Fuel Prices

Hundreds of students angered by rising fuel prices vandalized a provincial government office in Ujungpandang, about 890 miles east of Jakarta, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Witnesses said the students marched from a nearby university campus where they had burned two cars and set up roadblocks. At the government building, they smashed windows and broke down doors to get inside.

Shigeru Honma had not been to Tokyo in more than 30 years. But on July 1, the 58-year-old fisherman from this port city in northern Japan dusted off an old suit and traveled to the capital to deliver a letter to the prime minister. Soaring fuel prices are killing Japan's fishing industry, it said. Give us money, or oil. There's been no response from the prime minister's office, so fishery cooperatives have organized a nationwide strike today with 200,000 vessels halting operations.

Airfares have risen nearly 6% this holiday season as carriers take advantage of strong demand to offset higher fuel costs. The average airfare booked between Dec. 19 and Jan. 1 was $362, up 5.8% from last year and 13.8% from the same period in 2005, said Chris Spidle, director of research at Sabre Airline Solutions. On Friday, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines added $10 round-trip fuel surcharges to ticket prices. Jet fuel prices are up 47% this year.

Independent truckers drove their big rigs through city streets to Capitol Hill to protest diesel fuel prices and demand tax breaks to offset greatly increased operating costs. More than 200 truckers joined a convoy that began in New Jersey and traveled through Delaware and Maryland before snaking its way through the nation's capital to a rally on the Capitol steps.

Brazil's government raised the retail price of gasoline by 27% to thje equivalent of $2.09 a gallon. Similar increases were decreed for other petroleum derivatives such as diesel oil, cooking gas and airplane fuel. Brazil imports about 45% of its oil. The pump price of pure alcohol fuel, which Brazil has developed as a substitute for petroleum-based fuels, also went up 27% to $1.36 a gallon.

As many as 500,000 workers staged a 24-hour strike Thursday, with some blocking roads and burning tires, to protest a government increase in fuel prices. The United Workers Front claimed that half a million members, mostly public sector teachers, university professors and doctors, heeded the call for the daylong strike, but that figure could not be confirmed.

FedEx Corp. reported a 6% drop in fiscal third-quarter earnings Thursday, saying a slow economy and high fuel prices are expected to continue cutting into profit. The Memphis, Tenn.-based package delivery company predicted lower earnings in its current quarter than a year earlier, as well as limited earnings growth for its next fiscal year. "As we survey the current economic landscape, we expect limited earnings growth in [2009], given the current outlook for macroeconomic conditions and fuel prices," Chief Executive Frederick W. Smith said.

Indonesia more than doubled the average cost of fuel to try to stave off an economic crisis, despite protests by thousands of people. The government said after a three-hour Cabinet meeting that the cost of gasoline was going up from 24 cents to 44 cents per liter. It more than doubled the price of diesel fuel and tripled the cost of kerosene. Demonstrators have taken to the streets nationwide in recent days, and scattered protests were reported after the price increases took effect.

Atlantic Richfield Co. today froze wholesale fuel prices for one week, becoming the first U.S. oil company to heed a request by President Bush to control prices during the Middle East crisis. Los Angeles-based Arco said prices of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel would remain at today's level.

Police fired warning shots and tear gas Monday to break up crowds of demonstrators as a paralyzing general strike over fuel prices took hold across this oil-rich country. Stores and offices in Lagos, the sprawling commercial capital of sub-Saharan Africa's most populous nation, were barricaded for fear of looting. International and domestic flights ran hours late or not at all after air traffic controllers joined the protest. Unionists vowed to push the general strike into a second day today.