BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY, the insurance and investment company run by billionaire Warren Buffett, said over the weekend that $3 billion (€2.5bn) in claims from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita triggered its lowest quarterly profit since 2001.

BSkyB today posted higher first-quarter profits – but admitted that a summer hike in prices in the UK had made it more difficult to hold on to customers than before.

Jennifer Lopez's upcoming drama South Beach has been hounded with problems, thanks to this year's extremely active hurricane season.

Hurricane Wilma weakened slightly as it roared toward Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and southern Florida today, leaving at least 12 people dead in its wake and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands in coastal areas from Honduras to the Florida Keys.

Hardware stores that sent supplies to areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita restocked their shelves for anxious Floridians waiting to see if Hurricane Wilma would turn toward the peninsula, which forecasters said could happen by the weekend.

Wilma, the record-equalling 12th hurricane of the Atlantic season, is poised to become a major category four storm as it steams along a track that will take it past Central America, Cancun, Cuba and eventually into Florida.

TROPICAL Storm Wilma strengthened yesterday after forming in the northwestern Caribbean, tying the record for the most named storms in an Atlantic season and following a path that some forecasters believe could menace the Gulf Coast next week as a hurricane.

BP today warned that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita may knock more than £400m (€589m) off profits in the third quarter of the year.

Most US stocks closed higher today after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the economy has weathered the increase in oil prices “reasonably well”.

STORMS battering the US Gulf Coast will soften the immediate economic outlook but rebuilding will boost growth, US Treasury Secretary John Snow told an international financial conference.