MUSCAT, Oman - Cyclone Gonu battered Oman's coast Wednesday with fierce winds and torrential rains, forcing thousands from their homes and shutting down oil installations before heading toward the world's most important crude oil tanker route. The storm — a rarity in the Middle East — was expected to make landfall on the southeastern Iranian coast late Thursday, according to the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. But it was likely to spare Iran's offshore oil installations that lie more than 120 miles to the west. In Muscat, the cyclone unleashed sheets of rainfall and howling winds rarely seen in...