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GULF OIL SPILL

NEW ORLEANS — The Gulf Coast finds itself in an odd moment of limbo: The oil has been stopped, but no one knows if it’s corked for good. The clock expired on BP’s 48-hour observation period and the government added another day of critical monitoring. Scientists and engineers were optimistic that the well showed no obvious signs of leaks, but were still struggling to understand puzzling data emerging from the bottom of the sea. By Colleen Long and Harry R. Weber.

OIL SPILL-THE BIG CLEANUP

HOUMA, La. — Inside a sprawling command post in southern Louisiana, The Blob is everywhere. It stains the many maps tacked to white walls. Computer monitors beam satellite images of it floating in the Gulf of Mexico, a magenta mass that looks more like an island than the colossal oil slick that it is. It sometimes changes shape on these screens, or breaks off into bits and pieces, but The Blob itself never vanishes. The leak may have been stopped at last, but their work goes on and on. By National Writer Pauline Arrillaga.

DRUG WAR-MEXICO

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The first successful car bombing by a drug cartel brings a new dimension of terror to a Mexican border region already shocked by random street battles, bodies dangling from bridges and highway checkpoints mounted by heavily armed criminals. The attack, seemingly lifted from an al-Qaida playbook, demonstrated once again that the cartels are a step ahead of both an already guarded public and federal police who have recently taken over command from the military of the battle against traffickers in Ciudad Juarez. By Alicia A. Caldwell and Alexandra Olson.

DANCING AT AUSCHWITZ

WARSAW, Poland — Who has the right to dance at Auschwitz, to make light of the Holocaust, to shoot videos set amid cattle cars and gas chambers? A home video that has gone viral on the Internet showing a Holocaust survivor dancing at Auschwitz and other Holocaust sites to the disco classic “I Will Survive” with his daughter and grandchildren brings questions to the fore. By Vanessa Gera.

IROQUOIS LACROSSE-SOVEREIGNTY

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — An American Indian lacrosse team’s refusal to travel on passports not issued by the Iroquois Confederacy goes to the heart of one of the deepest debates in Indian Country — tribal sovereignty. The rights of Native nations to govern themselves is recognized under treaties, but some question whether that recognition extends beyond the nation’s borders in a post-Sept. 11 world. By Felicia Fonseca.

UZBEKISTAN-STERILIZATION CAMPAIGN

GULISTAN, Uzbekistan — The 24-year-old housewife says she wishes she had died with her newborn baby. She had a cesarean section in March and gave birth to a premature boy who died three days later. Then came a further devastating blow: She learned that the surgeon had removed part of her uterus during the operation, making her sterile. According to rights groups, victims and health officials, the young woman is one of hundreds in Uzbekistan who have been surgically sterilized without their knowledge or consent in a program designed to prevent overpopulation from fueling unrest. By Mansur Mirovalev. AP Photos.

NOTABLE PHOTOS

— AFGHANISTAN: AKCF102, A U.S. Marine helicopter door gunner holds a heavy machine gun during a flight over Nimroz Province on the border with the volatile Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan.

— GULF OIL SPILL: ALDM108, A Coast Guard Cutter skims oil near the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

— BRITISH OPEN: XSTA301, Tiger Woods talks with his caddie Steve Williams on the 15th tee box during the third round of the British Open Golf Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland.

— TOUR DE FRANCE: TDF156, The pack passes a field of sunflowers during the 13th stage of the Tour de France cycling race.