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LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters): Oil jumped nearly 3.0 per cent Monday as another tropical storm gathered strength in the Caribbean, menacing US rigs and refineries already rocked by the most active hurricane season in decades.
Tropical Storm Wilma, the 21st named storm this year, could become a hurricane on Tuesday and could move into the southern end of the oil- rich Gulf of Mexico by Saturday, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
The last time there were so many named storms was 1933. Vulnerable oil platforms and refineries along the Gulf of Mexico have already battled an onslaught from two major hurricanes, and six plants are still completely shut.
Rising tensions in Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil producer, also buoyed prices after twin bombings in the southwest oil city of Ahvaz, which Tehran blamed on Britain.
US crude CLc1 settled at $64.36 a barrel, up $1.73 or 2.8 per cent. London Brent crude LCOc1 settled at $60.57 a barrel, up $1.09. Prices have fallen from a late August high above $70 but are still close to levels unseen in real terms in a quarter of a century.
Cong disfavours pardon in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case
NEW DELHI (PTI): India's Congress party on Monday disfavoured pardon for those including conspirators involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and associates of sandalwood smuggler Veerappan facing death row now.
"We have a provision of capital punishment in extreme cases and the law in this regard has not been changed and there is no need to interfere with it", Congress spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters.
Besides, he said, that there was provision to make a mercy petition to the Governor or the President which is considered along with the Federal Home Ministry's view.
He was responding to queries about the party's views on capital punishment in the wake of reports that President A P J Abdul Kalam favoured a pardon for a majority of an estimated 50 individuals on death row whose mercy petitions are pending before him.
Bush to travel to Asia and participate in APEC meet
WASHINGTON (AP): President George W Bush will travel to Asia next month with stops in Japan, China, Mongolia and South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) annual summit meeting, the White House announced.
Bush will be the first sitting US president ever to visit Mongolia. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Monday that Bush was going at the invitation of President Nambariin Enkhbayar, who won last May's presidential election as the candidate of the formerly communist Mongolian Peoples' Revolutionary Party.
70 percent of Japanese want China to suspend contested gas drilling
TOKYO (AP): About 70 per cent of Japanese want China to suspend its drilling for natural gas at sites in the East China Sea that are claimed by both Tokyo and China, a newspaper survey showed Tuesday.
If China doesn't cease development of the fields, about 65 per cent of the respondents said Japan should begin its own drilling in the region, according to the poll by the Yomiuri newspaper.
The findings suggest strong public opinion about a dispute that has become an increasing source of tension between Asia's two biggest economies. China and Japan have been feuding for months over claims to undersea gas deposits in the area and the delineation of their exclusive economic zones.
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