Oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico for much of the day yesterday before engineers reattached a cap being used to contain the gusher and direct some of the crude to a surface ship.

THE US Coastguard says BP has been forced to remove a cap that was containing some of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

An American judge who struck out the Obama administration’s six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has extensive investments in the oil and gas industry, according to financial disclosure reports.

Barack Obama consoled relatives of the 11 workers killed in the Gulf oil spill disaster, acknowledging their "unimaginable grief" and assuring them that he would stand with them.

The financial toll of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill escalated today as BP’s stock plummeted to a 14-year low.

The BP oil slick drifted closer to the coast of the Florida Panhandle today as a risky gambit to contain the leak by shearing off the well pipe ran into trouble a mile under the sea.

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”.

OIL giant BP faced mounting pressure yesterday to control a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico after the US government threatened to take over the response to the month-old disaster.

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.

THE US government will independently verify how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico from a BP-owned undersea well.

BP reported further progress yesterday in stemming the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but new evidence showed part of the slick could be swept to Florida’s beaches and sensitive coral reefs.

BP engineers finally succeeded in keeping some of the oil gushing from a blown well out of the Gulf of Mexico, hooking up a mile-long tube to funnel it into a tanker after more than three weeks of failures.

US President Barack Obama yesterday warned of “massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster” as a giant oil slick from the Gulf of Mexico threatens environmental and economic catastrophe.

BP’s chairman defended his company’s safety record today, and said “a failed piece of equipment” was to blame for a massive oil spill along the Gulf Coast of America.

BP downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at an offshore oil rig that exploded and caused the worst spill in decades along America’s Gulf Coast, it emerged today.

US President Barack Obama today directed that no new offshore oil drilling leases can be issued unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent a repeat of the explosion that unleashed the massive spill threatening the Gulf Coast with major environmental damage.

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.

REPUBLICANS expanded their hold on US Congress in Tuesday's elections and Democrat Tom Daschle became the first senate leader in half a century to be voted out of office.