Weather | featured news

Tropical Storm Isaac churned away in the Atlantic Ocean early Wednesday, forecast to strengthen into a hurricane and posing a potential threat to the GOP convention in Florida next week.

The world urgently need to adopt drought-management policies as farmers from Africa to India struggle with lack of rainfall and the United States endures the worst drought it has experienced in decades, top officials with the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday.

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake struck off the coast of the U.S. West Coast state of Washington on Sunday, the United States Geological Survey said.

An earthquake that struck rural Indonesia left at least four people dead, authorities said Sunday. At least seven others were injured, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. The 6.6-magnitude hit Saturday near the city of Palu on the island of Sulawesi, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

As hundreds of residents in Washington and California were allowed to return to homes once threatened by major wildfires, some people were told to evacuate as encroaching blazes neared Idaho towns.

Lorie Winmill grew teary as she loaded her vehicle and prepared her 4-year-old granddaughter to stay with relatives as a wildfire burned closer to this small town in central Idaho.

Southern California wildfires are threatening dozens of homes after burning through more than 19 square miles of brush in the midst of a heat wave.

Though severe drought conditions have raised the cost of food this summer, consumers may have seen the worst of the price impact at the grocery store. Higher food prices helped lift the closely watched Producer Price Index by 0.3 percent in July, the fastest pace in five months. At the same time retail sales rose 0.8 percent, the first increase in four months and well ahead of expectations, signaling that the sluggish economy may be picking up momentum.

Leading members of the Group of 20 nations are prepared to trigger an emergency meeting to tackle soaring grain prices caused by the worst U.S. drought in half a century and poor crops from the Black Sea bread basket.

Iran's government faced criticism on Monday over its response to two earthquakes that killed 306 people, with complaints of a lack of tents and about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's decision to go ahead with an overseas trip.