(Reuters) - A low pressure system located in the Straits of Florida, south-southeast of the mainland, has a 40 percent chance of developing into a tropical storm in the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Friday.

STOCKHOLM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Sub-Saharan Africa is seeing a surge of interest in irrigation among small-scale farmers as climate change brings more erratic weather and as rising populations in countries from Nigeria to Kenya mean demand for a reliable harvest is growing, agriculture and water experts say.

CHAMONIX, France (Reuters) - Thirty-three tourists who were trapped overnight in cable cars high above the glaciers of Mont Blanc were brought to safety on Friday morning after technicians repaired tangled cables, the operator said.

ROME (Reuters) - Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone was ruled out of the weekend's San Marino Grand Prix on Friday after suffering a fractured vertebra in a fall in practice.

LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories plunged by more than 14.5 million barrels in the week ending on Sept. 2, the largest weekly drop since 1999.

LYON, France (Reuters) - Forty-five people were stranded overnight in cable cars near Europe's highest mountain, Mont Blanc, when a ride between two mountain peaks came to a halt on Thursday, French authorities said.

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenya aims to restore trees and vegetation across almost nine percent of its land mass by 2030, the government said on Thursday, in a bold initiative to combat climate change, poverty and hunger.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. government weather forecaster said Thursday La Nina conditions were no longer likely to develop during the Northern Hemisphere fall and winter 2016/17, saying neutral conditions were more likely.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump declared on Wednesday that Russia's Vladimir Putin had been a better leader than U.S. President Barack Obama, as the Republican presidential nominee used a televised forum to argue he was best equipped to reassert America's global leadership.