US President Barack Obama was today joining his family for a short trip to Florida as he bids to boost the area's sagging tourism industry in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP’S broken Gulf of Mexico oil well is not yet plugged for good, and work on what has been touted as the permanent solution will need to continue, the US government said yesterday.

BP's broken Gulf of Mexico oil well is not yet plugged for good, and work on what has been touted as the permanent solution will need to continue, the US government said today.

BP might consider drilling once again into the same lucrative undersea pocket of oil that spilled millions of gallons of crude, wrecked livelihoods and fouled beaches along the Gulf of 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.

A crush of mud finally plugged BP’S blown-out well, three months after the offshore drilling rig explosion that unleashed a gush of oil and a summer of misery along the Gulf Coast.

BP engineers began pumping heavy drilling mud into the blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well in what they believe is their best yet chance to snuff out for good one of the world’s largest spills.

BP engineers today hope to begin a plan to permanently halt oil gushing from a blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

The US Coast Guard has routinely approved BP requests to use thousands of gallons of toxic chemical a day to break up oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico despite a federal directive that the chemicals be used only rarely on surface waters, congressional investigators said after examining BP and government documents.

The massive effort to clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill must be scaled back now, BP's new chief executive officer said today.

WITH BP’s leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico finally capped, the focus shifts to the surface clean-up and the question on everyone’s lips is: where is all the oil?

SHIPS were getting back in place yesterday at the Gulf of Mexico site of BP’s leaky oil well as crews raced to resume work on plugging the gusher before another big storm stops work again.

Crews hurried to get back to work on plugging BP's leaky oil well after Tropical Storm Bonnie fizzled out and engineers hoped for a window of clear weather long enough to stop the gush for good.

BP engineers in the Gulf of Mexico said they will leave the leaky cap fixed to its well head closed as key ships stationed over the site were ordered to evacuate today as Tropical Storm Bonnie loomed.

The temporary cap on BP’s ruptured oil well can stay closed even if ships evacuate the Gulf of Mexico during a tropical storm, the American federal government’s oil spill chief said today.

The BP oil leak could be permanently plugged within a fortnight, US experts said today.

BP’s broken well was leaking oil and gas again today for the first time since the company capped it last week.

A CAP on BP’s ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico remained in place yesterday while further tests are carried out to check for new leaks.

A cap on BP’s ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico remained in place today while further tests are carried out to check for new leaks.

BP will be allowed to keep its cap on the Gulf of Mexico oil leak for at least another day, the US government said today.

A revival for BP shares after the placing of a cap on its ruptured well ended today amid fears that oil may be seeping from the seabed.

BP hopes to keep using its giant stopper to block oil from reaching the Gulf of Mexico until they plug the blown-out well permanently, the company said yesterday.

Oil giant BP was cautiously optimistic today after finally winning control of the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil leak.

Engineers were today preparing to test a new cap designed to stop the BP oil leak.

Engineers trying to stop the BP oil leak were delayed by a technical hitch today.

BP allayed last-minute government fears of making the disaster worse and started trying to slowly choke off the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, in the hope of finally stopping the leak.

A pivotal moment in the Gulf oil crisis hit an unexpected snag when officials announced they needed more time before they could begin choking off the geyser of crude at the bottom of the sea.

WITH a tight cap freshly installed on its leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP planned gradual tests starting last night to see if the device can stop oil from pouring into the sea for the first time in nearly three months.

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.

The BP oil leak could be completely contained as early as Monday if a new, tighter cap can be fitted over the blown-out well, the US government official in charge of the crisis said.

The federal official leading the Gulf of Mexico oil clean-up said today that a new containment cap and an additional ship collecting oil could effectively contain the spill as early as Monday.

The vital relief well being drilled to halt BP’s giant Gulf of Mexico spill could be finished ahead of schedule, the company said today.

Tests show that BP is on target for completion of a relief well in the Gulf of Mexico by mid-August, the best hope of stopping the oil that has been gushing since April, the company said today.

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.

BP pressed on with its bid to cap the Gulf of Mexico spill yesterday amid a new blow to its tattered image as a credit agency warned the clean-up costs will weigh on the oil giant for years.

BP mounted a more aggressive response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as it deployed undersea sensors to better measure the ferocious flow of crude while drawing up new plans to meet a US government demand that it speed up the containment effort.

Oil from the worst spill in US history could soon end up at petrol stations, construction sites and even grocery stores when BP sells the crude taken from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico to raise money for wildlife protection.

WITH each new look by scientists, the oil spill just keeps looking worse.

The Gulf of Mexico oil blow-out may have been leaking twice as much as previously thought, scientists fear.

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.

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.

US President Barack Obama said he wanted to know “whose ass to kick” over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, adding to the pressure on energy giant BP as it tried to capture more of the leak from its gushing well.