Brutally cold temperatures continued to maintain an icy grip on much of the U.S. today.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Bone-chilling cold settled in Thursday from the Midwest to the Northeast Thursday, bringing teeth-chattering misery with temperatures that sank as low as 47 below zero.
Israel bombarded the U.N. headquarters in Gaza today. The compound reportedly was struck about six times with either tank fire or artillery rounds, earning the outrage of the visiting U.N. chief.
After nightfall, shells landed near Gaza City’s Quds Hospital, where many families had sought refuge, and the building caught fire, forcing staff to evacuate hundreds of people. According to a hospital medic, some patients were pushed down the street on gurneys; a few held white flags.
The destruction added to what aid groups say is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ratcheted up tensions between Israel and the international community even as diplomats indicated progress in cease-fire talks.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was departing Thursday night for Washington to discuss a Gaza cease-fire with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The United States and Egypt have been working to forge an agreement to end 20 days of bitter fighting.
The U.N. compound, made up of workshops and warehouses as well as offices, was struck about a half-dozen times over a roughly two-hour period while more than 700 civilians were sheltering there, said John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.
The civilians were huddling in the compound’s vocational training center when it was struck by a tank round or an artillery shell, causing the three injuries, Ging said. Throughout this time, he said, U.N. officials were frantically contacting Israeli officials to urge an end to the firing on the U.N. compound.
The price for a barrel of light, sweet crude fell to $33.41 today, approaching a five year low.
NEW YORK (AP) – Oil prices tumbled below $34 Thursday, closing in on five-year lows as employment claims rose and OPEC cut demand expectations for 2009.
“The bull oil era is officially over,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell more than 10 percent, or $3.87, to $33.41 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. At one point prices fell as low as $33.20.
Crude prices have fallen so fast, the cost for retail gasoline has yet to catch up. Pump prices nudged up again overnight, but is likely to fall.
An oil industry report Thursday showed just how much energy use eroded over the past year.
For all of 2008, U.S. petroleum deliveries—a measure of demand—fell 6 percent to 19.4 million barrels a day, with declines for all major products made from crude, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
That trend appears to be ongoing this year, with millions now out of work and bad jobs data continuing to roll in.
The Labor Department reported first-time requests for unemployment insurance jumped to a seasonally adjusted 524,000 in the week ending Jan. 10. Analysts had expected 500,000 new claims.
An analyst with the Labor Department said the increase is partly due to a flood of requests from newly laid off people who delayed filing claims over the holidays.