Crisis in Egypt spurs fears of impact on global economy

Political turbulence in Egypt is casting a pall on world financial markets, driving up the prices of crude oil and food and creating new risks for the shaky world economy in the months ahead. Oil prices on Monday reached their highest levels since 2008, and investors sold off both stocks and bonds of many developing nations, particularly in the Middle East. Those shifts came despite few signs that the Egyptian turmoil is having much direct impact...

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Prices of crude oil and gasoline rise as violence in Libya upsets markets

Crude oil prices in New York broke through the $100-a-barrel threshold Thursday as violence in Libya continued to shake world financial markets and threatened to sidetrack the U.S. economic recovery. But prices fell back later in the day, after a Saudi official said the kingdom would make up for any Libyan production lost as a result of upheaval there and the International Energy Agency said it was ready to release emergency stockpiles. President...

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Oil spill commission questions BP's response plan

The two chairmen of the president's Oil Spill Commission, which is conducting an inquiry into the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, expressed skepticism Monday about claims from BP and government officials that initial underestimation of the flow rate of the Macondo well had no impact on the response to the spill. "It's a little bit like Custer. He underestimated the number of Indians that were on the other side of the hill...

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