Offshore drilling in water less than 500 feet deep wasn't being banned, the spokeswoman said.

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The saga began Aug. 30, when The Associated Press published a photograph of the soaked, bearded man being helped by two rescuers in Slidell after he nearly drowned, swept away in waist-deep water.

MSN: 'He started tearing up. I started tearing up.'

Meanwhile, back in North America, new techniques were being developed to extract oil and natural gas from shale formations deep underground, from tar sands in Canada, and from deep water in the Gulf of Mexico.

WSJ: China Foothold in U.S. Energy