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Hot off the press, some very good news
The US Senate has narrowly rejected a plan to allow oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.
The defeat is a major setback for President George Bush's administration, which had insisted that oil exploration in the 19m acre (7.7m hectare) Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would help safeguard America's supply of energy.
Despite intense lobbying by the White House, an amendment was passed on Wednesday by 52 votes to 48 removing the provision allowing drilling to commence from the 2004 budget resolution.
The vote was split largely down party lines.
Most Republicans were keen to start oil exploration in the area, in order to reduce the country's dependence on fuel imports.
But Democrats, a few moderate Republicans and environmental groups argued that the arctic wilderness should be left untouched, and oil exploration concentrated elsewhere.
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fossils - natures way of laughing at creationists for over 3 billion years
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