Order drops restrictions on oil, gas exploration

Order drops restrictionson oil, gas exploration
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has directed federal land managers to remove obstacles to oil and gas development in parts of five Rocky Mountain states.
New policy directives issued to Bureau of Land Management state directors give the officials tools to implement the administration's long-standing goal of opening the Rocky Mountain West to increased exploitation of oil and gas resources.
BLM field offices in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico will have until the end of the year to evaluate whether restrictions on oil and gas development can be removed.
Environmentalists say the policies are another step in the White House's efforts to favor energy development over protection of wild lands.
84 inmates escapefrom top-security prison
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Eighty-four inmates from a maximum security prison in northeastern Brazil escaped through a tunnel Saturday, authorities said.
The inmates escaped from the Silvio Porto prison in Joao Pessoa, the capital of Paraiba state, an officer at the state's Public Security Office said.
Police recaptured one of the fugitives at a nearby beach several hours later.
Prison rebellions and escapes are frequent in Brazil's notoriously overcrowded prisons.
36 become ill from leaksin WWII gas canisters
BEIJING -- Toxic gas that leaked from canisters left behind from World War II sickened 36 people in northeast China, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.
Xinhua said unspecified experts had concluded that the canisters were chemical weapons left by the Japanese army. Japan is believed to have abandoned about 700,000 chemical weapons loaded with mustard gas and other poisons in China's northeast after its 13-year occupation of the region ended in 1945.
Twenty-nine people were hospitalized after the cans were unearthed Monday in the city of Qiqihar, Xinhua said. The area is about 650 miles northeast of Beijing.
Xinhua said fumes from an oily substance in the canisters caused headaches, burning eyes and other symptoms.
Lawyers for Chinese plaintiffs who have sued the Japanese government say the weapons have caused some 2,000 deaths since the war.
Gephardt acceptsTeamsters' backing
DETROIT -- Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt accepted the Teamsters union's formal endorsement Saturday in the union stronghold of Michigan before moving on to rally Teamsters in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Standing in a grassy area close to Teamsters Joint Council 43 headquarters near downtown Detroit, the Missouri congressman told several hundred Teamsters holding Gephardt signs and American flags that he is the best candidate to bring back jobs lost under President Bush.
Pakistanis, Indians to talk
LAHORE, Pakistan -- Political activists chanted peace slogans and tossed rose petals Saturday as a delegation of lawmakers from India arrived for a two-day conference aimed at easing long-standing tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors.
Pakistani and Indian lawmakers planned to encourage their governments to resume stalled peace talks and take further steps to improve relations between countries that have fought three wars and come close to a fourth.
Freeing stranded whales
BIG PINE KEY, Fla. -- On Saturday, Marine experts readied the procedure for returning five stranded pilot whales to the open sea.
The procedure will be the first simultaneous release of five whales from a single stranding incident in the United States. The release of even one whale is rare, officials said.
At high tide this morning, about 50 experts and volunteers were expected to use cranes to lift the whales onto slings and load them onto boats taking them about 12 miles offshore.
"We have all the equipment here, we field tested it today and everything looks great," Laura Engleby, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries marine biologist, said Saturday.
The whales are among 28 that stranded April 18 in the Florida Keys. Eight died, six were euthanized and nine swam away.
The five -- four adult females and one yearling male -- will be tagged with electronic tracking devices and monitored. If a whale fails to thrive, it will be recaptured and brought back to the Keys.
Associated Press