
Former United States President Jimmy Carter ended an election-monitoring trip to Guyana early and flew home on Sunday after falling ill, the Carter Center, his nonprofit organization, said in a statement. The Carter Center provided only sketchy information on Sunday about the condition of the 90-year-old former president.

President Barack Obama's administration on Monday approved petroleum giant Shell's request to begin drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic Sea under certain conditions, despite opposition from environmental groups.

Employers in the US created 223,000 new jobs in April, a much larger increase than the month before. At the same time, the US Department of Labor said the unemployment rate dropped to a seven-year low of 5.4%, down from 5.5% in March.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new mercury pollution regulations that took effect last month opened the flood gates for a new multi-billion-dollar energy industry that has investors scrambling to get in on second-generation technology poised for massive revenue gains.

The chair of the US Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, has warned stock market levels present potential dangers, insisting current valuations, which have seen key US and UK indicators reach record levels, were quite high. However she did not see 'any bubbles forming'.

The US Treasury Department has approved licenses for passenger ferry service between the United States and Cuba, a Treasury Department official announced. One of the licenses was issued to Baja Ferries, part of a major shipping group with passengers and cargo operations, including on Mexico's west coast, according to a lawyer who handled the license application.

Brazil's government is discussing changes to its oil regulations but any new rules will not be in place before an October auction of exploration and production concessions, the country's energy minister Eduardo Braga said on Monday.

State of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad declared a state of emergency due to a rapidly expanding avian flu outbreak, saying the entire state was at risk from the spread of the disease.

An environmental group and a law clinic petitioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Royal Dutch Shell has adequately disclosed to investors the risks of oil exploration in the harsh Arctic waters, the groups said this week.

Outside of individual's holding oil stocks, damage to the economy from the fall in oil has been pretty minimal so far. Indeed, the price cut in home heating oil and gasoline has probably outweighed the damage from lower oil prices… so far. Unfortunately, this situation may not last.