Bahrain

Inflation, caused in part by the skyrocketing price of oil, is pushing many ordinary people toward poverty even as oil money stimulates economic growth in the gulf.

Alcoa is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department over accusations that the company bribed officials in Bahrain in an effort to obtain business.

A smelting firm in Bahrain is seeking more than $1 billion in a lawsuit against Alcoa, accusing it of a 15-year conspiracy involving overcharging, fraud and bribery.

Gulf Air, Bahrain’s loss-making national carrier, signed a $6 billion deal with Boeing for the delivery of 24 Dreamliner aircraft.

The Persian Gulf nations Kuwait and Bahrain have banned the American film “The Kingdom,” right, starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner and Chris Cooper in the story of a team of F.B.I. agents dispatched to investigate the 1996 bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans, Agence France-Presse reported. “The screening of the film has been banned in Kuwait for many reasons, chiefly because it is a false depiction of facts,” said a source in the cinema committee of Kuwait’s information ministry....

Iran’s foreign minister said his country would enter discussions on stabilizing Iraq only if the U.S. commits to a troop withdrawal.

Shiite opposition candidates won 16 of the 17 seats they contested in Bahrain’s parliamentary elections.