As prices jump, regular gas is nearing its all-time high
Camarillo, Calif. – U.S. gas prices jumped nearly 11 cents per gallon in the past two weeks, with the national average for self-serve regular just shy of $3 a gallon, according to a survey released Sunday.
The average price for the grade was $2.995 per gallon Friday, up 10.73 cents in two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country. The price was less than 2 cents below the all-time high of $3.01 set Sept. 9, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.
The average midgrade price was $3.10 a gallon, and premium ran $3.20.
The lowest price for gas was $2.70 a gallon in Charleston, S.C., with the highest – $3.27 a gallon – in Honolulu.
SALT LAKE CITY
Southwest co-pilot arrested before flight
Minutes before a Southwest Airlines plane was to take off Sunday, the co-pilot was taken off and arrested by the FBI on suspicion of being intoxicated.
Carl Fulton, 41, of Fort Worth, Texas, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of operating a common carrier while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a federal offense.
Police administered a Breathalyzer test, but the results were not being released Sunday, FBI spokesman Patrick Kiernan said.
The Boeing 737 was to depart Salt Lake City International Airport with 123 passengers, traveling to Phoenix and then to Albuquerque. It left 15 minutes late after Fulton was replaced.
Fulton has worked for Southwest for two years and has no prior offenses.
CINCINNATI
Roller-coaster glitch injures at least 27
A malfunction on an amusement-park ride Sunday sent at least 27 people to hospitals, most with minor chest and neck injuries, a sheriff’s dispatcher said.
The accident happened on the wooden Son of Beast roller coaster at Paramount’s Kings Island northeast of Cincinnati.
WCPO-TV reported that witnesses saw the roller coaster come to an abrupt stop.
Riders complained of discomfort after the coaster completed a circuit and pulled back into the boarding area, said Maureen Kaiser, a spokeswoman for the park. The park’s emergency staff tended to the riders and notified authorities, Kaiser said. Park officials shut down the ride and were examining it, she said.
NEW DELHI, India
India test-fires missile, but success unclear
India test-fired its longest- range nuclear-capable missile Sunday for the first time, government officials said.
It was unclear whether the test was successful, with at least one report saying the missile failed during its flight. The missile is reported to have a range of more than 1,800 miles.
The launch comes during rising international tension over North Korea’s recent missile tests and as the U.S. Congress is considering a civilian nuclear pact that the Bush administration has negotiated with India.
Critics of the accord say the Bush administration failed to obtain from India any commitment to stop producing new nuclear- weapons fuel or to restrict its production of new weapons.
LONDON
Soprano back on job after losing 135 pounds
An American soprano fired by the Royal Opera House because of her weight has been rehired after undergoing stomach surgery and losing 135 pounds, her spokeswoman said Sunday.
Deborah Voigt lost her part in Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne on Naxos” in 2004 because the casting director had selected a black evening dress for the part and believed Voigt would not look right in it, the opera house said.
She now has a contract to return to the role in the 2007-08 season, a Royal Opera spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Voigt’s spokesman, Albert Imperato, said he did not know how much she had weighed before the surgery.
DILI, East Timor
Nobel winner sworn in as prime minister
Nobel laureate Jose Ramos- Horta was sworn in as prime minister of East Timor today in a move aimed at ending months of political uncertainty and street violence.
“I swear by God to carry out my duties as prime minister,” Ramos-Horta, who won the 1996 Peace Prize for championing East Timor’s resistance struggle, said in a ceremony at the presidential palace.
President Xanana Gusmao named Ramos-Horta prime minister Saturday, replacing Mari Alkatiri, who resigned last month after failing to stop the violence. Alkatiri also was accused of forming a hit squad to kill his political opponents.
LONDON
Briton, 62, nation’s oldest to give birth
A 62-year-old child psychologist has given birth, becoming Britain’s oldest mother. Patti Farrant delivered her son, J.J., by cesarean section Wednesday, according to The Daily Mail.
Farrant has three grown children from a previous marriage. It is the first child for her husband, John, 60.
Liz Buttle of Wales was 60 when she gave birth to a son in 1997. The oldest woman in the world to give birth is believed to be Romanian Adriana Iliescu, who was 66 when she had a daughter in January 2005.
