Oil executives are being questioned by a US senate committee three weeks after an oil rig explosion and fire killed 11 men and triggered a disastrous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports from Washington DC where hearings were held on Tuesday in which senior executives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton were asked to account for the "cascade of failures" at the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform prior to the catastrophic rupture in the wellhead. (12 May, 2010)