Also: Spinal fluid test predicts Alzheimer's; China landslides kill more than 700.
Birds are seen on the empty shoreline after a rain storm in Grand Isle, La., on Monday. The beach in Grand Isle reopened to the public Monday for the first time since it was closed in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.From the Houston Chronicle:
After three months of drilling, a relief well should reach BP's Macondo well late this week and launch the final step in plugging the rogue well forever, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Monday.
The relief well was less than 50 feet away from its target Monday morning, he said, and workers were making final preparations to intercept Macondo 13,000 feet below the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and then pump cement into an outermost part of the well.
» Read the full story: BP expects to set final well seal within days [Houston Chronicle]
» Gulf relief well crews watch for tropical weather [The Associated Press]
» Oiled crabs stoke fears spill is tainting food web [The Associated Press]
» As 39,000 oil spill claims dangle in limbo, BP defers to feds [The Associated Press]
In other news:
» More than 700 die in landslides in China [CNN]
» Spinal-fluid test is found to predict Alzheimer's [The New York Times]
» Afghanistan civilian deaths up 31% this year, says United Nations [The Guardian]