katia is likely to become a major storm this weekend, and an eventual threat to the U.S. has not been ruled out. The National Hurricane Center said Thursday Katia, now about 1,000 miles east of St. Lucia in the Carribbean, is on a projected path to be well east of the Bahamas and south of Bermuda by Sept. 6. Katia has winds near 75 miles per hour, and the storm is moving west at 20 miles per hour.

AuRico Gold is having a difficult time escaping the image of being a miner more prone to delivering disappointment than gold bars.

If a new tropical storm gains momentum and becomes a hurricane, it could wreak havoc on oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.