Congress quietly lifted the ban on offshore oil drilling yesterday, opening the vast waters of the outer continental shelf to oil and gas companies eager to exploit the area's substantial energy resources.

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The vast area of waters, dotted with partially submerged atolls and reefs, contain some of the world's busiest shipping lanes and are thought to hold large deposits of oil and natural gas.

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And I want to thank -- I want to thank Kenya for hosting Somali refugees who have come looking for safety and for prosecuting pirates not just in Somali waters, but increasingly in the vast swathes of East African waters.

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By means of canals and huge concrete aquaducts, they took the rivers' waters to irrigate vast areas of cotton.

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As with the Marshall Islands' declaration, the Cook Islands' effort was with the help of the Pew Environment Group, which advocates island nations' involvement because of the vast scope of their territorial waters.

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In 2007, the vast new Tupi field in Brazilian coastal waters was discovered in 200 meters of water below a massive layer of salt in hugely inhospitable geological conditions.

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He said "freezing water" also flooded the basement, "drowning the vast majority of us" and leaving the rest in the chilly waters for about 20 hours.

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