BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
The man appointed to run a 20-billion-dollar fund in the United States to compensate those affected by huge amounts of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico has said he's determined to speed up the payment of claims. The fund is paid for by the oil company BP. Paul Adams reports from Washington.
Kenneth Feinberg says he wants to oversee a process that is fast and transparent. The man who ran the claim fund for the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks seems anxious to reassure the people of the Gulf that this will not be a long, drawn-out affair. In a round of television interviews days after his appointment, Mr Feinberg said he had witnessed it first-hand the frustration and anger of people uncertain about their financial future.
The man accused of trying to set off a car bomb in Times Square in New York in May, Faisal Shahzad, has pleaded guilty to all 10 charges against him. They include attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He was arrested two days after the attack as he tried to board a flight bound for Dubai.
The US Supreme Court has overturned a lower-level court ruling which barred the American bio-tech company Monsanto from selling genetically modified alfalfa seeds until there had been an environmental-impact study. The ruling paves the way for Monsanto to resume marketing their version of alfalfa, even though research into the potential environmental consequences hasn't been completed. Alfalfa, which is used mostly as cattle feed, is the fourth most valuable crop in the United States.