BBC News with Fiona McDonald.
The chief executive of the oil company BP Tony Hayward has come under
ferocious
criticism before a US congressional hearing held to examine the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr Hayward called the situation a tragedy, but he defended his approach to safety. Paul Adams reports from Washington.
Before the hearing began, the committee's chairman said he expected Tony Hayward to be sliced and diced, and so he was. BP's chief executive said he was
constrained
by the fact that a number of investigations into the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon have yet to finish.
Over and over, he refused to agree with the conclusions of a group of angry hostile congressmen and women who seemed in no doubt after their own lengthy inquiries that BP had shown a
reckless
lack of attention to safety. Infuriated by Mr Hayward's inability or unwillingness to answer their questions, committee members
resorted to
expressing their disgust, more than one saying he felt insulted.
The United States has welcomed Israel's decision to ease its three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip. The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called this a step in the right direction. Earlier, international organizations greeted the Israeli move with scepticism. Amnesty International said Israel had yet to
comply with
international law by lifting the blockade immediately. The head of the UN relief agency in Gaza, John Ging, said it was too early to say how the Israeli words would translate into action.