Jerusalem

Sharon cancels U.S. visit to revive Gaza Strip plan

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday canceled a planned trip to the United States next week, saying he intended to focus his energies on patching together a new blueprint for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip after his party rejected his original plan.

Sharon told his Cabinet ministers during a stormy meeting that he would present them with a revised version of his “disengagement plan” in the next three weeks. He did not reveal what changes he was contemplating or how he would satisfy his deeply divided coalition.

The announcement was the latest sign of Sharon’s determination to push ahead with his plan after its overwhelming defeat in a May 2 referendum of Likud Party members.

Los Angeles

U.S. gasoline prices up 10 cents in past two weeks

U.S. gasoline prices rose by 10 cents per gallon in the past two weeks, the biggest jump since last August, an analyst said Sunday.

The nationwide average for all gasoline grades, including taxes, was slightly more than $1.96 per gallon on Friday, according to the biweekly Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide.

Tight gasoline supplies and rising demand were responsible for the increase, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

The average price of gasoline has broken record highs for two months straight, Lundberg said.

California

Hollywood pressuring Bush to end stem-cell restrictions

As President Bush resists mounting pressure to loosen the restrictions he placed on human embryonic stem-cell research, Hollywood’s supporting role in the debate this election year is growing.

Celebrities including Dustin Hoffman, Michael J. Fox and Larry King raised $2 million for stem-cell research Saturday night at a gala for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The money is part of nearly $20 million that the foundation is donating to advance stem-cell research.

A Parkinson’s disease foundation run by Fox, who suffers from the degenerative nerve condition, has contributed an additional $10 million.

The star power is providing frustrated scientists and patients with additional muscle in a lobbying campaign against Bush’s policy, which limits federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells to colonies created before August 2001.