Ohio nuclear plant back up operating
Ohio nuclear plant back up operating
OAK HARBOR, Ohio
An Ohio nuclear plant along Lake Erie is operating again after a nearly two-week shutdown.
The Davis-Besse plant east of Toledo had been shut down since Sept. 10 after rainwater entered its turbine building.
Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. says it restarted the plant’s reactor Thursday after repairing the plant’s electrical controls.
A company spokeswoman says the rainwater prompted its turbine generator to automatically shut down.
Gas prices increase
CAMARILLO, Calif.
The average price of gasoline in the U.S. has risen four cents over the past two weeks to $2.25 a gallon for regular grade.
Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that retailers and refiners have upped their prices in response to a rise in the cost of crude oil.
The Lundberg Survey found the average price of midgrade gasoline was $2.53 a gallon while premium was $2.74 a gallon.
Residents evacuate ahead of flooding
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa
Several thousand residents of Cedar Rapids left their homes Sunday as floodwaters began to spill out of the rising Cedar River, and Iowa’s second-largest city worked to apply the lessons officials learned after the record 2008 flood.
The river crested Saturday night in Waterloo and Cedar Falls, which are about 55 miles upstream from Cedar Rapids, which is Iowa’s second-largest city, with about 130,000 people.
The water levels in Cedar Falls and Waterloo were slightly lower than had been expected, but they still reached levels that were second only to those in 2008, when a major flood devastated the region.
The National Weather Service predicted that the river will crest at 23 feet in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday.
At least 26 civilians killed in airstrikes
beirut
At least 26 civilians were killed in fresh government airstrikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said Sunday, as the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the spiraling violence in Syria but failed to take any action because of deep divisions between Russia and the Western powers.
The United States, Britain and France, who called the emergency meeting, heaped blame on Moscow for supporting the Syrian offensive which U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura called one of the worst of the 51/2-year war.
When Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari was called to speak in the council, the ambassadors of the three Western powers walked out in protest.
Jordanian writer is killed by ex-imam
AMMAN, JORDAN
A prominent and outspoken Jordanian writer Sunday was shot dead in front of the courthouse where he had been on trial for posting a cartoon deemed offensive to Islam on social media.
A Jordanian security official said the shooter was a former imam, or prayer leader, at a local mosque, and said the man had been motivated by his anger over the cartoon posted to Facebook by writer Nahed Hattar. The shooting was the latest in a string of deadly security lapses in Jordan.
Witnesses and police said Hattar, 56, was preparing to enter the courthouse for a hearing when the gunman shot him at close range.
Jordanian media, citing anonymous officials, identified the shooter as Riad Abdullah, 49, a former imam in northern Hashmi, a poor neighborhood in Amman. The reports said Abdullah had recently returned from a trip abroad, but gave no further details.
Associated Press