Peter Wilcox, the American captain of a Greenpeace ship arrested and held in Russia for protesting offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean was freed on bail Friday. He was being held in a detention center after steering the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker ship to the side of Prirazlomnaya oil platform, where environmental activists tried to scale the side on Sept. 17. But a St. Petersburg court freed Wilcox from prison pending further inquiries, Greenpeace said in a statement. The captain was originally charged with piracy along with 27 other activists and two journalists. But investigators later downgraded the charges to hooliganism. A total of 27 people have been granted bail this week. Activists say the oil drilling threatens the fragile Arctic terrain.
