Six weeks before this year's hurricane season begins in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil and gas industry is far from finished repairing the damage done by last year's storms. Divers have yet to inspect half of the platforms hit by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Dennis. Some crews that are usually available to fix platforms and oil rigs are permanently shutting smaller wells that aren't worth restoring

More than four years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, almost everyone agrees on the need for federally enforced security standards at the nation's chemical plants. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers have pushed several times in recent years for plant security laws, and the chemical industry has voiced its support

Beijing's hopes of a smooth summit today between presidents Hu Jintao and George Bush were undermined yesterday amid new evidence that US internet firms in China cooperated in the crackdown on dissidents

Germany bowed to decades of pressure from the US and Britain yesterday and announced that it would open a vast trove of Nazi-era papers detailing the fate of millions of Holocaust victims. The records stored in the German village of Bad Arolsen amount to the world's largest repository of knowledge on the devastation wrought by Hitler. Until now only individual victims have been able to check their personal records

Romano Prodi was last night officially declared the winner of Italy's general election, nine days after polling stations closed. But his opponent, Silvio Berlusconi, who has challenged Mr Prodi's right to form the next government, made no immediate acknowledgement of defeat. By contrast, one of the outgoing Prime Minister's allies, Lorenzo Cesa, congratulated Mr Prodi and said that he hoped he would run the country "in the interests of Italy and the Italians"

There are things that you expect to see on Park Avenue in Manhattan - chauffeurs waiting for their passengers, the children of millionaires out strolling with their nannies - and then there are things you don't, such as the union rally held there this week. New York's legions of uniformed doormen are nothing if not polite, but their ultimatum was firm: if their demands for improved pay are not met by midnight tonight the city will face its first doormen's strike for 15 years

Iran's Islamic authorities are preparing a crackdown on women flouting the stringent dress code in the clearest sign yet of social and political repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. From today police in Tehran will be under orders to arrest women failing to conform to the regime's definition of Islamic morals by wearing loose-fitting hijab, or headscarves, tight jackets and shortened trousers exposing skin. Offenders could be punished with £30 fines or two months in jail

Karl Rove is to give up his job as the Bush administration's policy tsar to focus on this year's mid-term elections, it emerged yesterday, as alarm grows in the White House that the Republicans are in danger of losing control of Congress. The administration also set about changing its public face with the resignation of its spokesman for the past three years, Scott McClellan

An everyday scene in Somalia: a bloodied man lies dying under a thorn tree. Then the rarest of scenes in the world's most lawless land: the arrival of the boolis - the police. Screeching to a halt, a white Toyota car coughs out half a dozen uniformed officers. Three chase and tackle a suspect. The others cordon off the area and inspect the body. Holding a bloody axe found in a bush nearby, one declares "exhibit one"