The Obama administration may consider tapping into U.S. oil reserves on concern that crude prices above $104 a barrel could damage the U.S. economic recovery, White House Chief of Staff William Daley said Sunday.
“We are trying to look at all the options,” Daley said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The national average for regular gasoline was $3.38 a gallon Feb. 28, compared with $2.70 a year earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The increase reflects the rise in crude oil prices because of unrest across the Mideast and North Africa.
BAHRAIN: Protesters say they can’t be bought.
The leaders of Bahrain’s opposition movement said Sunday that they would not be mollified by offers of money and jobs, raising the prospect of a protracted standoff between protesters and the embattled government of this strategically important Persian Gulf island nation. Protesters in Bahrain have held daily demonstrations for the past three weeks. On Sunday, thousands of people gathered in Manama’s Pearl Square.
YEMEN: Government supporters attack demonstrators.
Government supporters wielding knives and handguns attacked protesters in the country’s south Sunday, leaving one dead in the latest of weeks of demonstrations demanding the president step down. In a separate development, suspected al-Qaeda gunmen killed four soldiers from the elite Republican Guard in a mountainous region.
The United States on Sunday warned its citizens in Yemen to consider leaving the country. The State Department upgraded its travel warning, saying the embassy’s ability to assist in the event of a crisis was “very limited.” Officials described the security threat as “extremely high.”
EGYPT: Officials are named to caretaker Cabinet.
Egypt’s prime minister-designate named a caretaker Cabinet to help lead the country through reforms and toward free elections after the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. The changes include new faces in the key ministries of foreign affairs, interior and justice.
SAUDI ARABIA: Shiite cleric released a week after arrest.
Saudi authorities released a Shiite cleric two days after Shiites in the eastern region demonstrated to demand his release. Tawfiq al-Amer was arrested last week after he called for a constitutional monarchy.
