Insurance rates continued to rise in the third quarter for both businesses and individual customers, extending the pricing power that developed late last year, insurer Travelers Cos Inc said on Tuesday.

Flood insurance can be made more widely available and affordable by using lessons learned from recent disasters to minimize physical risks and making greater use of insurance-linked securities to offset financial risk, Swiss Re said.

Flood insurance can be made more widely available and affordable by using lessons learned from recent disasters to minimize physical risks and making greater use of insurance-linked securities to offset financial risk, Swiss Re said.

Hopes BP can settle early out of court on liability for its 2010 U.S. Gulf oil spill looked forlorn on Wednesday after U.S. prosecutors laid out a legal case for gross negligence on which tens of billions of dollars hang.

Sales of catastrophe bonds, which let reinsurers and insurers transfer risk to capital markets, have reached a four-year high and are expected to hit $6 billion by the end of the year, Aon Benfield said.

Updated: A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked Costa Rica on Wednesday, rattling buildings and cutting power in some areas of the capital.

Updated: A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked Costa Rica on Wednesday, rattling buildings and cutting power in some areas of the capital.

A U.S. judge ruled that AMR Corp's American Airlines and United Continental Holdings Inc must face trial over claims relating to the Sept. 11 attacks that destroyed the landmark towers of the World Trade Center in New York almost 11 years ago.