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Spill from blowout is degrading rapidly in warm waters, becoming tougher to find, director says.

China and environmental observers said cleanup efforts on the country's largest reported oil spill were progressing Thursday, but the environmental and economic damage was clear.

Engineers fighting the Gulf oil spill are confident that the cap over the well is strong enough that they may be able to plug it up soon.

The recently recapped oil well in the Gulf of Mexico could remain closed until the relief well is drilled if tests remain favorable, a BP official said Sunday morning.

BP Plc said on Thursday it stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from its deep-sea well for the first time since it ruptured in April, prompting hope that the leak can be plugged for good.

BP said today its attempt to place a new cap on its ruptured undersea well was proceeding as planned. But while robots replace the old cap, crude is flowing freely.

Robert Dudley, who will take charge of BP’s spill response, has plenty of experience dealing with a hostile government, unhappy partners and angry citizens.

In prepared testimony before a House panel that is expected to question him harshly Thursday, BP chief executive Tony Hayward says the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico "never should have happened" and has left him ...

"According to serious studies, the middle-term survival rate of oil-soaked birds is under 1 percent," says Silvia Gaus, a biologist at the Wattenmeer National Park along the North Sea in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

The cap on the damaged BP oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is now keeping up to 462,000 gallons of oil a day from leaking into the ...