Obama opines on love _ and birth certificates-Jokes around in White House Correspondents' Association

President Barack Obama nibbles on fruit during the White House Correspondents' Association fundraising dinner, at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, May 1, 2010, in Washington.President Barack Obama makes humorous remarks as he speaks to the White House Correspondents' Association fundraising dinner, at the Washington Hilton Hotel

Pearls of wisdom from President Barack Obama: Few things in life are harder to find and more important to keep than love.

"Well, love and a birth certificate," he quipped at Saturday's black-tie White House Correspondents' Association dinner, poking fun at the birther movement, which questions whether the president was born in the United States.

"I happen to know that my approval ratings are still very high in the country of my birth," Obama joked.

The president then took aim at Jay Leno, the comedian headlining the dinner, saying the talk-show host was "the only person whose ratings fell more than mine."

Obama also cracked jokes about Vice President Joe Biden and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

But Republicans were the butt of many presidential punch lines.

Although his poll numbers are down, he said, he hears he's popular on Twitter and Facebook.

"Or as Sarah Palin calls it, the socialized media," he added.

Leno later picked up on the same theme, saying the president isn't as aloof as some critics claim.

"He loves to socialize — health care, car companies," Leno said, naming industries where the Obama administration has intervened.


Comedian Jay Leno, far right, pokes some fun at President Barack Obama, second from right, during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, May 1, 2010, in Washington. At far left is first lady Michelle Obama, second from left is Matt Winkler of Bloomberg


Tracy Morgan attends the 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton Saturday, May 1, 2010, in Washington



Designer Donatella Versace and Kim Kardashian attends the 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton Saturday, May 1, 2010, in Washington


Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng attend the 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton Saturday, May 1, 2010, in Washington.



Chelsea Handler and Katie Couric pose for a picture at the 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton


First lady Michelle Obama attends the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Saturday, May 1, 2010, in Washington.


On a serious note, Obama acknowledged the vast problems facing the Gulf Coast, which is threatened by an oil spill that could be of epic proportions. He planned a trip to the area Sunday for a firsthand assessment of efforts to contain the massive crude oil leak from an offshore drilling rig operated by the oil company BP.

Among the 3,000 guests attending the annual gala were celebrities Chevy Chase, Alec Baldwin, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Quaid, the Jonas brothers, Justin Bieber, Jessica Simpson, Michael Douglas and Steven Spielberg.

Mingling with the crowd were political notables, such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and White House senior adviser David Axelrod.

At the dinner, the White House Correspondents' Association introduced students who received college scholarships. Several journalists were also honored with awards for their work.

U.S. to keep heat on BP to stop oil leak - Salazar-Administration team defends oil spill response

UPDATES map with latest information; map locates the progression of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico since April



The U.S. government will keep a "boot on the neck" of BP Plc, as it responds to a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that threatens to become an economic and ecological catastrophe, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Sunday.

"Our job basically is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum to carry out the responsibilities they have both under the law and contractually to move forward and stop this spill," Salazar told CNN's "State of the Union" program.

He said there was "no doubt" that a mechanism that prevents oil from blowing out of the BP well was defective, adding that 100,000 barrels or more of oil could leak per day in a worst case scenario.

President Barack Obama awaited a firsthand update on the Gulf Coast oil spill as two members of his Cabinet on Sunday outlined the "very grave" environmental impact and sought to counter criticism the government had reacted slowly.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the administration had treated the explosion at the BP rig April 20 as a potential disaster from the beginning.

"The physical response on the ground has been from day one as if this could be a catastrophic failure," she said. "Every possible resource was being lined up on shore."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said it was uncertain when the oil, spewing from a pipe nearly a mile beneath the water, would be plugged.

"The scenario is a very grave scenario. You're looking at potentially 90 days before you ultimately get to what is the ultimate solution," said Salazar. But then "a lot of oil could spread."

Obama planned to fly to Louisiana for briefings on the underwater spill, which remained unstopped and impossible to measure, raising fears it could be pouring more oil into the Gulf than earlier believed.

The Coast Guard estimated that at least 1.6 million gallons of oil have spilled since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers on an offshore rig. In the Exxon Valdez disaster, an oil tanker spilled 11 million gallons off Alaska's shores in 1989.


President Barack Obama departs the White House in Washington Saturday, May 1, 2010, for a short helicopter flight to Andrews Air Force Base, then on to address graduates at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.



President Barack Obama walks with Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, commander, 89th Airlift Wing, Andrews Air Force Base, towards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., as he travels to Ann Arbor, Mich., to deliver the commencement address at the University of Michigan, Saturday, May 1, 2010


President Barack Obama walks towards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., as he travels to Ann Arbor, Mich., to deliver the commencement address at the University of Michigan Saturday, May 1, 2010.

Obama has relied on reports from agency chiefs and Coast Guard officials since the magnitude of the spill became clear late Wednesday. Aides report he's been getting regular updates.

Salazar, Napolitano and the administration's point man on the disaster, the commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Thad Allen, made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows to defend the federal response.

Obama has said no new offshore oil drilling leases will be issued unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent a repeat of the explosion that unleashed the massive spill.

The spill came just weeks after Obama announced plans to open up large areas of the Eastern Seaboard and a part of the Gulf for possible future oil drilling. And it's led to increasing calls to reconsider that initiative by environmentalists and coastal state lawmakers.

First New York City car bomb since 1993 at World Trade Center

Police and Bomb Squad investigate this dark colored SUV at the corner of 45th and 7th Avenue in Times Square on Saturday night closing at least 4 to 5 blocks.

The smoking vehicle that shut down Times Square Saturday night is the first car bomb set off in the city since 1993's deadly explosion at the World Trade Center.

In late February 1993, six people were killed and 1,042 were injured when a 1,300-pound bomb in a yellow Ryder van was detonated below the north tower, blowing a hole half the size of a football field in its basement.

The attack, financed by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, was a precursor to the 9/11 attacks, since the goal of the six convicted bombers was to knock down both towers.

The stunning bombing is now viewed as the opening chapter in a new era of terrorism on U.S. soil, though its significance was not immediately recognized - and, indeed, the terrorists later succeeded in their goal.

"It should have been a wake-up call for America," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told The Associated Press on the attack's 10th anniversary. "We simply didn't see it as an international conspiracy to destroy our society."



The city's deadliest car bombing occurred in 1920, when 38 people were killed and 400 wounded by an Italian anarchist who filled a horse-drawn carriage with explosives and parked it in the city's Financial District.

Times Square has been a target for terror as recently as March 2008, when a cyclist placed a makeshift explosive outside of the NYPD recruitment center then sped off. No one was injured during the 3:30 a.m. blast.

A scare shut down parts of Times Square - and delayed a New Year's Eve rehearsal - on Dec. 30, 2009, after a 1997 Dodge van with no license plates and a phony parking placard sat illegally parked for two days. It turned out that the van contained only clothes.

New York's finest deserve praise for stopping Times Square car bomb

"It looked like someone tried to detonate it and we got to it in time," a police source said. "This is a big deal. It has the makings of a real car bomb."

Three heroic cops and a quick-thinking street vendor stopped a madman from detonating a car bomb in the heart of Times Square last night, law enforcement officials told the Daily News.

The bomb squad used a robot to get inside the car. The running SUV was packed with three propane tanks, two red 5-gallon plastic jugs of gasoline, a clock, electrical components and a canister of gunpowder, police sources said.

Police said the blue Pathfinder appeared to be stolen and had Connecticut license plates belonging to another car.

"I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking," Rhatigan told the Daily News. "I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second."

The T-shirt vendor - a Vietnam vet - told Officer Wayne Rhatigan (above) there was smoke coming from a Nissan SUV on the southwest corner of 45th St. and Broadway about 7 p.m., sources said.

Last fall's subway bombing plot was stopped by some sharp and hard-working federal agents and counter-terrorism cops.

Saturday night, our saviors were a mounted cop and two rookies.

Most nights, tourists and theatergoers might have asked the foot cops for directions or posed for pictures with the cop on the horse.

That snapshot is always big with the folks back home.

Saturday night, there were visitors who might very well owe their lives to those cops who might otherwise have seemed just one of the Big Apple sights.

After them came the firefighters and the bomb squad. The people who had come to see a Broadway show instead saw a drama for which our emergency services are constantly rehearsing.

The propane tanks and gasoline in the SUV would have been familiar to anybody who remembered the unexploded car bombs found in London in 2007.





The Fire Department and bomb squad rushed to the scene.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said cops were investigating a report that someone was seen running from the vehicle at some point and are reviewing security videotapes.

Cops began evacuating the Crossroads of the World as the bomb squad used a robot to get inside the car.

He alerted two rookie female cops patrolling the area. Together, they pushed hundreds of people away from the scene as they called for backup, he said.

Hundreds of tourists and locals were stranded after cops closed off massive sections of Times Square.

The suspect seen fumbling with the device vanished into the crowd and had not been found as of early this morning




South of 46th St. in Times Square is completely deserted after the bomb scare.

Police precincts all over New York City were put on high alert and ordered to patrol sensitive areas, officials said.

The curtain at "God of Carnage" and "Red" went up a half hour later than usual, but those shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown. Restaurants like Sardi's and TGI Friday's were also evacuated, witnesses said.

Times Square had been jammed with pedestrians all day Saturday.

Tourists rushed out of the Marriott Marquis hotel and several Broadway shows.

The next day, two men drove a similar bomb into the terminal at Glasgow Airport.

The men failed to ignite the propane and the world was spared an example of what those canisters can do when they exploded.

We were again spared an example Saturday night in Times Square.

That mounted cop and those rookies and the bomb squad deserve the whole city's praise.

So do all the cops who stand ready to do the same every day on our streets and in our subways.

They truly are our first line of defense and we have never needed them more then now.

Last week, two seemingly normal college graduates who had moved among us were arrested for aiding Al Qaeda.

You have to wonder how many others might be out there.

And then there are the psychos ready to wage their own private terrorism.

Just who left Saturday night's bomb is not yet known.

What is known is what stopped him.

The next time there is talk of laying off cops or letting the force dwindle, we should remember this beautiful night in Times Square, when a mounted cop and a couple of rookies made all the difference.

Time Square car bomb: Cops evacuate heart of NYC after 'potential terrorist attack'

The scene at the corner of W 45th St. and Broadway in the heart of Times Square, where a car was found last night, that contained cans of flammable liquid and other explosive devices.

Police are investigating this dark-colored SUV at the corner of 45th and 7th Ave.

Officer Wayne Rhatigan grabbed two female rookie cops to help push people away from the smoking vehicle.

Three heroic cops and a quick-thinking street vendor stopped a madman from detonating a car bomb in the heart of Times Square Saturday night, law enforcement officials told the Daily News.

"It looked like someone tried to detonate it and we got to it in time," a police source said. "This is a big deal. It has the makings of a real car bomb."

The federal government views the incident a "potential terrorist attack," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday.

"We're taking this very seriously," Napolitano told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "We're treating it as if it could be a potential terrorist attack."

Cops evacuated and shut down the Times Square are Saturday night, but all streets were reopened by 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

The T-shirt vendor - a Vietnam vet - told Officer Wayne Rhatigan there was smoke coming from a Nissan SUV on the southwest corner of 45th St. and Broadway about 6:30 p.m., sources said.

Rhatigan approached the car, saw the smoke and sprang into action.

"I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking," Rhatigan told the Daily News. "I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second."

He alerted two rookie female cops patrolling the area. Together, they pushed hundreds of people away from the scene as they called for backup, he said.



The Fire Department and bomb squad rushed to the scene.

What they found was stunning: a running SUV packed with three propane tanks, two red 5-gallon plastic jugs of gasoline, a clock, electrical components and a canister of gunpowder, police sources said.

"We are very lucky," Mayor Bloomberg said at an early morning press conference at the scene, still in the tuxedo and red bow tie he wore to the White House Correspondents Dinner in Washington. "Thanks to alert New Yorkers and professional police officers we avoided what could have been a very deadly event."

"The full attention of city, state and federal law enforcement will be turned to bringing the guilty party to justice in this act of terrorism," Gov. Paterson said in a statement.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said cops were investigating a report that someone was seen running from the vehicle at some point and are reviewing security videotapes.

"It looks as if the perp was trying to light it up, and was interrupted by the cops, panicked and took off," a law enforcement source said.

Cops began evacuating the Crossroads of the World as the bomb squad used a robot to get inside the car.

Tourists rushed out of the Marriott Marquis hotel and several Broadway shows.

Tourists, locals recall terrifying evacuation after car bomb nearly goes off in Times Square

A car bomb triggered a massive evacuation of busy Times Square Saturday night.

What started as a beautiful evening in New York City turned into a nightmare for thousands of panicked people.

"It's terrifying," said Christian Borgo, 32, of the upper West Side, who was shopping at the Swatch store across the street from the SUV when cops told people to move away fast.

"They said there might be a bomb and everyone had to go," he said. "There was smoke coming from the car. They were clearing out everyone. People were afraid. I'm still shaking."

"When I saw this happening I immediately thought, 'terrorism,'" said Marie Saint Claire, 52, vacationing from Switzerland. "It makes me scared to know how close I was to being blown up. This is life in New York now?"

Sharon Marques-Feinstein was on her way to see "Billy Elliot" when she was forced to clear out of Times Square.

"Whoever it was obviously wanted to kill people and inflict a lot of damage," she said. "If there was a timer, they knew what they were doing. This was a message, you know? I'm very afraid. You have to be vigilant now."

"It's like something out of one of those end of the world films," said Scott Dennis, 39, of midtown who was in a taxi heading home when police stopped the car and told them to turn around.

"Gasoline? Gunpowder? If that had blown here on a Saturday night, it would have been horrifying."

Brooklyn resident Celine Rapp was relaxing in the pedestrian plaza near the SUV when police cleared the area.

"I saw a bomb squad robot roll up to the SUV as well as guys in bomb squad gear investigating the trunk area," she said. "I am scared, but I'm thankful it didn't go off. There would have been more mass panic."

"I could have been past the SUV before the fire and thought nothing of it," said James Marion of London, who was admiring the bright lights of Times Square. "I could have been there at the wrong moment, so naturally it's rattling," he said.

"When I saw them going at it with the bomb-checking machine, I thought, 'My God, I was close to disaster.'"



Asif Chowdhury, 24, of Queens, was working at Juniors on 44th St. near Seventh Ave.

"At first it was just rumors that someone saw sparks coming from a black Nissan and someone running away from the car. But then we heard it was for real and the place closed pretty quick. We were all forced to evacuate."

Juan Garcia, 33, of the Bronx, was working on the stage door of the Marquis Theatre opposite the suspect vehicle at the time.

"I thought there was potential danger so I pulled a couple of street vendors into the stage door. We eventually evacuated through the Marriott hotel."

Angela Casey, 33, of Ohio was staying at the Marriott with her husband.

"They came by our door at 11:45 and said there's been a scare so please pack up our stuff," she said. "They're allowing people to stay on sixth or below, but we'd rather get out. It did make me nervous. I would like to get out of this area."

Oil spill trims U.S. offshore natural gas supply

Spilled oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Louisiana last week.

The government on Saturday said two offshore production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were shut as a safety precaution -- the first sign that the giant oil slick was affecting the region's energy production.

But analysts said the location of the spill was well east and north of the heart of the region's oil and gas production -- which accounts for about 15 percent of U.S. natural gas supply. It also provides 25 percent of crude oil output.

The Minerals Management Service -- the arm of the Interior Department that oversees offshore oil and gas activity -- said the two platforms were shut down as a safety precaution due to the oilspill.

They account for less than 0.1 percent of daily Gulf of Mexico output. Some 6.2 million cubic feet per day of natural gas production are involved, the service said.

The MMS did not identify the names or companies that own the affected platforms, and said more platform shutdowns may be ordered as the spill spreads eastward.



"Yes, there's always the possibility of that," MMS spokeswoman Eileen Angelico said, when asked if more shutdowns were possible.

Analysts downplayed the impact of the spill on offshore energy production. The spill's trajectory is closer to land and away from more prolific deepwater production platforms, experts said.

"It shouldn't affect production too dramatically," said Dan Pickering, co-president of Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. "It doesn't feel like there's imminent danger around the production itself."

MORATORIUM ON DRILLING?

The bigger issue is whether the spill would prompt a moratorium on drilling, Pickering said.

"The implications here are the ongoing impact to the industry overall and how this becomes a significant influence on how people think of offshore activity," he said.

Spokesmen for big offshore producers Apache Corp and Anadarko Petroleum Corp said their operations have were unaffected by the spill.

The Anadarko-operated Independence Hub, the largest natural gas processing facility in the Gulf with capacity to produce 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas, is well southeast of the spill and out of its path, spokesman John Christiansen said.

The rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd, sank on April 22, two days after it exploded and caught fire while finishing a well for BP Plc 42 miles off the Louisiana coast.

The companies and the U.S. government are in the process of trying to seal the leaking oil well.

On Monday, an offshore drilling rig owned by Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc that had been working near a sunken rig was evacuated as a precaution, an MMS official said.

The last event to affect offshore production was hurricanes Ike and Gustav in 2008, which shut down nearly all the region's output for weeks.

BP documents show it did not plan for oil spill disaster at Gulf Coast rig

Ablaze: A fleet of tugs attempt to extinguish the fire on the sinking oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana

Efforts to stem the flow: A Subsea Dispersant Injection System will be deployed by BP to contain oil below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico

Fishermen listen as a BP company representative outlines a plan to clean up the oil spill which threatens their livelihoods

BP is facing a £3billion fine for the oil spill on America’s Gulf Coast which is threatening to become the worst ecological disaster in history - and is now under fire for not foreseeing the catastrophe.

Documents emerged yesterday showing BP had previously downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at the rig.

It suggested in a 2009 exploration plan and environmental impact analysis for the well that an accident leading to a giant oil spill – and damage to beaches, fish and animals – was unlikely or virtually impossible.
The plan for the Deepwater Horizon well, filed with the Federal Minerals Management Service, said repeatedly that it was ‘unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities’.

BP conceded a spill would impact on beaches, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas but argued that ‘due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected’.

Environmental lawyer Robert Wiygul said he saw nothing in the document suggesting that BP had addressed the technology needed to control a spill at such a depth.

‘The point is, if you’re going to be drilling in 5,000 feet of water for oil, you should have the ability to control what you’re doing,’ he said.
Two dozen lawsuits have been filed in the US accusing BP of lying about safety plans and downplaying the likelihood of a catastrophe.


Hopeless: A helicopter flies over an oil boom ringing the islands of the Mississippi delta on Thursday

No way to stop it: Rough winds and waves push against an oil boom set up in a flimsy effort to protect the Louisiana coast

Closing in: The oil slick (the white swirl just off the coastline) nears Louisiana in this Nasa satellite image

Impending danger: A Greenpeace image taken shows birds flying over the oil on the waters near Breton Sound Island in the Gulf of Mexico

Birds at a Louisiana wildlife sanctuary stand alongside an oil boom barrier set up to stop the spread of oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon platform. The slick threatens to wreak economic and environmental devastation on the fragile coastline

Oil slick: Birds rest on a sand bar in an area affected by leaking oil from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico

Satellite images show that by early yesterday, the slick had more than trebled in size in 24 hours, from 1,150 to 3,850 square miles, six times the area of Greater London.

More than £10billion has been wiped off the value of BP’s shares, with insiders saying that President Obama is ‘furious’ over the spillage and ‘determined’ to make the British oil giant pay.

Lawsuits filed against the company by shrimp farmers, hoteliers and ecological groups argue that the fragile Louisiana swamps will be irreparably damaged by the 11million gallons of oil that have flowed from the uncapped well 5,000 feet down on the ocean floor since the rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.
The spill threatens hundreds of species of wildlife, including birds, dolphins and the fish, shrimp, oysters and crabs that make the Gulf Coast one of the nation’s most abundant sources of seafood.

The £1.5billion Louisiana seafood industry, which produces 40 per cent of America’s oysters, shrimp and crabs, has been ‘decimated’.

Yesterday President Obama was planning to head to the Gulf Coast to see first-hand the efforts to contain the massive spill. BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward was also on his way to Louisiana.

Yesterday the sea was too rough and the wind too strong to burn off the oil, suck it up effectively with skimmer vessels, or hold it in check with the miles of inflatable booms strung along the coast.

And with the wind blowing from the south, the oil slick could reach the Mississippi, Alabama and Florida coasts by tomorrow.The amount already threatens to make it the worst U.S. oil disaster since the Exxon Valdez spilled 11million gallons (42 million liters) off Alaska's shores in 1989.

'The sort of occurrence that we've seen on the Deepwater Horizon is clearly unprecedented,' said BP spokesman David Nicholas. 'It's something that we have not experienced before ... a blowout at this depth.'

In the past 24 hours, animal rescue operations ramped up, including one at Fort Jackson, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans.

That rescue crew had its first patient, a bird covered in thick, black oil. The bird, a young northern gannet found offshore, is normally white with a yellow head.

Several miles out, the normally blue-green gulf waters were dotted with sticky, pea- to quarter-sized brown beads the consistency of tar.

High seas were forecast through Sunday and could push oil deep into the inlets, ponds, creeks and lakes that line the boot of southeastern Louisiana. With the wind blowing from the south, the mess could reach the Mississippi, Alabama and Florida coasts by Monday.
Amid increased fingerpointing, efforts sputtered to hold back the spill, while the government desperately cast about for new ideas for dealing with the growing environmental crisis. President Barack Obama halted any new offshore drilling projects unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent another disaster.

Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, met with fishermen and others Friday night in Venice and said she had participated in a conference call earlier with governors from the Gulf states and BP. Stemming the flow of oil is the top priority, she said.

"There is very deep concern about what is happening," she told the group.

However, the seas were too rough and the winds too strong to burn off the oil, suck it up effectively with skimmer vessels, or hold it in check with the miles of orange and yellow inflatable booms strung along the coast.

The floating barriers broke loose in the choppy water, and waves sent oily water lapping over them.

"It just can't take the wave action," said Billy Nungesser, president of Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish
Louisiana officials opened gates in the Mississippi River hoping a flood of fresh water would drive oil away from the coast. But winds thwarted that plan, too. The Louisiana National Guard was mobilized late Friday to help communities respond to the spill and the Pentagon said BP will be required to pay the costs of deployment.

BP also sought ideas from some of its rivals and was using at least one of them Friday - applying chemicals underwater to break up the oil before it reaches the surface. That had never before been attempted at such depths.

Although the cause of the explosion was under investigation, many of the more than two dozen lawsuits filed in the wake of the explosion claim it was caused when workers for oil services contractor Halliburton Inc. improperly capped the well - a process known as cementing. Halliburton denied it.

Crews have struggled for days without success to activate the well's underwater shutoff valve using remotely operated vehicles. They also are drilling a relief well in hopes of injecting mud and concrete to seal off the leak, but that could take three months.