AP - NASCAR placed Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards on probation Wednesday for the next six Sprint Cup Series races, the result of their on-track incident last weekend at the end of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

AP - Jason Marquis shut down Pittsburgh's batters, and the Chicago Cubs turned two well-placed bunts into two runs in the seventh inning and swept yet another three-game series from the Pirates with a 2-0 victory Wednesday.

AFP - Real Madrid target David Villa, the top scorer at Euro 2008, has ended speculation about his future by extending his contract with Valencia until 2014, the Spanish first division club said Wednesday.

AFP - World number two Jelena Jankovic struggled but held on to beat Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5 in the second round of the 20.6 million dollar US Open on Wednesday.

AP - On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary, a nervous New Orleans watched Wednesday as another storm threatened to test everything the city has rebuilt, and officials made preliminary plans to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos.

AP - Gustav was heading toward Jamaica early Thursday while many miles away, residents in the New Orleans area watched it with a nervous eye.

AFP - Tropical Storm Gustav rumbled Thursday toward Jamaica and Cuba and threatened to take hurricane force winds to Louisiana after leaving 22 people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

AP - Oil prices rose to near $119 a barrel Thursday in Asia on fears that Tropical Storm Gustav could strengthen on its way toward crude and natural gas rigs and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

AFP - Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, residents of the Big Easy are bracing for another major strike as officials vow they will not repeat the mistakes that lefts thousands stranded in floodwaters.

Reuters - Three years after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Louisiana coast, New Orleans residents on Wednesday again faced the prospect of an evacuation as Tropical Storm Gustav loomed.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Gustav pulled away from Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Wednesday after killing 23 people and threatened to become a major hurricane aimed at New Orleans and Gulf of Mexico oil fields.

AFP - Oil prices surged Wednesday as Tropical Storm Gustav appeared headed for the Gulf of Mexico and its oil and gas installations.

AP - As Friday's third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, officials in Louisiana and Mississippi are keeping an eye on storm Gustav.

AP - The remnants of Tropical Storm Fay in the Southeast moved slowly northward into the mid-Atlantic on Wednesday. There was the possibility of a brief tornado or two in addition to locally gusty winds.

AP - Six mausoleums for the unclaimed dead of Hurricane Katrina stand on what was vacant land just five weeks ago, as New Orleans — in what could be a testament to its determination — scrambles to complete a memorial by Friday's third anniversary of the storm.

AFP - Hurricane Gustav slammed into Haiti, killing at least five as it lashed the desperately poor Caribbean nation with powerful winds and heavy rain, just days behind deadly Tropical Storm Fay.

AP - Marsha Williams had always hesitated when mail arrived from the government. After Hurricane Katrina, she began to fear the letters.

AFP - Hurricane Gustav barrelled toward landfall Tuesday in Haiti, and also was likely to strike Jamaica and Cuba, less than two weeks after the Caribbean was battered by Tropical Storm Fay.

Reuters - Oil rose on Tuesday as Hurricane Gustav took aim at U.S. oil and natural gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico as it churned through the Caribbean.