Nigerian militants release 6 oil workers; 3 still captive
Warri, Nigeria – Militants released six foreign oil workers, including a diabetic Texan celebrating his 69th birthday Wednesday, taken captive last month to press fighters’ demands for a greater share of oil revenues generated in this restive southern state.
But three other hostages – two Americans and a Briton – were kept by militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. A militant spokesman said all “low-value” hostages taken Feb. 18 had been freed.
Those released Wednesday included Macon Hawkins of Kosciusko, Texas, two Egyptians, two Thais and a Filipino. They were taken to the offices of James Ibori, governor of the delta state.
Militants handed Hawkins to surprised journalists visiting the fighters in the creeks and waterways of the oil-rich Niger Delta. The reporters took the calm but bedraggled worker to Nigeria’s military.
Hawkins said he bore his captors no ill will.
“I have no animosity toward them at all,” he said. “I’ve seen their little villages. They’re dirt poor – poor as field mice.”
The militants are demanding Nigeria’s federal government release two of their region’s leaders from prison and are seeking a greater share of proceeds from the oil pumped from their impoverished lands in southern Nigeria. The country is Africa’s largest producer of crude oil.
KARACHI, Pakistan
Explosions kill three, damage U.S. consulate
Two bomb blasts today shattered windows at the U.S. consulate and a luxury hotel in Pakistan’s largest city, killing three people, including a U.S. foreign service officer, and injuring at least 34, a police official said.
The bombs ripped through the parking lot of the Marriott Hotel in Karachi, about 20 yards from the consulate gate, police official Mushtaq Shah said.
Speaking in neighboring India, Bush said a U.S. foreign service officer was killed. “We have lost at least one U.S. citizen in the bombing, a foreign service officer, and I send our country’s deepest condolences to that person’s loved ones and family,” Bush said, declining to provide further details.
The bombings occurred two days before President Bush is to visit the capital, Islamabad, for talks on the fight against al-Qaeda and loyalists of Afghanistan’s former Taliban. Pakistan is a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism.
OKLAHOMA CITY
Five firefighters hurt as grass fires rage
Grass fires raged across Oklahoma on Wednesday, injuring five firefighters, destroying homes and other buildings, and forcing evacuations of schools and businesses, authorities said.
The largest fires burned in Stephens County in southwestern Oklahoma, where two volunteer firefighters suffered severe burns battling a blaze that was at least 8 miles long. Their conditions were not available.
The fire destroyed at least 30 homes and Liberty Baptist Church near Meridian.
A fire near Empire prompted authorities to evacuate Empire and Liberty schools, a technical center and a distribution facility. Four other fires burned in the Oklahoma City area.
WASHINGTON
EPA proposes cuts in emission toxins
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed cutting toxic emissions from cars nearly in half by 2030, drawing praise from many environmentalists while sparking concern among gasoline refiners.
The new standards, which are subject to a 60-day comment period and would take effect in 2011, would force refiners to reduce the annual average benzene content in their gasoline by 36 percent.
MANASSAS, Va.
Woman pleads guilty in 2-year-old’s death
A woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the beating death of a 2-year-old girl she had adopted from a Russian orphanage.
Peggy Sue Hilt, 33, choked back tears as she entered her plea. She faces up to 40 years in prison at her sentencing May 25 for the death of Nina Holt.
Hilt admitted a few days after Nina’s death last summer that she became upset with the girl for crying and dropped her on the floor, kicked her and jumped on her abdomen.
In response, Russia sought mandatory training programs and psychological testing for foreigners who want to adopt.
KATMANDU, Nepal
Gunfight, bomb blast leave at least 34 dead
The bodies of 11 Nepalese security forces and 18 suspected rebels were found Wednesday at the site of a fierce gunfight in western Nepal, the Defense Ministry said, while five insurgents were reported killed in a bomb explosion.
Security forces found the bodies a day after a gun battle in Panena village in the Palpa district, which broke out when soldiers patrolling the area came under attack from Maoist rebels who surrounded them.
The rebels have fought for a decade to establish a communist government in Nepal. The unrest has claimed nearly 13,000 lives.
VATICAN CITY
Pope begins Lent with plea to aid poor
Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in St. Peter’s Square, urged people to overcome indifference to the poor and share what they have with the needy as the Roman Catholic Church marked Ash Wednesday, which begins the austere period of personal sacrifice known as Lent.
