BP robots have attached a new, tighter-fitting cap on top of the gushing Gulf of Mexico oil leak, raising hopes that the flow of crude polluting the water can be stopped for the first time in nearly three months.

A BP executive said today the company expected to be capturing virtually all the oil leaking from the Gulf of Mexico sea bed by early next week.

THE giant Gulf of Mexico oil slick was last night closing in on the pristine Florida coast, as deep sea robotic submarines hit a new snag in BP’s latest bid to contain the spill.

BP was fighting to secure its future today as the US government launched a criminal and civil investigation into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

US FEDERAL authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the BP oil spill disaster.

BP OFFICIALS yesterday expressed their disappointment at failing to plug the uncontrolled flow of oil from the worst spill in US history.

BP officials today expressed their disappintment at failing to plug the uncontrolled flow of oil from the worst spill in US history.

US president Barack Obama said today that the failure of BP’s latest effort to stop the catastrophic flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was “as enraging as it is heartbreaking”.

BP says it could be tomorrow or later before it knows whether its latest attempt to clog the source of America’s largest oil spill is working.

Engineers were today anxiously waiting to see if their experimental repair attempt on the blown Gulf of Mexico oil rig would succeed.

BP said today everything was going as planned as the oil giant began pumping heavy mud into a leaking Gulf of Mexico well.

Oil giant BP today admitted its failure to plug the gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well was frustrating, as it prepared for its next major attempt on the leak.

Heavy oil from the massive Gulf of Mexico spill reached wildlife sanctuaries on Louisiana coasts today.

ENERGY giant BP yesterday said it was capturing about a fifth of the estimated oil gushing from its ruptured undersea Gulf of Mexico well and hoped to try to fully stop the flow later this week.

Around one fifth of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the rig disaster is now being collected by a bypass pipe, BP said tonight.

BP said it was confident its latest experiment using a mile-long pipe would capture much of the oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, even as the company admitted yet another setback in the environmental disaster.

Black Hawk helicopters peppered Louisiana’s barrier islands with sacks of sand to bolster crucial wetlands against the four million gallon-and-growing Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Ice-like crystals encrusting the walls of a 100-ton steel and concrete box meant to contain oil gushing from a broken well deep in the Gulf of Mexico forced crews to suspend a bid to tackle the leak today.

A sense of foreboding enveloped the American coastline from Louisiana to Florida today as the massive BP oil slick spewing from a ruptured well kept growing.

The worst US oil spill in decades spread into precious shoreline habitat along the Gulf Coast today as documents emerged showing British Petroleum downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the offshore rig that exploded.

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.

A MASSIVE oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that has become far worse than initially thought crept toward the coast yesterday as US government officials offered help from the military to prevent a disaster that could destroy fragile marshlands along the shore.

BP crews raced to protect the Gulf of Mexico coastline as a remote sub tried to shut off an underwater oil well gushing 42,000 gallons a day from the site of a wrecked drilling platform.