BP has agreed to settle claims from thousands of fishermen who lost work and others who said they were harmed by the oil giant’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster, the worst offshore oil spill in US history.

US President Barack Obama is today embarking on a tour of three Gulf-coast states tainted by oil before speaking to the public about what to expect in the weeks ahead.

Intent on showing firm command of the deepening crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, US President Barack Obama flew to coastal Louisiana today for his second in-person update on the country’s most devastating oil spill.

An oil spill that is threatening to eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and started washing ashore along America's Gulf Coast early today.