Oman

SAN'A, Yemen - Outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh will travel soon to Oman, en route to medical treatment in the United States, Yemeni officials said Saturday, part of an American effort to get the beleaguered strongman out of the country to allow a peaceful transition from his rule. Washington has been trying for weeks to find a country where Saleh can live in exile, since it does not want him to settle in the United States. The mercurial president, who has ruled for more than 33 years, has repeatedly gone back and forth on whether he would leave.

Ashland Oil Inc. and its former chairman yesterday agreed to an out-of- court settlement of civil charges that the company paid a $29 million bribe to an Oman official to get a contract at a discount price. Under the settlement, announced simultaneously with the filing of the charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ashland and Orin Atkins paid no fines or other penalties. And they neither admitted nor denied that they had violated foreign corrupt-practices provisions of federal securities laws.

MUSCAT, Oman - After more than two years in Iranian custody, two Americans convicted as spies took their first steps toward home yesterday as they bounded down from a private jet and into the arms of family for a joyful reunion in the Gulf state of Oman. The families called this "the best day of our lives," and President Obama said their release - under a $1 million bail-for-freedom deal - "wonderful news. " The release capped complicated diplomatic maneuvers over a week of confusing signals by Iran's leadership on the fate of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer.

What are the best cities to visit in 2012? Lonely Planet weighs in: "The coming year will put all of these cities in a fresh light, whether they're showing new flair with music and art festivals or dusting off preconceptions by showing their wilder streak," it says. For its reasoning, visit lonelyplanet.com. 1. London 2. Muscat, Oman 3. Bengalore, India 4. Cadiz, Spain 5. Stockholm, Sweden 6. Guimaraes, Portugal 7. Santiago, Chile 8. Hong Kong 9. Orlando, Fla. 10. Darwin, Australia.

Destination Maternity Corp. said today it is opening a store in Kuwait, the Philadelphia retailer's 10th outlet in the Middle East. All of the stores in the region are operated by a company franchisee, Multi Trend. In addition to the existing stores in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Multi Trend and Destination Maternity have agreed to expand to Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Destination Maternity sells clothing and accessories at 679 stores worldwide, primarily under the names Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in a Pod and Destination Maternity.

U.S. military officials were planning ways to provide protection for Persian Gulf shipping while Iran warned against superpower interference in the region. Tensions were heightened by Iran's report yesterday that it had seized Kuwaiti speedboats and charges that the captured seamen were spying for Iraq, Iran's bitter foe in a seven-year war. Kuwait's oil tankers will soon be sailing under the U.S. flag. President Reagan on Friday promised that the United States would act to protect freedom of navigation in the gulf.

THE REED BOAT was "ready to go," the Penn Museum professor said. Built with Bronze Age technology, the 40-foot craft - the "Black Boat of Magan" - was to travel the Arabian Sea from Oman to India on Sept. 8, 2005, to see how ancient mariners did it. Gregory L. Possehl, the University of Pennsylvania anthropologist, had been part of five years of planning for the 750-mile sea journey, and he and other archaelogists were confident that the rugged sailors and the fragile craft were ready to reproduce 2,000 years of history.

NEW YORK - The embattled president of Yemen arrived Saturday in the United States for medical treatment for burns he suffered during an assassination attempt in June. President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived at an unspecified U.S. location, according to the country's foreign press office. His journey had taken him from Oman, through London. The one-line Yemeni statement said Saleh was in the United States for a "short-term private medical visit. " His staff has said he is here to be treated for injuries suffered during the assassination attempt.

A U.S. Navy warship intercepted an Iranian frigate earlier this week and persuaded it to cease its apparent efforts to interrupt a U.S. cargo ship's passage in the Gulf of Oman, the Pentagon said yesterday. "Late Monday night Washington time (10:50 p.m. EDT), the American merchant ship SS President McKinley, while transiting in international waters, was hailed by radio by an Iranian frigate on patrol in the Gulf of Oman," the Pentagon said in a prepared statement. "A U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS David R. Ray, which was operating in the area, was within a mile of the President McKinley when the Iranian ship came into view.

Beyond the short-term fate of the Mideast peace process, the larger meaning of Israel's election and of the terror bombings that preceded and shaped it is that peace takes a lot of time. Fear and hatred die slowly. But time to reach stability is something the Middle East may not have enough of. For while Jews and Arabs inch toward a modus vivendi, with every political twist and turn minutely chronicled and analyzed, an unnoticed, silent thief is robbing economic growth and raising the prospect of political instability and active conflict.

NEW YORK - The embattled president of Yemen arrived Saturday in the United States for medical treatment for burns he suffered during an assassination attempt in June. President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived at an unspecified U.S. location, according to the country's foreign press office. His journey had taken him from Oman, through London. The one-line Yemeni statement said Saleh was in the United States for a "short-term private medical visit. " His staff has said he is here to be treated for injuries suffered during the assassination attempt.

SAN'A, Yemen - Outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh will travel soon to Oman, en route to medical treatment in the United States, Yemeni officials said Saturday, part of an American effort to get the beleaguered strongman out of the country to allow a peaceful transition from his rule. Washington has been trying for weeks to find a country where Saleh can live in exile, since it does not want him to settle in the United States. The mercurial president, who has ruled for more than 33 years, has repeatedly gone back and forth on whether he would leave.

What are the best cities to visit in 2012? Lonely Planet weighs in: "The coming year will put all of these cities in a fresh light, whether they're showing new flair with music and art festivals or dusting off preconceptions by showing their wilder streak," it says. For its reasoning, visit lonelyplanet.com. 1. London 2. Muscat, Oman 3. Bengalore, India 4. Cadiz, Spain 5. Stockholm, Sweden 6. Guimaraes, Portugal 7. Santiago, Chile 8. Hong Kong 9. Orlando, Fla. 10. Darwin, Australia.

THE REED BOAT was "ready to go," the Penn Museum professor said. Built with Bronze Age technology, the 40-foot craft - the "Black Boat of Magan" - was to travel the Arabian Sea from Oman to India on Sept. 8, 2005, to see how ancient mariners did it. Gregory L. Possehl, the University of Pennsylvania anthropologist, had been part of five years of planning for the 750-mile sea journey, and he and other archaelogists were confident that the rugged sailors and the fragile craft were ready to reproduce 2,000 years of history.

MUSCAT, Oman - After more than two years in Iranian custody, two Americans convicted as spies took their first steps toward home yesterday as they bounded down from a private jet and into the arms of family for a joyful reunion in the Gulf state of Oman. The families called this "the best day of our lives," and President Obama said their release - under a $1 million bail-for-freedom deal - "wonderful news. " The release capped complicated diplomatic maneuvers over a week of confusing signals by Iran's leadership on the fate of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer.

MUSCAT, Oman - Arab countries Oman and Iraq are involved in negotiations for the release of two Americans jailed in Iran on spy charges, officials said Thursday as efforts intensified over a $1 million bail-for-freedom plan. A private plane from the Gulf state of Oman is in Tehran to carry away the pair if a deal is reached. An Iraqi official said a delegation of lawmakers also was in the Iranian capital to join the diplomatic talks on the release of Josh Fattal, of Elkins Park, and Shane Bauer, of Minnesota.

TEHRAN, Iran - The proposed bail-for-freedom deal for two jailed Americans looked increasingly Wednesday like a repeat of last year's release of their companion: quarrels between Iran's judiciary and president, and then a private jet dispatched by the sultan of Oman for the captives' first leg home. But even as Washington expressed hope that Josh Fattal, of Elkins Park, and Shane Bauer, of Minnesota, could be nearing the end of more than two years in custody, the details of when - or even if - they will be freed remained clouded amid the complexities of internal Iranian politics and third-party diplomacy between Washington and Tehran, two longtime foes.

Destination Maternity Corp. said today it is opening a store in Kuwait, the Philadelphia retailer's 10th outlet in the Middle East. All of the stores in the region are operated by a company franchisee, Multi Trend. In addition to the existing stores in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Multi Trend and Destination Maternity have agreed to expand to Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Destination Maternity sells clothing and accessories at 679 stores worldwide, primarily under the names Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in a Pod and Destination Maternity.

Glen Allen "Al" Omans, 81, of Mount Airy, a professor emeritus of English at Temple University, died of complications from colon cancer Wednesday, May 5, at Roxborough Hospital. For more than 30 years, Dr. Omans taught English literature at Temple and served a term as English department chair. An authority on Edgar Allan Poe, he published many scholarly articles and the monograph Poe and Passion. He retired in 1996. Dr. Omans was a member of the Poe Studies Association and the Modern Language Association.