California

Gasoline prices drop steadily

Gasoline prices have dropped nearly 5 cents in the past three weeks with an increase in supply, but soaring crude oil prices could cause rates to rise again soon, an industry analyst said Sunday.

The weighted national average for all three grades of gasoline fell about 4.9 cents between July 23 and Friday to $1.90 per gallon, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey in Camarillo.

That represents a drop of 20 cents per gallon since May 21, when the average price peaked at slightly more than $2.10 a gallon.

Beijing

Film crew says it found last U.S. defector in N. Korea

A British film crew says it has found the last American defector still living in North Korea — an Army private who crossed over to the Stalinist state in 1962 and says he is glad he did.

Pvt. James Dresnok lives in the capital, Pyongyang, where he says he likes his “simple life,” said filmmaker Nicholas Bonner, who met him there in May and plans to make a documentary about him.

“To us he’s the most fascinating character because he’s still there,” Bonner said Sunday.

The U.S. military has said that Dresnok, from Richmond, Va., left the Army in August 1962 at age 21.

The film crew met with Dresnok and with Charles Jenkins, an accused U.S. army deserter from North Carolina who has since left North Korea for Japan to be reunited with his family.

North Carolina

Congressional candidate calls Pakistani a terrorist in ad

A Pakistani man charged with immigration violations after filming Charlotte skyscrapers is described as a “terrorist” who came to the country “to kill you” in a new television ad from a North Carolina congressional candidate.

Vernon Robinson began airing the ad days before his runoff election Tuesday in a Republican primary against state Sen. Virginia Foxx.

Kamran Akhtar, arrested July 20, has been in custody ever since on immigration charges and on charges he made false statements to officers.

Authorities also say he videotaped buildings in major cities.

Akhtar’s attorney, George Miller, called the political ad “grossly unfair.”

“We haven’t even had a probable cause hearing,” Miller told the Charlotte Observer.