AFP - In the Lofoten Islands, the main base for Norway's whaling industry, hunters insist that their tradition has a future despite decades of criticism -- and reject claims that consumers aren't buying whale meat.

Reuters - A still-largely deserted New Orleans on Tuesday prepared to take stock of damage from Hurricane Gustav after rebuilt levees appeared to hold off a repeat of the flooding caused by Katrina three years earlier.

AP - A weakened Hurricane Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana's fishing and oil industry with 110 mph winds Monday, delivering only a glancing blow to New Orleans that raised hopes the city would escape the kind of catastrophic flooding brought by Katrina three years ago.

AFP - Ferocious rain and wind gusts unleashed by Hurricane Gustav pushed water cascading over protective works in New Orleans Monday three years after Katrina swamped the fabled jazz city.

Reuters - India has no plans to cut retail fuel prices, Oil Minister Murli Deora told reporters on Monday, despite a sharp fall in crude oil prices in recent weeks.

AFP - Japan, under fire overseas for whaling it justifies as research, has released its findings -- whales are losing blubber because ocean resources are growing scarce.

AP - After a destructive and deadly march across the Caribbean, Hurricane Gustav was bearing down on southern Louisiana early Monday.

Reuters - U.S. energy companies shut nearly all offshore oil production and were racing to bring down flood-prone Louisiana refineries on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Gustav's landfall, which could rival the wrath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

AFP - Military chiefs are to meet with an animal rights group on Tuesday to discuss alternatives to the traditional bearskin hats famously worn by the guards at Buckingham Palace.