Hungary

— Retail gas prices are spiking to levels last seen in the heat of summer driving season, raising fears that consumers could cut back on holiday spending.

But the crude rally propelling the jump at the pump hit the brakes Monday, as a barrel of oil tumbled more than 2 percent as the dollar strengthened after hitting a 14-month low.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose for the 13th straight day, adding sixth-tenths of a cent overnight to $2.671, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.

That's still below what drivers were paying at this time last year, but the 20-cent, two-week jump could prompt consumers already dealing with a climbing unemployment rate, depreciating home prices and damaged 401k accounts to spend less over the holidays, said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist with Moody's Economy.com.

"If they're spending more money at the pump, they're going to be less willing to go out to the malls to spend frivolously," Sweet said.

A member of Hungary's main opposition party has accused the Jews of trying to take over the country. ......

— Switzerland and Slovakia earned Europe's final two automatic berths for next year's World Cup on Wednesday night, while Argentina tried to beat out Uruguay and Ecuador for South America's last certain spot in the 32-nation field.

Costa Rica played at the United States, which clinched its sixth straight berth last weekend, and the Ticos hoped to stay ahead of Honduras and gain the final automatic place from North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Portugal, Greece, Slovenia and Ukraine finished second in their groups and joined Bosnia-Herzegovina, France, Ireland and Russia in the European playoffs. They will be drawn into four pairs on Monday, and the winners of home-and-home, total-goals matches on Nov. 14 and 18 will qualify for next year's 32-nation field.

By the end of Wednesday, 23 of the 32 nations will have been determined for next year's tournament in South Africa.

In addition to the U.S., Mexico had ensured a berth in CONCACAF, while Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Serbia and Spain had clinched automatic berths in Europe. Brazil, Chile and Paraguay had earned berths from South America, and Australia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea won Asia's spots. Ghana and Ivory Coast joined host South Africa, which qualified automatically as host.

NEW YORK — Oil prices climbed more than 5 percent, surpassing $70 a barrel Wednesday after a government report said the nation's gasoline supply dropped unexpectedly and demand increased from last year.

Benchmark crude for November delivery added $3.39 to $70.10 a barrel in late trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude rose $3.06 to $68.55 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

The Energy Information Administration put U.S. gasoline stockpiles at 211.5 million barrels last week, a drop of 0.8 percent from the prior week. It also said demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Sept. 25 was 5.4 percent higher than last year.

The price of oil, which is used to make gasoline, rose as investors placed some final bets on the last day of the quarter. Crude prices have waffled between $59 and $75 during the past three months, but equities markets surged during the quarter as investors became increasingly confident that the economy was healing.

Despite the drop last week, gasoline supplies are still considered to be well above normal. They're nearly 11 percent higher than they were last year, and much of last week's drop came as many U.S. refiners cut back on their operations.

A Russian-made Iranian passenger plane carrying 168 people crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday, smashing into a field northwest of the capital and shattering into flaming pieces. All on board were killed in Iran's worst air disaster in six years, officials said.

Before crashing, the plane's tail was on fire as it circled in the air, one witness told The Associated Press.

"Then, I saw the plane crashing nose-down. It hit the ground causing a big explosion. The impact shook the ground like an earthquake. Then, plane pieces were scattered all over the agricultural fields," Ali Akbar Hashemi, a 23-year-old who was laying gas pipes in a nearby home, told AP by phone.

The impact blasted a deep trench in the dirt field, which was littered with smoking wreckage, body parts and personal items from the Tupolev jet, according to photos from the scene. Firefighters put out the flaming wreckage, which officials said was strewn over a 200 yard (meter) area. A large chunk of a wing was visible in footage of the scene, but much of the wreckage appeared to be in small shreds.

Iran has seen numerous crashes in recent years, usually blamed on poor maintenance. Iranian officials often blame U.S. sanctions that prevent it from updating American aircraft bought before the 1979 Islamic revolution and make it difficult to get European spare parts or planes as well.

A Russian-made Iranian passenger plane nearly 170 people crashed shortly after takeoff Wednesday, smashing into a field northwest of the capital and shattering to pieces. State television said all on board were killed.

The plane's tail burst into flames in the air and it circled in the air as if looking for a place to land before it crashed, an unidentified witness told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

The impact gouged a deep trench in the dirt field, which was shown littered with smoking wreckage in footage shown on state TV. It showed a large chunk of a wing, but much of the wreckage appeared to be in small pieces, and emergency workers and witnesses picked around the shredded metal for bodies and flight data recorders to determine the cause of the crash.

The Caspian Airlines Tupolev jet had taken off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport Wednesday and was headed to the Armenian capital Yerevan. It crashed about 16 minutes after takeoff near the village of Jannat Abad outside the city of Qazvin, around 75 miles northwest of Tehran, civil aviation spokesman Reza Jaafarzadeh told state media.

At Yerevan's airport, Tina Karapetian, 45, said she had been waiting for her sister and the sister's 6- and 11-year-old sons, who were due on the flight. "What will I do without them?" she said, weeping, before she collapsed to the floor.

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