The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY “Despite the importance of this law, and despite the

terrible economic dislocation caused

by the failures in our financial system under the old rules,

top Republicans

in Congress are

now beating the

drum to repeal all

of these reforms and consumer protections.” President Barack Obama,

on GOP opposition to financial regulations he signed in July Article, 3A

Drug lab found in dorm; 3 arrested

WASHINGTON - Police arrested three men Saturday suspected of creating a drug lab in a freshmen dormitory at Georgetown University in Washington.

Officer Hugh Carew, a Washington police spokesman, said investigators found a DMT lab where chemicals could create a hallucinogenic drug. DMT stands for dimethyltryptamine. Officials earlier Saturday thought it was a methamphetamine lab.

Emergency crews responded about 6:15 a.m. after a strange odor was reported.

About 400 students were evacuated from Harbin Hall.

Seven people were exposed to noxious chemicals, including three students.

Carew said two of the suspects are students and one was a visitor. Local and federal agents are investigating.

Lawsuit requests

drilling refreeze

WASHINGTON - An environmental group wants a federal judge to put a freeze on deep-water oil drilling back in place.

The Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asks a judge in Washington to reinstate the drilling freeze.

The center filed suit in U.S.

District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, claiming that Salazar violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement and “provide the public with relevant environmental information on the effects of commencing drilling.”

The drilling freeze was imposed after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion spewed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Arizona-based group says the ban should go back into place until the Interior Department completes a comprehensive analysis of drilling risk to the environment and wildlife.

The freeze lasted for six months before Salazar lifted it Oct. 12. The interior secretary said new rules had made drilling safer and reduced the risk of another blowout.

Russian: U.S. fails to stop heroin labs

WASHINGTON - The head of Russia’s federal drugcontrol agency says the U.S.

has failed to dismantle heroin-processing laboratories in Afghanistan despite specific information he has given American officials about the facilities.

Ivanov, who was in Washington for a meeting of a commission on drugs set up by the U.S. and Russian presidents to improve cooperation, said that months ago he provided U.S. officials in Kabul with the coordinates of 175 laboratories where heroin is processed.

He said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials there have told him they are awaiting U.S. military approval to take down the labs.

The DEAsaid it does not confirm or deny information shared by other nations.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 10/24/2010

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