California: Gasoline average rises more than a penny

Gas prices rose nearly one and a half cents per gallon over the past two weeks, an industry analyst said Sunday.

The average weighted price for gas nationwide, including all grades and taxes, was about $1.52 per gallon Friday, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide.

Contributing to the price rise was the continuing oil production strike in Venezuela, a fear of war against Iraq, the intense cold weather on America’s East Coast, which is prompting some refiners to produce more heating oil, and the addition of a costlier gasoline additive in California, Trilby Lundberg said in Camarillo.

Detroit: Five die in fire in barricaded home

A kitchen fire spread smoke and flames through a home early Sunday, killing two adults and three children and injuring three others trapped behind the home’s barred windows and doors, fire officials said.

Like other houses on the street, the home’s windows were blocked by security bars, which may have prevented those inside from easily escaping the smoke and fire, chief arson investigator John Tucker said.

One woman and her 10-year-old daughter managed to get out by climbing to the attic, breaking a window and jumping, Tucker said.

Chicago: Muslim leader denied re-entry into U.S.

The president of a Chicago-area Muslim group said Sunday he still had not learned why immigration officials denied him permission to return to the United States after he visited his parents in Jordan.

Sabri Samirah, president of the United Muslim Americans Assn. in suburban Palos Hills, says he was returning to Chicago last weekend after a three-week visit to Jordan when officials at Ireland’s Shannon Airport told him he could not return to the United States.

The INS has not commented specifically about Samirah’s case but has said in general that people who have applied for but not received permanent residency, even those with the “advanced parole” papers Samirah said he received to travel, are not guaranteed re-entry into the United States.