US oil agency chief quits under pressure
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the head of the troubled US agency that oversees offshore drilling has resigned.
Salazar announced the news Thursday at a congressional hearing where Minerals Management Service Director Elizabeth Birnbaum was scheduled to testify. She did not appear. Birnbaum and her agency have endured scathing criticism in the weeks since the Gulf oil spill over alleged lax oversight of drilling and what President Barack Obama has called an overly cozy relationship with industry. (AP)
