Nation IN BRIEF : TEXAS : Bay Oil Spill Moves Away From Marshes

A 50,000-gallon, five-mile-long slick of oil from two damaged barges in Galveston Bay was moving away from shore as cleanup crews worked to deflect it from environmentally sensitive waterfowl habitats, the Coast Guard said. Other vessels were backed up in the Houston Ship Channel, closed since the barges collided Saturday with the Liberian tanker Shinoussa. One barge was sinking and the other was listing; oil from the nearly sunken barge escaped to the surface, while leakage from the other was mostly trapped in absorbent pads. A second, smaller slick also developed about a mile from shore, near the site of the accident, Coast Guard Capt. Thomas Greene said.