BP pays $60M to Louisiana for berms
VENICE, La., June 8 (UPI) -- BP paid Louisiana $60 million to start building berms in the barrier islands to protect against oil encroaching from the Gulf of Mexico spill, the company said.
The money, an initial payment, was allocated so the state could immediately begin work on a six-berm project, BP said Tuesday in a release. The total cost will be $360 million, the company said.
Oil has been leaking into the gulf since April 20 when an oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers. The rig sank two days later.
BP will make five more payments to Louisiana when state officials certify the berm project reaches certain milestones, the company said.
"We are committed to doing everything we can to protect the coastline and reduce the impact of the oil and gas spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We understand that the United States Coast Guard and the state of Louisiana want this project to proceed with urgency, so we want to ensure that funding is immediately available to begin construction of the berms," BP Managing Director Bob Dudley said.
BP has given $170 million to Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida to help with their cleanup response costs and to help promote their tourism industries, the company said. BPsaid it also paid about $51 million in compensation to people and companies affected by the spill.
Fed agencies told to cut budgets 5 percent
WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- U.S. agencies are to come up with ways to slice at least 5 percent from their budgets, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says.
The departments are to look for programs that aren't doing enough to accomplish their directed goals or President Barack Obama's platform, The Washington Post reported.
The budget-cutting marching orders, which are in addition to the president's previous pledge to freeze some spending at most agencies for three years, is to be laid out in a joint memo Tuesday by Emanuel and Budget Director Peter Orszag, the Post said. Department heads are to come up with proposed cuts by Sept. 13.
"The public wants to know that we're willing to be very aggressive on spending. They're willing to invest, but they also want to know that you're going to wear the green eye shades," Emanuel said told the Post in an interview Monday. "That's exactly what's happening here."
The Post said an advance copy of a speech Orszag is to deliver Tuesday reveals he will zero in on a multitude of programs meant to address similar issues, including 110 science and math education programs, 100 youth mentoring efforts and 40-plus employment and job training efforts.
"This redundancy wastes resources and makes it harder to act on each of these worthy goals," the Post said Orszag will say in his speech.
Peru official: Van der Sloot admits guilt
LIMA, June 8 (UPI) -- Dutch murder suspect Joran van der Sloot has confessed to killing a Peruvian woman, police sources said Monday.
The Peruvian newspaper La Republica and local television station America Noticias reported van der Sloot allegedly told authorities he killed Stephany Flores Ramirez, 21, because she learned he was suspected in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba.
The news Web site Living in Peru reported an unnamed high-ranking government official said Flores angered van der Sloot because she used his laptop computer to look for information about him.
"I did not want to do it. She intruded into my private life," van der Sloot allegedly said in a confession. "... I approached to her, she was scared, we quarreled and she tried to run away. I grabbed her by the neck and hit her ... ."
Van der Sloot, 22, could be formally charged Tuesday, Living in Peru said.
Flores's body was found in his Lima hotel room last week.
Van der Sloot, who was captured in Chile and returned to Peru last week, has not been charged in the disappearance and suspected slaying of Holloway, the Alabama teen who vanished while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba.
Japanese PM Kan names new Cabinet
TOKYO, June 8 (UPI) -- Japan's new prime minister, Naoto Kan, named his Cabinet Tuesday in advance of next month's elections to the upper house, where his party needs to do well.
Kan, who took over after the sudden resignation of Yukio Hatoyma last week, faces tough challenges to improve the ratings of his ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
Kan's 17-member team retained 11 ministers from the Hatoyama Cabinet, including Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and Transport Minister Seiji Maehara, Kyodo News reported.
Those ministers will be involved in the relocation -- under a new accord -- of the U.S. Marine base in Okinawa. One reason for Hatoyama's resignation after only eight months in office was that he could not move the base's air station out of Okinawa as he had pledged in his election campaign last August.
Speaking to reporters at his first inaugural news conference, Kan said, "I believe that the role of politics is to create a society that minimizes factors that make people unhappy at home and around the world,'' Kyodo reported.
Although it was Hatoyama who helped lead the DPJ to victory in elections, his ratings had plunged below 20 percent prior to decision to step down.
It is now up to Kan, who was the finance and deputy prime minister in the Hatoyma Cabinet, to refurbish the party image as the upper house elections approach.
In the new Cabinet, Yoshito Sengoku, who had been state minister in charge of formulating national strategy, was promoted to chief Cabinet secretary -- the government's top spokesman.
