More than a hundred people have been killed across Iraq in the bloodiest day of the year so far. The worst violence was in the central town of Hilla where at least 45 people died when three bombs exploded near a clothing factory. Elsewhere seven people were killed by a car bomb in the southern city of Basra and seven security personnel were shot dead in apparently coordinated attacks in Bagdad.
President Obama has nominated his Solicitor-General Elena Kagan for a seat on the US Supreme Court. The court yields enormous power over American lives, as Mark Mardell reports from Washington.
This is a job for life from a court that interprets the American constitution’s impact on the country's law ruling on such hot topics as abortion, guns and freedom of speech. 50-year-old Elena Kagan could influence the shape of America for decades to come. She worked in the Clinton White House and went on to become the very well-respected dean of Harvard Law School. The Senate has to approve this nomination. Elena Kagan is a Liberal replacing a Liberal, but she might get a hard time simply because of the fractious political atmosphere at the moment. Republicans could focus on the fact she’s never been a judge and has a history of opposing the ban on gay people serving in the military.
The oil company BP says it's trying several new ways to stop the huge leak from a blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico. It said it would try to place a small containment box over the rupture after efforts to install a larger device failed. BP has also been trying to thin the oil spill by using underwater chemical dispersants.