California: Gasoline prices up slightly

Gas prices rose only half a penny a gallon in the past two weeks, continuing an unusual 20-week trend of mostly steady prices.

The average price for gas nationwide, including all grades and taxes, was about $1.46 a gallon on Friday, according to the Lundberg survey of 8,000 stations released Sunday. That was up .5 cent per gallon from Aug. 9.

Gas today remains about a nickel cheaper than a year ago. On Aug. 24, 2001, the average weighted price for a gallon of gas was about $1.51, Lundberg said in Camarillo.

The national weighted average price of gasoline, including taxes, at self-serve pumps Friday was about $1.42 per gallon for regular, $1.52 for mid-grade and $1.61 for premium.

Iraq: Airstrike reportedly kills 8

A U.S.-British air raid in southern Iraq left eight civilians dead and nine wounded, the Iraqi military said Sunday.

The military told the official Iraqi News Agency that the warplanes bombed areas in Basra province, 330 miles south of Baghdad.

The U.S. Central Command in Florida said coalition aircraft used precision-guided weapons to strike two air defense radar systems near Basra “in response to recent Iraqi hostile acts against coalition aircraft monitoring the Southern No-Fly Zone.”

It said there have been more than 120 separate incidents of Iraqi surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery fire directed against coalition aircraft this year, the most recent on Aug. 20.

The Iraq report didn’t provide further details about the casualties. U.S. officials have said they have no way of confirming or denying Iraqi claims of casualties.

Afghanistan: Bomb explodes at U.N. house

A bomb exploded Sunday in a drainage ditch in front of a United Nations guest house in the Afghan capital, injuring at least two Afghan civilians, a U.N. spokesman said.

The blast shattered the window of a pharmacy across the street and left a small crater in a sewage canal filled with garbage.

There was no damage to the U.N. International Committee Assn. guest house, home to 45 foreigners employed by the United Nations, said house manager Mohammed Mirzar.

District police commander Zabet Agha Gul blamed the blast on opponents of the government, suggesting either al-Qaida or supporters of former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were responsible.