Gas prices jump along with crude oil prices

Gasoline prices have climbed nearly 8 cents a gallon in the past two weeks because of record-high crude oil prices, and they are likely to continue rising, an industry analyst said Sunday. From Sept. 24 through Friday, the combined national average for all grades of gas rose from $1.94 to $2.02 a gallon, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

Ex-army officer elected president of Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Members of Somalia's transitional parliament on Sunday elected former army officer Abdullahi Yusuf as interim president for the war-torn Horn of Africa nation, the parliament's speaker said. The presidential race followed two years of talks in Kenya to end a 13-year war in Somalia that has seen thousands of people killed.

Balloon hits radio tower at New Mexico festival

ALBUQUERQUE -- A balloon became entangled in a radio tower on the final day of the city's trademark balloon festival Sunday, forcing the pilot and two young passengers to shimmy most of the way down the nearly 700-foot-tall structure. Bill Chapel was piloting the Smokey Bear balloon when it blew into the radio tower near a park where the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was being held.

Car bombs strike twice in Baghdad, killing 11

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Car bombers struck twice in rapid succession in the capital Sunday, killing at least 11 people including an American soldier. Rocket-propelled grenade explosions and machine gun fire rocked the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, late Sunday. Residents reached by telephone said insurgents launched attacks in a half dozen parts of Ramadi, and that four huge explosions shook the center of the city Sunday night.

Mount St. Helens puffs out a new steam cloud

MOUNT ST. HELENS, Wash. -- Mount St. Helens vented a new column of steam Sunday, a lazy plume that rose out of the crater of the snow-dusted volcano. The billow of steam rose from an area where a large upwelling or bulge of rock has been growing on the dome-shaped formation of rock in the crater. The venting reminded scientists of the volcano's activity 20 years ago, when it built the dome following its catastrophic 1980 eruption.

-- From wire reports