WASHINGTON

DURBIN APOLOGIZES FOR COMPARING PRISON TREATMENT TO NAZI ACTIONS

Under fire from Republicans and some fellow Democrats, Senator Durbin apologized yesterday for comparing American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to Nazis and other historically infamous figures. “Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line,” Mr. Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois said. “To them I extend my heartfelt apologies.” His voice quaking and tears welling in his eyes, the no. 2 Democrat in the Senate also apologized to any soldiers who felt insulted by his remarks. “They’re the best. I never, ever intended any disrespect for them,” he said.

The apology came a week after Mr. Durbin, the Senate minority whip, quoted from an FBI agent’s report describing detainees at the naval base in an American controlled portion of Cuba as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures. “If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime – Pol Pot or others – that had no concern for human beings,” the senator said June 14. The comment created a buzz on the Internet and among conservative talk radio hosts, but Mr. Durbin initially refused to apologize.

– Associated Press

SENATE VOTES FOR OFFSHORE ENERGY INVENTORY, DEBATES CLIMATE CHANGE

The Senate voted yesterday to inventory all offshore oil and gas resources – a step environmentalists saw as a threat to bans on drilling – and debated a challenge to President Bush’s climate-change policies. Many senators from coastal states criticized the offshore energy inventory as a prelude to gas drilling in waters that have been off-limits to energy development for nearly a quarter-century. Supporters of the measure called it necessary to know what resources the country has available if they are needed.

An attempt by Senator Martinez, a Republican of Florida, and several other coastal senators to strip the inventory requirement from a broad energy bill was turned back 52-44. Later the Senate turned its attention to climate change, one of the most contentious issues facing senators as they move toward approving sweeping energy legislation by the end of the week. The House passed its version of a national energy policy in April. Most Republicans rallied around a climate proposal offered by Senator Hagel, a Republican of Nebraska, which would avoid mandatory greenhouse emission cuts.

– Associated Press

FEDERAL STUDY URGES RULES FOR SAFER SKYSCRAPERS

The planning, construction, and operation of skyscrapers must be radically changed to help people who fall victim to terrorist attacks, accidents, and natural calamities survive, a federal panel will recommend today, according to a report on the New York Times Web site last night. Strategies for getting people out of buildings under attack will have to be altered so that everyone has a way to exit during an emergency. In addition, the panel will call for better elevators and stairways, and a higher standard for testing the fireproofing of steel for skyscrapers, according to the Times.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

REPUBLICANS CRAFT SOCIAL SECURITY BILL THAT SIDELINES PERSONAL ACCOUNTS

Key House Republicans scrambled yesterday to craft Social Security legislation that sidetracks the most controversial elements of President Bush’s plan, officials said, the latest sign of unease with the administration’s campaign for personal accounts financed from payroll taxes. Even so, a White House spokesman insisted that Mr. Bush remains committed to his call for personal accounts. “He is not” retreating, said Trent Duffy. Mr. Bush has called for personal accounts, financed from a portion of payroll taxes, to be included in a broader bill that achieves long-term solvency in the Depression-era program.

– Associated Press

WEST

MISSING SCOUT FOUND ALIVE, ‘IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE’

KAMAS, Utah – An 11-year-old boy who vanished from a Boy Scout camp was found alive and in good condition yesterday after an intensive four-day search of the rugged Utah wilderness. Sheriff Dave Edmunds said Brennan Hawkins was “a little dehydrated, a little weak, but other than that, he was in very good health.” The sheriff said that after eating some food and drinking some water, the boy asked to play a video game on the cell phone of one of the volunteers who had been searching for him. Authorities planned to take him to a hospital to be checked out. A spokeswoman for the Boy Scouts’ Great Salt Lake Council, Kay Godfrey, pronounced the boy’s rescue a “modern-day miracle.” Brennan was found just before noon near Lily Lake, about five miles from the camp in the Uinta Mountains where he was last seen Friday. He was reunited with his parents, Toby and Jody Hawkins, and their four other children. Brennan carried no food or water, and his family had said he did not have a good sense of direction.

– Associated Press