Mexico looked beyond its drug war and looming Atlantic storms today to throw a 200th birthday bash celebrating a proud history, whimsical culture and resilience embodied in the traditional independence cry: “Viva Mexico!”

BP PUMPED cement into its blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, hoping to start sealing it for good a day after it forced a slow torrent of heavy mud down the broken wellhead and pushed the crude back to its underground source.

BP claimed a key milestone yesterday in the effort to plug its blown-out well as a government report said much of the spilled oil is gone, heartening officials who have taken heat during the tricky clean-up but leaving some Gulf Coast residents still sceptical.

US president Barack Obama will announce today that a former Secret Service agent who helped expose lobbyists' corruption at the Interior Department will oversee the US$787bn (€611.74 bn) economic stimulus plan.

Opponents of oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge are calling on the new Democratic Congress to make a drilling ban permanent.

The US is bracing itself for an outbreak of foot-and-mouth.