Iraq: Attackers kill Kurdish leader

Kurdish leaders on Sunday blamed a Muslim militant group believed linked to al-Qaida for the weekend slaying of a prominent Kurdish politician and five other people in northern Iraq.

The assassination of Gen. Shawkat Haji Mushir, 55, a senior official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, underscored increased tensions between the autonomous Kurdish administration and Ansar al-Islam, which Secretary of State Colin Powell accused of harboring al-Qaida fugitives from Afghanistan.

The attack took place Saturday night in Qamesh Tapa. Mushir had been trying to lure Ansar al-Islam fighters out of their mountain stronghold and into the fold of the Patriotic Union. But three Ansar members apparently laid a trap by posing as would-be defectors. After coming to negotiate, they turned on Mushir with Kalashnikovs and grenades.

Vermont: Poets plan group reading to protest event cancellation

A group of poets will participate in a reading to protest White House cancellation of a symposium after some of the participants expressed anti-war sentiments on Iraq.

Jamaica Kincaid, Galway Kinnell and Jay Parini will read their own work at the Feb. 16 reading in Manchester, along with works by the poets who were to have been featured at the White House.

The event had been scheduled for Wednesday to feature the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman. However, the White House called off the symposium after learning that some poets might use it to express opposition to a possible war with Iraq.

California: Gasoline prices up 11 cents

Gasoline prices jumped nearly 11 cents per gallon during the past two weeks, industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday in Camarillo.

The average weighted price for gasoline nationwide, for all grades and taxes, was about $1.63 per gallon Friday, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide.

Gasoline cost about $1.52 a gallon on Jan. 24, the date of the last survey.