Persian Gulf

An international economic crisis has clobbered stock markets, banks and real estate sectors in the oil-rich Persian Gulf -- but not the region's appetite for weapons. Amid the global financial downturn, the United Arab Emirates this week held one of the biggest arms shows in the world, with extensive exhibits of often high-tech weapons including stun and smoke grenades, guided missiles, armored vehicles and naval vessels.

Iran announced Sunday that it would turn on its Russian-built 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in the Persian Gulf city of Bushehr for a test run Wednesday, state media reported. But Russia, which has provided the plant's crucial nuclear fuel rods while withholding key expertise to get it running, has not confirmed the test run.

With their maze of aging pipes and narrow catwalks high above the Persian Gulf, they look like something out of "Waterworld," Kevin Costner's post-apocalyptic vision of the future. Their names too seem lifted from a sci-fi flick: ABOT and KAAOT. But the two Iraqi oil platforms 20 miles off the port of Umm al Qasr are considered tempting targets for terrorists thirsting to traumatize the world's oil supply and short-circuit Iraq's march to self-sufficiency.

Qatar has teamed up with Robert De Niro and other founders of New York's Tribeca Film Festival to host a similar annual event starting next year in the small, oil-rich Persian Gulf nation. The announcement is part of a broader trend of rival, wealthy Gulf countries launching high-profile cultural and sporting events to attract international attention and outside investment. The festival in Qatar next November will be modeled after the original in New York City, which is going into its eighth year.

With U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the rhetoric between Iran and Israel growing more heated, Tehran on Wednesday test-fired nine missiles, including at least one capable of striking Israel and other American allies and interests in the Middle East. The medium- and long-range missiles were launched during military exercises staged by Iran's Revolutionary Guard near the strategic oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. State television quoted a top military leader, Gen.

The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard said the government might shut down vital oil lanes through the Persian Gulf if the country were attacked by the United States or Israel, according to a newspaper report Saturday. Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari warned that if there were any confrontation over Iran's nuclear program, Tehran would try to damage Western economies by targeting oil.

From a computer screen on this amphibious assault ship, U.S. sailors kept close watch on a 6-week-old drama more than 2,500 miles away involving pirates from Somalia and a Danish merchant vessel. A second American warship was off the coast of Somalia near the captive vessel, a 115-foot tugboat called the Svitzer Korsakov with an international crew. As long as the pirates didn't mistreat the crew and continued to negotiate a ransom with the ship's owner, the U.S. would not intervene.

A group of small Iranian boats charged and threatened three American warships just outside the Persian Gulf, military officials said Monday, elevating tensions and illustrating how easily a military confrontation could develop between U.S. and Iranian forces. The five Iranian boats approached the warships Sunday as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz on their way into the Persian Gulf. U.S.

An uneasy calm returned to the oil-rich Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain on Wednesday after a week of clashes between Shiite Muslim opposition groups and forces of the Sunni-dominated government. The street fighting, sparked by the death of an activist, was some of the worst since a 1990s Shiite uprising and led to an undetermined number of injured and the arrest of dozens.