CAMARILLO, Calif. — The national average price for gasoline went down about 9 cents over the last three weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.
The average price of regular gasoline Friday was $3 a gallon, midgrade was $3.12, and premium was $3.24, oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said.
The nation’s lowest price was in Tulsa, Okla., where a gallon of regular cost $2.74 on average. The highest was in San Francisco at $3.42, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations.
Maryland: Fire truck crash kills 3
A sport utility vehicle and a fire truck collided early Sunday in Baltimore, killing the three occupants of the SUV and injuring four firefighters, the fire department official said. The fire truck crew was responding to a report of smoke in a building.
Virginia: 3 die in home shooting
Three adults were killed and two others injured when a gunman opened fire in a Woodbridge, Va., house Sunday morning, hours after a birthday party for one of five children who were in the house when the shootings occurred. Anastacio Sanchez-Miranda, 39, was arrested about six hours later, police said, adding that the suspect’s intended target apparently was his girlfriend.
Israel: Jerusalem split suggested
A key ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that Israel will hold on to all Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem but would have to relinquish Arab neighborhoods in a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The comments by Vice Premier Haim Ramon appeared aimed at defusing U.S. criticism of an Israeli plan to expand one of its Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, the section Palestinians claim as capital of a future state. Despite official opposition, some Palestinians have indicated they would consider a division along the lines Ramon described.
Germany: Scientology opposition
Germany’s federal interior minister called the Church of Scientology “an unconstitutional organization” and said the nation’s domestic intelligence agency would move to ban the group, a report said Sunday. Interior ministers from Germany’s 16 states decided Friday to seek a ban on Scientology, accused of threatening “the peaceful democratic order” of the country. Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble accused the organization of restricting “essential basic and human rights like the dignity of man or the right to equal treatment.”
Pakistan: Vote boycott fizzles
The party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced Sunday that it would participate in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections Jan. 8 after failing to convince rival Benazir Bhutto to join a boycott. A large boycott would have undermined President Pervez Musharraf’s efforts to legitimize the new presidential term he won in October in a vote by a Parliament stacked with his supporters.
Venezuela: 15 die in prison riot
A riot in a Venezuelan prison in San Cristobal left at least 15 inmates dead and 12 injured as prisoners fought unsuccessfully for control of the facility, the justice minister said.
Clocks fall back 30 minutes
Venezuelans turned their clocks back 30 minutes Sunday in the latest measure by President Hugo Chavez to revolutionize their lives. The time change is intended to optimize use of daylight hours and keep schoolchildren from having to wake up before dawn, according to Chavez. Venezuela joins other places with a half-hour difference from the rest of the planet including India, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iran and Sri Lanka, along with Canada’s Newfoundland, parts of Australia and some islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Norway: Gore’s climate optimism
Former Vice President Al Gore, in Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming, said Sunday he was encouraged by “the rising of the world’s first people-power movement on a global basis” to tackle climate change. He also said he was optimistic that “as the truth of this climate crisis begins to be more widely known, people are going to demand that political leaders take action.” Gore shared this year’s Peace Prize with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is to receive it today in Oslo.
Vatican: Christmas materialism decried
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday criticized “materialistic” ways of celebrating Christmas, pressing the Vatican’s campaign against unbridled consumerism. Addressing English-speaking pilgrims, the pope said he was praying that the approaching Christmas celebration “will fill your hearts with redeeming hope.”
From Herald news services
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