BBC News with Michael Polls.

President Obama has announced a shake-up of the offshore oil industry after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. He's halted exploratory deep water drilling for another six months, and suspended test drilling on 33 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. He’s also dismissed the head of the government agency monitoring offshore drilling, as Mark Mardell reports from Washington.

President Obama has sacked the head of the government body that oversees the safety of rigs and ordered to stop the plans for new deep water drilling in the seas around the United States for six months, while a presidential commission prepares its report into the accident. Shell had planed to start drilling in shallow water of Alaska in the summer; that’s been stopped temporarily, too. Proposals to drill off Virginia had been cancelled for good, partly because of objections by the Defence Department which has a big naval base in the area.

The oil company responsible for the Gulf of Mexico spillage, BP, is still pumping mud to try to plug the hole in the damaged well. Government scientists say that up to three million liters of oil a day are being gushing out of the broken pipe, at least three times more than BP’s original estimate. Eleven workers were killed in the initial explosion five weeks ago on the rig.

United States has unveiled its long-term security strategy. In the new document, President Obama’s administration pledges more diplomatic efforts to reverse the spread of nuclear arms. It says that it will work with China in matters of mutual interest but will also monitor Beijing's military development. Madeleine Morris has more from Washington.