Blown-out well in Mideast defies attempt at capping

Oil fire specialists failed t choke off poisonous gas spewing from an oil rig in the Gulf which killed 19 people on Thursday. Wearing oxygen equipment, experts from the company run by Texan Paul (Red) Adair flew by helicopter to the rig, which is covered in oil seeping out with the gas. Their oxygen ran out before the well could be capped and they are to try again Monday, shipping industry sources said. The blowout occurred when the drill struck a heavy pocket of poisonous hydrogen sulfide. Traces of the gas could be smelled in Bahrain more than 100 miles from the rig.