HOUSTON – BP said yesterday the cement seal on its crippled  Gulf of Mexico oil well was holding and a relief well to  permanently plug the ill-fated borehole was on track to reach  its target in mid-August.

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SUKKUR, Pakistan – Heavy rains are expected to lash areas of  Pakistan already devastated by the worst floods in 80 years,  probably intensifying a calamity that has cast more doubts about  the leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari.

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DUBAI/TOKYO – Militants attacked a Japanese supertanker with  explosives near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most  important shipping routes, the United Arab Emirates state news  agency said yesterday.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. private employers added fewer workers to  their payrolls in July than expected and hiring in June was much  weaker than initially thought, a big blow to an already feeble  economic recovery.

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WASHINGTON – U.S. President Barack Obama is considering  economic adviser Austan Goolsbee and Laura Tyson, a senior  economist in Bill Clinton’s White House, to take over as one of  his top policymakers, an administration official said yesterday.

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MOSCOW – Dense clouds of acrid smoke from peat and forest  fires choked Russia’s capital yesterday, seeping into homes and  offices, diverting planes and prompting exhausted Muscovites to  wear surgical masks to filter the foul air.

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CHEQUERS, England – Britain and Pakistan agreed yesterday to  do more together to fight Islamist militancy, brushing aside a  diplomatic spat that followed British criticism of Pakistani  efforts to counter extremism.