Washington in brief

Senate agrees on energy bill

WASHINGTON - The Senate, ending a week of gridlock, passed an outline for a sweeping national energy policy Thursday that calls for greater use of corn-based ethanol and billions of dollars in tax measures to spur energy development and conservation.

The vote was 84-14.

More than the provisions of the bill - which was identical to a measure the Senate approved a year ago - passage was designed to clear the way for a compromise with the House on legislation that President Bush could sign by year's end.

The legislation would:

- Double the use of corn-based ethanol in gasoline, while banning the use of the troublesome additive MTBE, which has been found to contaminate drinking water supplies.

- Provide $16-billion in tax breaks and incentives to promote energy production and conservation.

- Spur production of a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

- Rescind a Depression-era law that restricted merger activities of utility holding companies.

Unlike the House-passed bill, which would open the way for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, the Senate measure makes no mention of refuge development.

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities announced on Thursday the arrests of more than 240 people in the United States and Mexico and the seizure of nearly 13 tons of cocaine in what they described as a major dent in one of Mexico's biggest drug-smuggling operations.

Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed the arrests as "a significant victory against the purveyors of illegal drugs, death and violence," and officials said they thought that the arrests could cripple major cocaine operations in Arizona, the Northeast and Southern California.

The reported leader of the operation, Ismael Zambada Garcia, and all but one of his top lieutenants remained at large in Mexico, officials said.

U.S. law enforcement officials said the suspects' tight security and their ties to Mexican military officials and local police forces had made them difficult to catch.

An indictment unsealed in federal court in Washington charged Zambada Garcia and two top aides with conspiracy to import and distribute millions of dollars of cocaine in the United States.

The authorities said they had arrested about 240 people during the investigation, almost all of them in the United States. The authorities stepped up the arrests in recent days and said they expected arrests for the week to reach 176 people. That would bring the total number arrested to more than 350.

The arrests spanned the country from New York City and Buffalo in the East to Phoenix, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City in the West. The authorities said they thought that many of those arrested played important roles in running U.S. distribution "cells" in the Zambada Garcia operation. A top lieutenant, Manuel Campas-Medina, was also arrested this week in Mexico, the officials said.

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