Gas prices jump 10 cents in past 2 weeks after Rita
Los Angeles – Retail gasoline prices rose an average of 10 cents in the past two weeks as Hurricane Rita idled refineries along the Gulf Coast, squeezing production capacity already hurt by Hurricane Katrina, according to a nationwide survey released Sunday.
The weighted average price for all three grades rose to $2.93 a gallon Friday, compared with the previous survey two weeks earlier, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country.
Self-serve regular averaged $2.91 a gallon nationwide. The price for midgrade was $3.01, while premium grade hit $3.11.
The average price of gas at the pump had fallen an average 20 cents in the previous survey period before Rita slammed into Texas and Louisiana.
Since then, gasoline imports have increased and demand for gasoline has been easing some. And gas prices, which are about 92 cents higher than they were a year ago, have caused many consumers to cut back. Crude-oil prices have dipped slightly recently.
Meanwhile, many of the refineries hurt by Katrina and Rita have been gradually resuming production.
All those factors should help drive down prices soon, Lundberg said.
MILWAUKEE
Car rams into house, kills four women
A car went airborne at the bottom of a hill and flew into a house, killing four elderly women and seriously injuring the driver.
The sedan rolled down a steep hill, sped through a busy intersection and went airborne for about 100 feet before plowing into the house Saturday evening in the town of Superior, about 390 miles northwest of Milwaukee. No one in the house was injured. The driver remained unconscious at the hospital, preventing investigators from learning more about what caused the accident, Sheriff Tom Dalbec said. There were no witnesses.
MIAMI
Hurricane “very far away” from U.S.
Hurricane Vince formed Sunday in the far eastern Atlantic, making it the 11th hurricane of the season, forecasters said.
The Category 1 hurricane was moving away from the United States and posed no immediate threat to land, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
“It’s very far away. It couldn’t get farther away,” said Richard Pasch, a hurricane specialist at the center. “It’s headed for Spain. It’s not going to reach there. It will likely merge with a cold front.”
Vince’s center was located about 535 miles east-southeast of the Azores and about 125 miles northwest of the Madeira Islands. It was moving northeast at about 6 mph with top sustained winds of near 75 mph.
TOKYO
U.S. to transfer some military operations
The Japanese and U.S. governments have agreed in principle to relocate the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Corps’ III Marine Expeditionary Force – now located at Camp Courtney in Okinawa Prefecture – to Guam and to cut the number of Marines in the prefecture by several thousand as part of measures to reduce the burden of U.S. forces in the prefecture, sources said.
The two governments also are considering moving some exercises conducted by F-15 fighters based at Kadena Air Base to Air Self-Defense Force bases outside the prefecture. The two governments are considering including other measures aimed at reducing the burden imposed on local people in their interim report on the realignment of the U.S. forces stationed in Japan.
BERLIN
Schroeder, Merkel look to end deadlock
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and conservative leader Angela Merkel sought Sunday to break a three-week post-election deadlock and decide who will lead a Germany struggling with high unemployment and economic stagnation.
With neither side in a hurry to give up its claim to the country’s top post, Franz Muentefering, chairman of Schroeder’s Social Democratic Party, dampened expectations that a deal would be announced Sunday. The key players will hold another meeting – their third – today before deciding whether to launch formal coalition talks.
MOSCOW
Launches of rocket in bad mission scrubbed
Russia suspended launches of a rocket used in a failed mission to put a European satellite into orbit to map polar ice, news reports Sunday said.
The Rokot booster rocket will not be launched again pending the outcome of an investigation into Saturday’s unsuccessful launch, state-run Rossiya television reported. The rocket’s second stage failed to separate following the launch, and the Cryosat satellite fell into the Arctic Ocean, Russian and European officials said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan
Police club protesters ahead of elections
Riot police scattered hundreds of opposition supporters protesting in Azerbaijan’s capital Sunday in defiance of a ban, beating some with truncheons and dragging several away as tensions mounted ahead of parliamentary elections next month.
Opposition leaders say they strongly doubt the vote will be fair and have rallied their supporters for protests.
