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ON THE GL HOME PAGE EVERY DAY!

Tuesday /

• Oil prices hit a new peak of $120 a barrel and long-term projections are for $130, with refineries in Britain and Nigeria shutting down and reducing world output. Reuters US President George W Bush told Americans that they will need to find alternative fuel sources and should try to increase domestic oil production. Reuters
• Three tornadoes hit Virginia, one of them knocking a hospital, leaving more than 200 people injured and a trail of massive damage to property. CNN
• Parents of an 11-year-old girl in Wisconsin face up to 25 years in prison each after watching their daughter die of untreated diabetes, a test of faith, according to the father. CNN
• Chinese students in the US are trying to "confront an image of their homeland that they neither recognize nor appreciate," in the wake of Tibet protests and calls for boycotts. International Herald Tribune China announced Tuesday that it has sentenced 17 people in connection with the riots in Tibet in March. BBC
• The train derailment in China that killed 70 and put 400 people in the hospital may have been caused by human error, first reports show, with the train going 131 kph in an 80 kph zone. The line is back in service, 20 hours after the accident, in time for the 1 May holiday, a very heavy travel period in China. Xinhua In other China travel news, the government has reopened Tibet to foreign tourist groups. Xinhua And Nepal has deported and banned for two years an American climber on Mt Everest found with a flag supporting Tibetan independence. Reuters
• Britain’s MI5 secret security service is being accused of colluding with brutal Pakistani security forces in torturing UK citizens arrested for questioning in Pakistan. Guardian, UK
• Thirty-one of 53 girls between 14 and 17 years of age, taken from a sect’s ranch in Texas, are or have been pregnant. Salt Lake City Tribune, Utah, US

Monday /

• [ITV video] Britain’s wealthiest 150 people includes Ernesto Bertarelli and British-born wife Kirsty at number six, with an estimated £5.65 billion, according to the Sunday Times, which doesn’t explain why the Bertarellis are considered British for this list, but which has the good grace to include wife Kirsty – unlike the Forbes list published in March which adds at the end: "married to British beauty queen."
• Update: the man in Austria who drugged, raped and kept imprisoned one of his daughters for 24 years has confessed to police, providing details of the sordid story which came to light when one of his children, age 19, who has lived her life in the cellar, was taken to the hospital where she is now in a coma. BBC
• The European Commission said Monday that inflation will be higher and growth slower than forecast in the euro zone. International Herald Tribune/Reuters
• The worst train disaster in China since 1997 has taken 66 lives, but with at least 50 people in critical condition the death toll could well rise, reports Xinhua. Two passenger trains apparently traveling at high speed crashed: one en route from Beijing to the seaside resort of Qingdao and the other going from Shandong’s Yantai to Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu Province. The crash occurred at 4:40, when many passengers were sleeping. The cause is unknown.
• Police in Amstetten, 130km west of Vienna, are still trying to piece together the "incomprehensible" story of a 42-year-old woman imprisoned in the cellar by her father for 24 years, where she gave birth to seven of his children. Reuters
• Continental Airlines says it prefers to continue alone and will not pursue merger plans, surprising the US airline market, which was expecting it to merge with United. CNN