Tropical Storm Alex Slows Cleanup

Despite dropping from hurricane status, tropical storm Alex continued to hinder cleanup efforts on Thursday, preventing BP from increasing its containment capacity to 53,000 barrels a day from roughly 28,000. The heavy winds also pushed more oil-polluted water toward the coast, where relief teams had to temporarily stop spraying dispersant chemicals and burning oil. Meanwhile, BP dispelled a rumor that it had managed to cap the leak, which boosted shares in London on Thursday morning. "That would be really good news, but that's not the information we have," a BP spokesman said. It added that the gushing would still go on for at least several weeks.