CHASTENED by heavy criticism, a grim-faced BP chief executive Tony Hayward insisted yesterday he was “devastated with this accident” in the Gulf of Mexico and denied shunning tough questions from Congress on the nation’s worst oil spill.

The US government has declared the polar bear a threatened species because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.

Revising his stand on global warming, President George Bush called for a halt in the growth of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and urged other major polluting nations to develop national goals to address climate change.

Opponents of oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge are calling on the new Democratic Congress to make a drilling ban permanent.