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Drilling permits, waivers still issued

WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) -- U.S. regulators have issued permits for drilling and granted environmental waivers, saying the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will not stop offshore drilling.

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The Interior Department and the Minerals Management Service have issued at least seven new permits and five environmental waivers since BP's Deepwater Horizon well exploded and sank, killing 11 workers and triggering a massive oil spill, The New York Times reported Monday. Regulators said some of the permits were necessary to guarantee the safety of existing projects.

The Times quoted federal officials as saying the moratorium declared by President Barack Obama in the wake of the disaster was not meant to halt work on existing projects. However, the Times said, some of the waivers have been for sites deeper than the Deepwater Horizon, which is 5,000 feet down. The Times said some of the permissions have gone to wells 9,100 feet deep.

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Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., said stronger environmental reviews should be standard operating procedure now, not lax controls.


Iran: Three U.S. hikers were spying

TEHRAN, May 24 (UPI) -- Three U.S. hikers who crossed into Iran from Iraq were involved in a spy operation, Iranian intelligence officials said.

Joshua Felix Fattal, 27, Shane Michael Bauer, 27, and Sarah Emily Shourd, 31, have been held in an Iranian prison since their arrest July 31 in the western Iranian district of Marivan.

They were charged with espionage, Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said.

"It is clear that the three Americans are spies," Moslehi told reporters Sunday adding there have been no talks of a prisoner swap, as of yet.

As a humanitarian gesture, Iran allowed Fattal, Bauer and Shourd to meet with their mothers, who traveled from the United States to Iran last week, Fars News Agency reported Monday.

"We expect the Americans, who claim to be advocates of human rights, to also commit humanitarian acts, because only after this can we decide on whether or not to have a (prisoner) swap," Moslehi said.


Coal miner says mine a 'ticking time bomb'

BECKLEY, W.Va., May 24 (UPI) -- West Virginia coal miners and family members told U.S. lawmakers Monday conditions were bad before an explosion that killed 29 miners last month.

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Miners told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee hearing in Beckley that Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine was plagued by methane and had poor ventilation, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. They also said the mine was rife with safety violations and they were threatened with being fired if they didn't work fast enough, the newspaper said.

Stanley Stewart, who said he worked at Upper Big Branch until the day of the explosion, described it as "a ticking time bomb."

"My experience in the mines showed me that the ventilation system they had didn't work," the Post-Gazette quoted Stewart as saying.

Alice Peters, mother-in-law of Dean Jones, a section foreman who was among the miners killed in the April 5 blast, told the panel he had talked about the mine's ventilation shortcomings.

"He also told me that, at least seven times, he was told by Massey supervisors that, if he shut down production because of the ventilation problems, he would lose his job," Peters said.

Steve Morgan said his son Adam, who also died in the accident, told him coal dust had been thick in the mine and steps were taken to reduce the levels when officials were "notified an inspector was on his way in."

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BA flight crews begin 5-day walkout

LONDON, May 24 (UPI) -- British Airways flight crews began the first of three five-day strikes Monday, and union officials and management argued in public over travel concessions.

Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the union Unites, said the initial walkout could have been averted if BA re-established travel perks for flight crews. The airline, in turn, said this was already promised to the union, but would not be available until a final contract is signed, the BBC reported.

BA said it was able to operate 60 percent of its long-distance flights and 50 percent of its shorter routes, partly through contracts with temporary staff. No flights from London's Gatwick airport or London City would be affected by the strike, BA said.

Airline crews consider the travel concessions critical because low fares for flights -- 10 percent of average fares -- help them commute to work.

The airline accused the union of negotiating through the news media, while the union accused the airline of trying to break up union leadership.

The first of the back-to-back strikes began at midnight Monday. The other two five-day walkouts are schedule to start Sunday and June 5.

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Icelandic volcano grows quiet

REYKJAVíK, Iceland, May 24 (UPI) -- The Icelandic volcano that disrupted thousands of flights over Europe with its ash plume appears to be dormant, at least temporarily, officials said.

Steam, but no ash, was detected from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano Sunday in a flight over the crater by Icelandic scientists.

Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Met Office, said the volcano had shown signs of reduced activity in recent days, with few earthquakes recorded, the Iceland Review reported Monday.

When the volcano erupted in the early 1920s, however, it went dormant for a while and then erupted again, Gudmundsson warned.

When the volcano erupted in mid-April, it spewed a dense cloud of ash into the atmosphere, disrupting international air travel throughout Europe.

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