I am very happy with my Nikon Coolpix2500. It's compact, but has a decent range of settings, and a fully charged battery has lasted for 100+ shots using the flash for each one (sorry I can't tell you how long the battery life is in total as I've yet to drain the battery).
The picture of my cat on here:
http://www.ratemykitten.com/ratemy/kitten?image=63
437
was taken using the camera (she could do with a few more votes), and all the photos here
http://www.chaosuk.net/
are taken with the camera. Bear in mind that the Chaos pictures are taken in a club with constantly changing (low) lighting and loads of smoke that tends to reflect the flash.