Flooding Closes Panama Canal

Canal shut for 3rd time in 96 years
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 9, 2010 2:42 AM CST
Flooding Closes Panama Canal
A cargo ship sails through the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal in Panama City.   (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Flooding has forced authorities to close the Panama Canal for only the third time since it opened in 1914. Officials say they hope to have the waterway, a conduit for close to 5% of all world trade, back open sometime today, CNN reports. The canal was shut down during the US invasion of Panama in 1989, and closed for several months in 1915-1916 because of landslides.
(More Panama stories.)

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