Oily pelicans await treatment at Buras, Louisiana.

[Updated at 8:03 p.m.] 

Here are the latest developments on the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which unfolded after the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20: 

- BP officials are reviewing a letter from federal authorities that gives the oil giant until Sunday to identify and expedite other ways to contain the massive oil spill, a company spokesman said.
 
- Additional areas of Mississippi waters in the Gulf have been closed to recreational and commercial fishing due to the detection of oil in the region, state officials announced Saturday. 
 
- Environmentalists said demonstrations against BP's response to the disaster were unfolding Saturday in more than 50 cities across five continents, from Pensacola, Florida, to Christchurch, New Zealand.

- Federal authorities expressed concern that BP's plans to recover oil and provide backup collection plans fall short of what is needed, given new estimates of the amount of crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. In a letter sent to BP, Rear Adm. James Watson, the government's on-scene incident commander, gave the company until Sunday to provide alternative plans that adequately address substantially higher rates of oil flow. 

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