'Top Kill' Stops Oil Flow Into Gulf

BP's “top kill” plan has at least temporarily stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard admiral in charge of overseeing the spill said this morning. The drilling fluid engineers pumped into the pipe yesterday has blocked all oil and gas from the well, he told reporters. But officials aren't willing to call it a success just yet, they tell the LA Times, which had to take down an earlier story that used the S-word.

There's still some small amount of pressure in the well, and until it's gone and the well has been sealed with cement, neither the government nor BP will declare the top kill a victory. Junk is being pumped into the blowout preventer to hurry that process along. “We'll get this under control,” the admiral said. (More BP top kill stories.)