Bahrain's interior ministry said Sunday a blast occurred inside a minibus parked near the British Embassy, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.
A brief statement posted by the ministry said the explosion occurred in a public parking area near the British diplomatic compound in the capital Manama. Investigators sealed off the area.

Maoist rebels have killed 11 people in attacks across an eastern Indian state after their leader died in a gunbattle with security forces, police said.
The rebels blew up railway tracks at two points in Jharkhand before dawn Sunday to protest the Nov. 24 killing of Koteshwar Rao, alias Kishanji, in the neighboring state of West Bengal, police Superintendent D.V. Sharma said.

As potential voters in New Hampshire and Iowa scan the Internet, they probably are seeing ads for Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama alongside deals for shoes and holiday gifts.
The campaign ads will then follow those voters around the Web, popping up on news sites, Google searches and on social networking sites like Facebook.

Leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean pledged to work together to fend off the effects of the world financial crisis and safeguard the region's growing economies.
Several presidents stressed at the start of a two-day summit Friday that they hope to ride out turbulent times by boosting their local industries and increasing trade within the region.

Many people were surprised when the name Skrillex was announced in the best new artist category, along with the likes of Nicki Minaj and The Band Perry, during this week's televised Grammy nominations special.
Count Skrillex as one of them.

A tag from a lobster pot that was swept off the New England sea floor two decades ago during what came to be known as "The Perfect Storm" has washed up 3,000 miles away in Ireland.
The pot that held the tag with Cohasset lobsterman Richard Figueiredo's name on it was one of hundreds he lost when the vicious storm on the Atlantic Ocean struck off New England in 1991.

Thousands of survivors of the world's worst industrial accident blocked trains through a central Indian city on Saturday to demand more compensation.
The protests were on the 27th anniversary of the disaster in Bhopal, where a Union Carbide pesticide plant leaked lethal gas that killed an estimated 15,000 people and maimed tens of thousands more.

The top U.N. climate official said Saturday she is confident industrial countries will renew their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions after their current commitments expire next year.
Further commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an unshakable demand by poor countries, would avert a feared derailment of U.N. negotiations, but would mark little advancement toward the goal of a rapid and steep drop in worldwide carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

Zara, an Afghan mother of seven, doesn't know what to tell her children when they ask about dinner.
"I simply tell them that we must wait until their father gets home to see if he's going to bring anything," she said, speaking from under a dusty blue burqa covering her from head to toe.

Accepting widespread criticism of the Jabulani's movement at last year's World Cup, Adidas has completely redesigned the ball that will be used at the 2012 European Championship.
The swerving Jabulani angered several coaches in South Africa and was even cited as a possible cause for "inexplicable" goalkeeping mistakes in an official FIFA report.
