In the News

WORLD

MEXICO CITY – Felipe Calderon was declared president-elect Tuesday after two months of uncertainty, but his ability to rule effectively remained in doubt with rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador vowing to lead a parallel leftist government from the streets.

The unanimous decision by the Federal Electoral Tribunal rejected allegations of systematic fraud and awarded Calderon the presidency by 233,831 votes out of 41.6 million cast in the July 2 elections-a margin of 0.56 percent. The ruling cannot be appealed. Calderon now must win over millions of Mexicans angry that President Vicente Fox, who is from Calderon’s party, didn’t make good on promises of sweeping change-

and fend off thousands of radicalized leftists who say they will stop at nothing to undermine his presidency.

Lopez Obrador, whose support is dwindling but becoming more radical, said he will not recognize the new government. He has vowed to block Calderon from taking power Dec. 1.

NATIONAL

WASHINGTON-A trio of oil companies led by Chevron Corp. has tapped a petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation’s reserves by more than 50 percent.

A test well indicates it could be the biggest new domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay a generation ago. But the vast oil deposit roughly four miles beneath the ocean floor won’t significantly reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, and it won’t help lower prices at the pump anytime soon, analysts said. Chevron on Tuesday estimated the 300-square-mile region where its test well sits could hold between 3 and 15 billion barrels of oil and natural gas liquids. The U.S. consumes roughly 5.7 billion barrels of crude oil in a year. It will take years and tens of billions of dollars to bring the newly tapped oil to market, but the discovery carries particular importance for the industry at a time when Western oil and gas companies are finding fewer opportunities in politically unstable parts of the world, including the Middle East, Africa and Russia.

WASHINGTON-President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged what many already knew: The United States has interrogated hardened terrorists in secret CIA jails around the world.

The disclosure came after months of protests by human rights groups and others who accused the administration of torturing terror suspects abroad.

Bush denied that detainees are tortured but said the CIA had used “tough” interrogation techniques to get them to divulge intelligence that had helped to foil Sept. 11-style attacks against the United States and its allies.

Bush said 14 suspects-including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and architects of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania -had been turned over to the Defense Department and moved to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial.

STATE

McLEAN – Some species of male fish are acquiring female sexual characteristics at unusually high frequencies in the Potomac River and its tributaries, prompting concerns about pollutants in a waterway that provides drinking water for millions of people.

In some Potomac tributaries, including the Shenandoah River in Virginia, nearly all of the male smallmouth bass caught in a survey last year by the U.S. Geological Surveys were so-called “intersex fish,” producing immature eggs in their testes. It is not exactly clear what is causing the changes, though it is likely a combination of pollutants. Certain chemicals and pesticides are believed to stimulate estrogen production. Also, estrogen from birth control pills and human waste can make its way from sewage treatment plants to the waterways.