Coast Guard: Oil leaking from well

Coast Guard: Oil leaking from well

NEW ORLEANS

The Coast Guard discovered Saturday that oil is leaking from the damaged well underneath a massive rig that exploded this week off Louisiana’s coast, and bad weather halted efforts to clean up the mess that threatens the area’s fragile marine ecosystem.

For days, the Coast Guard has said no oil appeared to be escaping from the well head on the ocean floor. Rear Adm. Mary Landry said the leak was a new discovery but could have begun when the rig sank Thursday, two days after the initial explosion.

Toyota to recall cars made in Brazil

SAO PAULO

Toyota’s subsidiary in Brazil has agreed to recall an unspecified number of Corollas due to the risk of sudden acceleration, the Brazilian Justice Ministry has announced.

Toyota do Brasil Ltda. will recall all vehicles made in Brazil since April 2008 and will fix loose floor mats that could interfere with the gas pedal and cause sudden acceleration, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Attacks kill police officers in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD

A suicide car bomber attacked a prison van, and gunmen torched six NATO oil tankers in separate strikes Saturday that killed four Pakistani police officers and wounded 10 others, authorities said.

The army, meanwhile, kept up its pressure on the Pakistani Taliban in the tribal belt, killing 20 suspected fighters, and apparent U.S. missiles killed five alleged insurgents in a nearby northwest region, officials said.

The oil tankers were hit in Chakwal district — a rare, possibly unprecedented such assault in Punjab province. Militants and ordinary criminals frequently attack trucks that travel along supply routes used by NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, but usually in the northwest Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa or southwest Baluchistan provinces.

Abbas calls on Obama for deal

RAMALLAH, West Bank

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called on President Barack Obama on Saturday to impose a Mideast peace deal, reflecting growing frustration with what Palestinians see as Washington’s failure to wrangle concessions out of Israel’s hard-line government.

In an unusually blunt appeal, Abbas said that if Obama believes Palestinian statehood is a vital U.S. interest, then the American leader must take forceful steps to bring it about.

“Since you, Mr. President and you, the members of the American administration, believe in this, it is your duty to call for the steps in order to reach the solution and impose the solution — impose it,” Abbas said in a speech to leaders of his Fatah movement.

Judge orders boy returned to father

SAO PAULO

For the second time in four months, a judge has ordered a Brazilian to relinquish custody of a child to his U.S. father.

In this case, Hilma Aparecida Caldeira, a former member of Brazil’s national volleyball team and ex-Olympic contender, was ordered to return her 4-year-old son, Kelvin Caldeira Birotte, to his father, Kelvin Birotte, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Orna Blum said Saturday.

Blum did not release the father’s age, hometown or state. Nor did she say when the judge made his decision or what the deadline was for handing over the child. She said she could not provide further details due to privacy issues.

Associated Press