Iran holds British Yacht crew

LONDON — Iran is holding five British sailors after stopping their racing yacht in the Persian Gulf, the British government said Monday. The move could heighten tensions between Iran and major world powers, including Britain, that are demanding a halt to its nuclear program.

Oil prices spiked 2 percent to $77.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as the news broke before settling slightly at $77.28.

The yacht owned by Sail Bahrain was stopped on its way from the tiny island country to the Gulf city of Dubai on Wednesday when it "may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters," Britain's Foreign Office said. Sail Bahrain's Web site identified the yacht as the "Kingdom of Bahrain" and said it had been due to join the 360-mile (580-kilometer) Dubai-Muscat Offshore Sailing Race, which was to begin Nov. 26.

The event was to be the boat's first offshore race, the Web site said, adding that the vessel had been fitted with a satellite tracker.

Attempts to reach representatives of the raceboat's owner were not immediately successful.

It is not clear what route the boat took from Bahrain, which is just off the coast of Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, on the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Richard Schofield, an expert on international boundaries in the Middle East at King's College in London, said it was difficult to understand how its crew could have ended up in trouble with Iranian authorities.

"It's hard to see why, on a regular journey from Bahrain to Dubai, they would have gone through Iranian territorial waters," he said.