Oil prices dip with consumers leery over economy

Oil prices fell Tuesday on a new report suggesting that U.S. consumers remain unsure about the economy's direction and one day before the government releases data expected to show a build up in crude supplies.

Benchmark crude for November delivery fell 33 cents $66.51 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude has doubled in price since February, pulled higher by a six-month rally on Wall Street and a battered dollar. The U.S. currency is near its lowest point in the past year against the euro, and that makes dollar-based crude cheaper.

But in the past two weeks, oil has given up about $6 a barrel as supplies continue to build and demand remains …

MORNINGLINE

Results Should aging inmates be released from prison?Yes: 9%No: 91% Question Would you vote for the Republican Party's candidate or theDemocratic Party's candidate for Congress in your district?(Story, Page 15)GOP: (312) 408-3641Dems: (312) …

OECD wants EU to embrace more farm reform

BRUSSELS (AP) — The watchdog for the world's most developed economies has urged the European Union to step up free market reform of agriculture and further wean farmers off subsidies and support that have distorted world prices.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in Wednesday's report that …

Falling branch kills baby in NYC's Central Park

Police say a 6-month-old baby has been killed and her mother injured by a falling tree branch at the Central Park Zoo in New York City.

The 33-year-old New Jersey woman and her baby were struck Saturday by the falling branch.

Police said the two were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where the baby was pronounced dead. The mother …

26 workers missing in flood in illegal China mine

BEIJING (AP) — Twenty-six miners have been trapped for two days in a flooded coal mine in northeastern China and it could take several more days for rescuers to pump the shaft clear, state media reported Thursday.

The illegal mine in Qitaihe, in Heilongjiang province, filled with water on Tuesday when workers broke through into an adjacent flooded pit, newspapers and the official Xinhua News Agency said. Nineteen miners made it back to the surface.

Rescuers had yet to make contact with the trapped workers, who could be stuck in any of four places inside the mine, the reports said.

Seven officials have been detained over the mine's operation and the head of surrounding Boli county and his deputy have been dismissed from their posts, the reports said.

The mine had been ordered shut in 2007 but was reopened without permission on Aug. 16, Xinhua said, citing the provincial bureau of occupational safety.

China's mines are notoriously deadly, although safety improvements have cut annual fatalities by about one-third from a high of 6,995 in 2002 despite a tripling in the output of coal used to generate the vast majority of China's electrical power.

MILESTONE

With his 100th RBI on Saturday, Sammy Sosa became the first Cub tohave six consecutive 100-RBI seasons.

Player years No.

Sammy Sosa 1995-2000 6

Hack Wilson 1926-1930 5

Cap Anson 1884-1887 4

Ernie Banks 1957-1960 4

Pope: German trip can boost hope

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday said his trip to his German homeland this week can help generate hope there.

Benedict expressed excitement over the four-day pilgrimage as he spoke in German at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome. He asked Germans to pray for him during the trip, which begins Thursday. Benedict said he can help them be "witnesses to hope and orientation for the future."

About 100 German lawmakers plan to boycott Benedict's speech to Parliament. The Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone promised Sunday that speech will be "very beautiful."

In a message broadcast on a German public television station, Benedict invited Germans to renew their faith.

But critics point to the declining number of Catholics in Germany.

Benedict's pilgrimage "takes place during the greatest worldwide crisis of the Roman Catholic church since the Reformation," the Catholic reform movement We Are Church said in a statement, in reference to exposes of systematic cover-ups by hierarchy of clergy sex abuse of minors.

The "pressing problems and defects of the church cannot and must not be cut out of the picture," in terms of what Benedict should grapple with during his trip, the group said.