News Archive - 16 March 2011

>Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were arrested in July 2009 along the Iraq border -- they said they may have inadvertently crossed into Iran while hiking -- in a case that has further strained relations between the United States and Iran, already frayed over Iran's nuclear program.A third American,...

MANAMA, Bahrain -- Military troops and security forces opened a large-scale assault Wednesday against hundreds of anti-government protesters occupying a landmark square in Bahrain's capital, a day after emergency rule was imposed and clashes erupted in the violence-wracked Gulf kingdom. Police and military units fired tear gas as they...

>MANAMA (Reuters) - The United States said Bahrain was on the "wrong track" in trying to crush Shi'ite protests in the Sunni-ruled island, rare criticism that highlighted concern the crackdown could ignite a wider regional conflict. Bahraini forces used tanks and helicopters on Wednesday to clear a protest camp set...

>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose 2 percent from near three-week lows on Wednesday as a crackdown on protesters in Bahrain reignited worries unrest in the Middle East could further hit oil supplies. Concerns about the unrest in Bahrain -- where troops from OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia have intervened...

>STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - When they finally completed their new control tower last November, officials at University Park Airport hoped it would provide a needed safety upgrade. The skies can get crowded on days when Penn State plays football, and the existing air traffic controllers stationed 200 miles away...

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The dollar dropped to a record low against the yen late Wednesday as Japan's nuclear crisis deepened. Debt woes in Europe, tension in the Middle East and weak economic reports at home also weighed on the greenback.

MANAMA, Bahrain - Soldiers and riot police in Bahrain overran a protesters' camp, imposed a 12-hour curfew and choked off movement in this tiny island kingdom that has been rocked by a month of protestst. Witnesses described helicopters firing on homes in a hunt for Shiites and attacking doctors treating...

SINGAPORE, March 17 - Brent crude reversed losses, heading back towards $111 after losing 1 percent earlier on Thursday, as investors weighed Middle East tensions against risks to demand from the nuclear ...

With the two majority Northumberland County commissioners locked in opposition over Chief Clerk Kymberley Best’s continued employment, it’s up to Commissioner Merle Phillips to cast the deciding vote. A copy of a proposed Code of Civility is available by clicking here .

Oil prices hovered over $98 a barrel Thursday in Asia as traders watched closely Japan's battle to avoid a full meltdown at a damaged nuclear plant and clashes in Bahrain and Libya.

Master of Ceremonies Sean Balingit, who is the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce vice-president and Beaumont Planning Commission chairman, looks on as members of Tahquitz High School’s JROTC presents the colors at the opening ceremony of San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital’s 60th anniversary celebration.

Pennsylvania has released new approaches aimed at showing how many high school students graduate in four years, a change that has Valley educators crying foul because it makes them look bad if they have large numbers of special education students.

Maybe next year, those who set the academic calendar for Bucknell University will take the NCAA Tournament schedule into account. Students at the university are on spring break this week, limiting the number of on-campus celebrations for the Bison’s entry into the Big Dance tonight.

MANAMA, Thursday 17 March 2011 (AFP) - Bahraini police firing shotguns and tear gas crushed the camp of a month-old pro-democracy protest on Wednesday in an operation that left five dead and sparked Shiite outrage across the region.

Boxing Ali writes letters to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Former champion Muhammad Ali is seeking the release of two American hikers from Iran...

New power line almost ready at Japan nuke plant Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said the new power line to Fukushima Dai-ichi is almost complete. Officials plan to try it "as soon as possible" but he could not say when.

Crude prices on Wednesday rebounded from a three-week low after a fluctuating trading day, as concerns about unrest in the Middle East lifted the prices, although worries about Japan's nuclear crisis still pressured the markets.

NEW YORK (AP): Oil prices rose Wednesday as traders tried to gauge the impact that numerous international crises will have on world energy demand.

Salazar loses eye Atlanta Braves minor league manager Luis Salazar has lost an eye after he was struck in the face by a line drive while watching a Braves spring-training game from the dugout. Braves general manager Frank Wren said Wednesday that doctors were unable to save Salazar’s left eye...

Follow Israel news on and . “To all those who have asked, attacked and criticized Israel for stopping and searching ships destined for Gaza, well here is the clearest possible answer, here, today in Ashdod, why it is our duty, not just our right, to stop and disarm such ships,” said...

Associated Press, MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain’s king declared a three-month state of emergency Tuesday to quell a Shiite uprising, as clashes spread through the capital and surrounding villages in a showdown that drew in the region’s major powers and splintered along its main sectarian faultlines. At least two Bahrainis and...

TUNIS (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Tunisia to throw US support behind the country's transition to democracy, two months after the overthrow of its president.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Malaysian police confirmed on Thursday they have seized two containers which may contain parts used to make nuclear weapons, from a ship bound for western Asia.

Some 5,000 come to the local beach and light bonfires as part of the cultural ritual.

Would you believe it? Our leaders, who are supposed to stay cool and maintain steady nerves in case of an emergency, are having an anxiety attack.

Last week, Syrian president Bashar Assad had the chance to bolster his country's status in the Middle East. Following six years during which the Egyptians had boycotted Damascus, the Syrian ambassador to Cairo, Yousef el-Ahmed, was invited to a meeting with Hussein Tantawi, the Egyptian Defense Minister and head of...

The Obama administration is implicitly criticizing Iran after Israel intercepted a ship carrying weapons it said was bound for Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Creator:  Rodger Shanahan This paper explores what the outcomes of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri) will mean for both key domestic actors in Lebanese politics such as Hizbullah, and regional players like Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Justice...

An SUV being pursued by police collided with taxi in a crash that killed the cab driver and his passenger, a blind woman on her way to catch a train to New York to care for her sick mother, police said Wednesday.

Two 8-year-olds escaped injury Wednesday morning when their school van flipped on a busy highway after a three-vehicle chain-reaction crash in Penn Township.

Bombs and tear gas are threatening to smother the “Arab Spring” that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia and promised to spread democracy in the Middle East.

In the aftermath of the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, a dog stood loyally next to another dog that was injured or sick in Sendai, Japan. Katie Couric reports.

While stories of the unrest and discord in the Middle East dominate the international news, in the world of sports, at least for badminton players, it's quite a different story.[...]

MANAMA, Bahrain -- Soldiers and riot police in Bahrain overran a protesters' camp, imposed a 12-hour curfew and choked off movement nationwide Wednesday.

(RTTNews) - Turkey on Wednesday released a Syria-bound Iranian cargo plane it had forced to land in a south-eastern Turkish city on suspicion it was carrying military material, stating that a through search of the aircraft failed to find any illegal cargo.

NEW DELHI: One month after India voted against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna for the first time, a diplomatic cable of October 20, 2005 ( 43172: confidential) noted with alarm the fact that the barrage of criticism of the Manmohan Singh government's controversial decision “is...

When global crises spark into life, the fates often seem to favour obscure corners of the globe as their setting. Who’d heard of Sarajevo before the fatal gunshots there laid the ground for World War I in 1914?

Soldiers and riot police expelled hundreds of protesters from a landmark square in Bahrain's capital yesterday, using tear gas and armoured vehicles to try to subdue the g

Iran's recent attempt to ship arms to Hamas in Gaza is an act of war committed by the Iranian government against the Israeli government. The Israeli Navy seized the ship, loaded with weapons designed to kill Israeli civilians, and traced the weapons back to Iran. Nor is this the...

The following market commentary was published earlier today by TheStreet's ETF Profits premium service. NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Investors would be remiss to believe that recent events are isolated incidents that will not have long-term implications for the U.S. markets or the economy. Even Fed Chair Ben Bernanke may...

Some of us have been around long enough to recall the doomed Desert One mission to rescue the U.S. hostages held by Iran in 1980. That's where eight U.S. troops died in the middle of the Iranian desert, their bodies abandoned in the survivors' rush to leave. They...

Two Utah high school students struck by lightning last fall say they're alive to talk about it thanks to a quick thinking teacher and the Las Vegas doctors who didn't give up.

Bahrain closed its bourse and the cost of insuring against default was near the highest since July 2009 after the country declared a state of emergency.

Boxing great Muhammad Ali, one of the most prominent US Muslims, has appealed to Iran's supreme leader to show mercy and free two Americans held on suspicion of espionage, families of the men said

(AP:NEW YORK) The dollar dropped below its lowest point in almost 16 years late Wednesday amid a nuclear crisis in Japan, debt woes in Europe, tension in the Middle East and weak economic reports at home.

By The Associated Press Latest developments in the unrest sweeping the Arab world from North Africa to the Persian Gulf:

>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday Bahrain was "on the wrong track," but the United States may have little leverage as the Gulf kingdom presses a deadly security crackdown. The United States has responded cautiously to the turmoil in Bahrain, saying this week it understood...

>TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran criticized Bahrain's crackdown on protesters on Wednesday and told Saudi Arabia its military deployment was a threat to regional security. Increasing its rhetoric against the suppression of Bahrain's Shi'ite Muslim majority, Iran, the main Shi'ite power in the Gulf, said the crisis could lead to wider...

One afternoon last year, as I was driving through Adliya in the northeastern corner of the island of Bahrain, I was surprised to find a man begging on the side of the street. Adliya is a nice part of Bahrain -- a Western part. Not far from the street...

An Iranian lawmaker has emphasized that Iran will take action to end the oppression of the Bahraini population.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Fourteen prisoners were killed and 33 injured in an incident at an Iranian jail Wednesday, that state TV said was a brawl among inmates but which one news agency said was a foiled escape attempt.

Bahraini security forces, bolstered military units from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have cleared the protest camp at the Pearl roundabout in central Manama, Bahrain. News reports are that five people were killed, three protesters and two Saudi troops. Scattered protests throughout the country continue to take place.

TEHRAN, March 16 (Reuters) - Iran has recalled its ambassador from Bahrain in protest against the killing of Shi'ite Muslim demonstrators in the island state, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday.

MANAMA, Bahrain — Soldiers and riot police expelled hundreds of protesters from a landmark square in Bahrain’s capital today, using tear gas and armored vehicles to try to subdue the growing movement challenging the 200-year-old monarchy. At least five people were killed as clashes flared across the kingdom, according to...

The crisis at the Fukushima Nuclear Power complex in Japan, hit by the earthquake and tsunami, has sparked a renewed debate over the safety of nuclear power plants worldwide.

Pro-monarchy forces in Bahrain wield tear gas and shotguns in a violent predawn crackdown at the traffic circle protesters had been occupying, reportedly leaving at least 3 dead. The Obama administration criticizes the 'excessive force and violence' used against the protesters. Police and soldiers firing tear gas and shotguns stormed...

A Peruvian national has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in torture and crimes against humanity. Related Stories Nuclear plant still out of control CIA man escapes Pakistan death case Brother tells 'truth' about Jackson William to start New Zealand tour Ali asks Iran to free Americans

>ASHDOD, Israel (Reuters) - Israel displayed on Wednesday advanced arms that it said had been found aboard a cargo ship seized in the Mediterranean Sea, and pointed to the haul as proof of the need to blockade the Gaza Strip. "To all those who questioned and attacked and criticized Israel...

>DUBAI (Reuters) - Political unrest in the Gulf has complicated the task of lowering fuel subsidies to help cut carbon in a region with the world's highest per capita emissions. Gulf countries, where summer temperatures reach 50 degrees Celsius (122 F), want to adopt renewables like solar power to free...

1157 GMT: Here's a recap of the situation in Japan at 1200 GMT:

ISTANBUL — An Iranian cargo plane en route to Syria was forced to land in Turkey’s southeastern Diyarbakir airport for an inspection, security sources said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama travels to Latin America this week seeking to reassert economic leadership in a region Washington once dominated but where it now faces growing competition from China.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Defense Industry Key Trends, Emerging Geo-Political Equations, Strategic Insights & Industry Outlook 2011" report to their offering.

Because what's Obama going to do, after all -- impose sanctions and stop importing oil?

Not driving her car as often and buying less groceries are two lifestyle changes Mary Wenninger of Lake City has implemented to compensate for steeply climbing gasoline prices.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Bahrain has exposed a diplomatic rift as Riyadh and Washington make different calculations over a crisis that could have a far-ranging impact on their relations.

Soldiers and riot police used tear gas and armored vehicles Wednesday to drive out hundreds of anti-government protesters occupying a landmark square in Bahrain's capital, a day after emergency rule was imposed in the violence-wracked Gulf kingdom. At least six people were killed, according to witnesses and officials

Plus, Tokyo’s market rebounds, but investors worried