Nation in brief

Congress returns today to $820-billion bill

WASHINGTON - Facing a spending bill and energy legislation left over from last year, Congress returns to Washington today to a truncated schedule that both Democrats and Republicans say will be dominated this year by politics, not policy.

For the Senate, the first order of business is an $820-billion catch-all spending bill covering myriad federal agencies. The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, from South Dakota, is seeking to reopen debate on rules governing overtime pay, media ownership and country-of-origin food labeling, and is urging a filibuster on the measure, which is seven bills wrapped into one.

A vote on whether to cut off debate is scheduled this afternoon. Should Democrats block the measure, Republicans say, it would set the tone for another year of the bitter partisanship that tainted the last session.

"Generally speaking, my optimism is not very high for a terribly productive year," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican whip. "We have less time in session, it's a presidential election year, and that tends to be the most partisan of all years."

TOKYO - A Japanese team that returned Monday from a mission to investigate the United States' first confirmed case of mad cow disease warned that American and Canadian cows were still vulnerable to an outbreak.

Japan, the world's largest customer for U.S. beef, banned imports from the United States last month after the mad cow case was discovered. Canadian beef was banned seven months earlier when a case of the illness was detected there.

Both Washington and Ottawa are pressing Japan to drop the bans, arguing that their beef products are safe, but the findings of the 11-day Japanese mission to the United States and Canada advised caution.

"U.S. safety measures compared to those of Japan are inadequate," Agriculture Ministry representative Shukichi Kugita said.

BUCKEYE, Ariz. - Negotiators tried to talk two inmates into freeing a pair of prison guards held hostage in an observation tower Monday for a second day.

The guards sent word that they were not seriously hurt. But authorities would not say whether the inmates had made any demands or threats, and would not disclose whether they were armed or why they were in prison.

"The conversations have never broken off," said Cam Hunter, a state Corrections Department spokeswoman. "They're back and forth, and there is a good rhythm going."

The 4,400 other inmates at the medium- to high-security Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis were locked in their cells.

The standoff began Sunday morning after an inmate attacked a guard in the prison kitchen. The prisoner and another inmate then got into an observation tower where the two guards were stationed.

KINGSVILLE, Ontario - Divers arrived Monday to begin looking for bodies at the spot where a small regional airline plane crashed into the icy water of Lake Erie with 10 people on board.

The single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan crashed in snowy weather Saturday afternoon. By Sunday it was submerged in 24 feet of water about a mile west of Canada's Pelee Island, the Ontario Provincial Police said.

The Georgian Express plane had just taken off from the island bound for Windsor, about 35 miles to the northwest, when the pilot made a frantic call for help. It carried eight hunters from Ontario, the pilot and a friend of the pilot.

Many of Pelee Island's 180 or so year-round residents recognized the eight hunters, who traveled several times a year to the popular pheasant-hunting destination, said Pelee Township Mayor Bill Krestel.

Authorities identified the pilot as Wayne Price, 32, of Richmond Hill. The other victims were Fred Freitas, 38, of Kingsville; Jim Allen, 51, of Mitchell's Bay; Ted Reeve, 53, of Chatham; Tom Reeve, 49, of Chatham; Robert Brisco, 46, of Chatham; Ronald Spencler, 53, of Windsor; Walter Sadowski, 48, of Windsor; Larry Janik, 48, of Kingsville; and Jamie Levine, 28, of Los Angeles.

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