Camarillo, Calif. – Gasoline prices have surged to a record nationwide average of $3.07 a gallon, nearly 20 cents higher than two weeks earlier, oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday.
The previous record was $3.03 a gallon on Aug. 11, 2006.
Just two weeks ago, the U.S. average for a gallon of gas was $2.87, but the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide on Friday showed an increase of about 19.5 cents to $3.07. That’s up 88.4 cents since Jan. 19, Lundberg said.
The nationwide average for midgrade gasoline was $3.18, and premium was $3.28.
The nation’s lowest average pump price was $2.80 a gallon in Charleston, S.C., while the highest was $3.49 in San Francisco.
The recent increases are due mostly to refinery problems, Lundberg said, noting there have been at least a dozen partial shutdowns in the U.S. and internationally that cut refining capacity.
The outages have been reflected in weekly government data, which have shown gasoline inventories falling during a season when most analysts think they should be rising. The summer driving season begins Memorial Day weekend, and analysts worry refineries won’t be producing enough gasoline by then to meet demand.
PHILADELPHIA
“Spider-Man 3” snags box-office record
“Spider-Man 3” smashed box-office records with $148 million in its first three days, according to studio estimates Sunday.
That put it ahead of last summer’s all-time weekend debut of $135.6 million set by “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” With $59.3 million Friday on opening day, “Spider- Man 3” also broke the single-day box-office record of “Dead Man’s Chest,” with $55.8 million.
“Spider-Man 3,” which cost $258 million to make, had already set a record, opening in 4,252 theaters domestically, topping 4,163 by “Shrek 2” in 2004. With final numbers due today, the weekend’s top five included “Disturbia” at $5.7 million; “Fracture,” $3.4 million; “The Invisible,” $3.1 million; and “Next,” $2.8 million.
MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash.
Main road reopens after fall washout
The road to Paradise is open once more. Six months after November floods ravaged the main road in this park in the Washington Cascades – along with campgrounds, trails and the wild country in general – the way to Mount Rainier’s main visitor center reopened Saturday.
An hour before the opening, more than 100 cars and trucks already had lined up outside the park’s Nisqually entrance, The Olympian newspaper reported.
Nearly 18 inches of rain fell in just 36 hours last fall at Mount Rainier, which draws 1.5 million visitors annually. The deluge caused an estimated $36 million in damage.
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
Queen cools her heels after watching Derby
Queen Elizabeth II kept a low profile Sunday as she wrapped up a largely private visit to the Bluegrass state after attending her first Kentucky Derby.
No public appearances were scheduled Sunday before her departure for Washington, where she and her husband, Prince Philip, are to attend a state dinner this evening at the White House, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said.
The royal couple are expected to leave for London on Tuesday.
VATICAN CITY
Ex-Holy See worker convicted in drug case
A Vatican court for the first time has issued a drug conviction, giving a former employee of the Holy See a four-month suspended sentence for cocaine use, Italian news reports said Sunday.
The man worked in a Holy See administrative office and was recently fired because an Italian criminal court had convicted him of other offenses outside the Vatican, according to La Repubblica, the Rome daily. The Vatican tribunal convicted him of possessing cocaine, which was found in a drawer in the room where he worked, La Repubblica said.
La Repubblica quoted a Vatican judge as saying that the Vatican’s legal code does not address illegal narcotics. Instead, the judges relied on international anti-drug conventions to which the Holy See is a signatory.
EL-NAKHL, Egypt
9 peacekeepers killed when plane crashes
A plane carrying foreign peacekeepers across the Sinai desert crashed Sunday near a stretch of highway where it had tried to make an emergency landing, killing eight French soldiers and a Canadian, officials said.
Capt. Mohammed Badr, a police officer in Sinai, said the plane went down 50 miles from el-Nakhl.
It appeared the Canadian- made DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter tried to land on the mountain highway but clipped a truck and crashed nearby, said Normand St. Pierre, a spokesman for the Multinational Force and Observers, an independent force created by Egypt and Israel to monitor their border in the Sinai after a 1979 peace deal.
The aircraft was on a training mission and carried a “higher than normal” load of passengers and crew, St. Pierre said.
The truck driver escaped unharmed.
Officials at Cairo International Airport said the airport lost contact with the plane after receiving a distress signal, indicating a possible mechanical failure.
NEW YORK
Future fiancé defies gravity with proposal
Alexander Loucopoulos had one fear when he proposed to his girlfriend.
“I was afraid the ring would float really far away,” said Loucopoulos, 32, of New York City.
He proposed Saturday to Graciela Asturias, a 27-year-old space enthusiast, while they were on a 90-minute zero-gravity flight aboard a Boeing 727.
“I asked if she’d marry me, and then the ring just floated in front of her as we floated in zero gravity,” he said. “She said yes.”
The trip cost $3,500 each and was organized by Space Adventures of Virginia.
“I would like our 10-year anniversary to be in orbit,” Loucopoulos said.
