perjury
.
Members of the US Congress have accused major oil companies of being no better prepared than BP to prevent environmental disasters. They had called oil executives to
testify
on Capitol Hill and expressed frustration at BP's failure to prevent oil leaking from its stricken rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, BP has had more problems with its recovery operation, as Andy Gallacher reports.
BP has temporarily suspended its operation after a fire reportedly broke out on the deck of one of its containment vessels. The fire on the Discovery Enterprise has since been put out, and the company says it may have been started following a lightning strike. Nobody was injured during the fire, and BP says the containment procedure will restart later on Tuesday. The Discovery Enterprise has been collecting about 15,000 barrels of oil a day, and BP plans to
drastically
increase that amount in the next few weeks.
The United Nations refugee agency says it believes that more than a quarter of a million people have now fled fierce ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan. It's launching an emergency airlift of supplies to try to help ease the crisis.
This is the World News from the BBC in London.
The United Nations is to distribute the aid seized by the Israeli navy from a flotilla of ships that tried to break the Gaza blockade.
A UN official said Israel had now agreed to release the entire cargo from three Turkish ships, provided it was used only for