President Barack Obama and his wife are travelling to New Orleans to mark the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

President Barack Obama will mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on August 29.

Five current or former New Orleans police officers were charged over the fatal shooting and burning of a man during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

US disaster officials warned President George Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, risk lives in New Orleans’ Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage of the briefings.

Engineers pumped much of the remaining floodwater out of New Orleans as tens of thousands of residents continued returning to dry neighbourhoods to check on houses and reopen businesses.

Actor Morgan Freeman led a star-studded benefit concert for hurricane victims last night, telling a national television audience that the state he calls home “will rise again” from the ruins of the storm’s destruction.

It was like a modern-day treasure map – a computerised diagram of neighbourhoods with codes marking the addresses where National Guard soldiers came upon caches of goods taken by looters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

US President George Bush said today the Gulf Coast must be rebuilt with an eye toward wiping out the persistent poverty and racial injustice plain to all in the suffering of the black and the poor in Hurricane Katrina’s wake.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced today that large parts of the city will reopen early next week, and the French Quarter the week after that.

Hurricane Ophelia continued its tortuously slow crawl along North Carolina coastline early today as officials feared serious flooding, but do not expect it to make landfall.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed condolences, Sweden’s Prime Minister said it was a “painful example” of challenges facing the world and the premier of tiny Mauritius pointed out that vulnerable islands could face the same fate as New Orleans.

Officials from the International Energy Agency and its 26 member nations today began a review of the emergency oil stock release put in place in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Ophelia lashed the North Carolina coast with high winds and heavy rains, beginning an anticipated two-day assault that threatened serious flooding and an 11-foot storm surge.

Michael Jackson’s publicist says eight performers so far have agreed to join a song to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims.

The putrid air rising from New Orleans’ slowly receding floodwaters was found not to be overly polluted, encouraging news for a mayor weighing the reopening of the French Quarter and other dry parts of the city.

US President George Bush today sent out a special thank you to the 115 countries that responded to the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.

The port of New Orleans reopened, and the airport awaited its first commercial flights today since Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore more than two weeks ago.

US President George Bush today took “full responsibility” for government failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government’s ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.

All Irish citizens missing in New Orleans since the devastating Hurricane Katrina ripped through the city have been found safe and well, it emerged today.

The new acting director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency today pledged to intensify efforts to find more permanent housing for the tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors now in shelters.

America’s emergencies chief resigned today three days after losing his onsite command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

US doctors, working for the federal government and the state of Louisiana, are carefully monitoring people in dozens of shelters state-wide for outbreaks of serious and infectious diseases.

Hurricane Ophelia lingered in the Atlantic early today but meteorologists said the storm could take a sharp turn toward the Carolinas, where a hurricane-watch was in effect.

Crooner Harry Connick Jr waded through the water submerging much of New Orleans, Louisiana, to look at the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to his father's home.

Forensic workers and body-sniffing dogs searched New Orleans in earnest for corpses as crews cleared away mounds of rubbish and debris left behind by residents fleeing Hurricane Katrina.

Michael Brown, director of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, is being removed from his role managing relief efforts for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and is returning to Washington.

Authorities said today that their first systematic sweep of New Orleans found far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that the death toll may not be the catastrophic 10,000 feared.

American soldiers and police confiscated guns from homeowners as they went house to house, trying to clear the shattered city of New Orleans of holdouts because of the danger of disease and fire.

US President George Bush, linking hurricane recovery and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks four years ago, declared today that the nation was ready to “overcome any challenge.”

Nato nations were today expected to approve plans drawn up by the military to use alliance ships and aircraft to rush European aid to US regions hit by Hurricane Katrina.

As US congress hurried toward approval of a €41.8bn emergency hurricane aid package, US President Bush George today mapped a plan to get a wide range of government benefits – from medical care to job training – to storm victims who have scattered around the US.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry today said the number of Spaniards missing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina had risen to 20.

Soldiers toting M-16s strengthened their grip on this swamped city as concerns grew about the risks posed by the toxic floodwaters and officials braced for what could be a staggering death toll by readying 25,000 body bags.

The United States today asked Nato to take on a bigger role transporting European aid to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, alliance officials said in Brussels.

US Congress is considering an emergency aid package that would spend well over $1bn (€1.5bn) a day during the next month on housing, clothing and other recovery needs for Hurricane Katrina victims.

Using the unmistakable threat of force, police and soldiers went house to house to try to coax the last 10,000 or so survivors of Hurricane Katrina to leave storm-shattered New Orleans because of the risk of disease from the putrid, sewage-laden floodwaters.

New Orleans has been described as a toxic time-bomb.

US President George Bush is asking Congress for as much as $50bn (€40.2bn) in immediate aid for the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, and the White House indicated today more money would be needed eventually.

More than 90 countries have offered assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina, with Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates contributing $100m (€80.2m) each in cash donations, the State Department said in Washington today.

Filthy water was slowly pumped out of New Orleans today after engineers fixed the ruptured levee that flooded 80% of the city.

The floodwaters that caused so much misery and death in New Orleans were being pumped back into Lake Pontchartrain and authorities braced for what the receding deluge would reveal.

Probably the last thing a city inundated with water and filled with human misery needs is a parade, much less a Mardi Gras.

President George Bush is spending much of his time on relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina after his administration was harshly criticised for an initial response to the storm called slow and inadequate.

New Orleans’ police chief fiercely defended his officers following claims that they deserted in droves, leaving the city to rapists and looters in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.