High gas prices posted at a Shell gas station in Redwood City, Calif., Wednesday, May 14, 2008, as a Toyota Prius hybrid drives by.

WASHINGTON: May 16 - The Energy Department says it has canceled oil shipments into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve beginning in July when the current purchase contract expires.

The move came days after Congress passed legislation requiring the president to suspend the shipment into the reserve in hopes of lowering gasoline prices. [More]

First lady Laura Bush has tea with Saudi King Abdullah after arriving with President Bush at Riyadh-King Kahlid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Friday, May 16, 2008

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: May 16 - Saudi Arabia's leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices.

It was Bush's second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, head of the monarchy that rules this desert kingdom that is a longtime prime U.S. ally and home to the world's largest oil reserves. But Saudi officials stuck to their position that they will only pump more oil into the system when asked to by buyers, something they say is not happening now, the president's national security adviser told reporters. [More]

Myanmar children eat food from local donations on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, May 16, 2008.

YANGON, MYANMAR: May 16 - The official death toll from Cyclone Nargis has nearly doubled to almost 78,000 and another 56,000 people remain missing two weeks after the devastating storm, state television reported Friday.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the toll will increase dramatically unless Myanmar's military government allows more aid into the country to help victims facing the risk of disease. [More]

From left, Ernie Frausto, Ricky Terry, Ben Holder, and Eric Shangle, all of San Francisco, dance as they celebrate California's supreme court decision on Castro Street in San Francisco, Thursday, May, 15, 2008.

SAN FRANCISCO: May 16 - Even as same-sex couples across California begin making plans to tie the knot, opponents are redoubling their efforts to make sure wedding bells never ring for gay couples in the nation's most populous state.

A conservative group said it would ask California's Supreme Court to postpone putting its decision legalizing gay marriage into effect until after the fall election. That's when voters will likely have a chance to weigh in on a proposed amendment to California's constitution that would bar same-sex couples from getting married. [More]

President Bush, left, stands with Saudi King Abdullah during the playing of the U.S. National Anthem at an arrival ceremony at Riyadh-King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Friday, May 16, 2008.

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: May 16 - President Bush, on a one-day visit to Saudi Arabia, is taking a second stab on Friday at getting the oil-rich nation to increase production and drive down soaring gasoline prices hurting U.S. consumers.

When Bush met with King Abdullah in mid-January, the president asked the oil-rich nation to raise production to ease high prices at the pump. Bush got a chilly response to his plea. The kingdom said it would increase production only when the market justified it, and that production levels appeared normal. [More]

A rescuer arranges the schoolbags discovered from the debris of a primary school for the parents to claim in Shifang in southwest China's Sichuan province Thursday May 15, 2008.

BEICHUAN, CHINA: May 16 - A strong aftershock sparked landslides near the epicenter of this week's powerful earthquake Friday, burying vehicles and again cutting off ravaged areas of central China.

Elsewhere, rescuers were still finding survivors after being buried in rubble for 96 hours, while public anger grew over the hundreds of children crushed to death in schools that collapsed in Monday's magnitude 7.9 temblor. More than four days since the disaster, the first foreign rescue workers were allowed to the scene. [More]

ORANGE BEACH: May 16 – When Orange Beach Police arrived at the Canal Road apartment of Donald Matthew Moody on Monday night, they found him dead.

According to Baldwin County Coroner Jim Small, Moody was found lying in a pool of blood with a gash in his head, however the doctors who performed the autopsy said the gash was superficial and could not have been the cause of death, it most likely happened when Moody fell to the floor. [More]