Army engineers will open a key spillway along the bulging Mississippi River as early as today, deluging thousands of homes and farms in Louisiana’s Cajun country in order to avert a potentially bigger disaster in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

PARTS of the Mississippi Delta were flooding yesterday, forcing people to flee their homes while thousands of others were trying to decide whether to stay or go as the river continued to swell.

Parts of the Mississippi Delta were flooding today, forcing people to flee their homes as thousands of others were trying to decide whether to stay or go as the river continued to swell.

Oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans, threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water which was rescued from pollution in the 1990s.

A judge has ruled that negligence by US Army engineers led to massive flooding in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in a move which could lead to a massive Government payout to claimants.

Hurricane Gustav is expected to make landfall on the US Gulf coast today, three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans.

US President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will skip the Republican National Convention because of mounting concerns about Hurricane Gustav, the White House said today.

A TINY Alaskan village eroding into the Arctic Ocean is suing two dozen oil, power and coal companies, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to the global warming they say threatens the community’s existence.

A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean is suing two dozen oil, power and coal companies, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to the global warming they say threatens the community’s existence.

A deadly winter storm that caked America’s centre with a thick layer of ice claimed at least 17 lives and blacked out more than 600,000 homes and businesses.

Sustainability as a tourist attraction requires that a building must be ancient and hold dead people (the pyramids), bendy (the Tower of Pisa) or linked with imprisonment, torture and execution (the Tower of London).

Officials in the US were warned as early as 1990 that a bridge which collapsed into the Mississippi River was “structurally deficient”.

Families waited anxiously for news of missing relatives as divers searched through the dangerous debris left by Wednesday’s bridge collapse.

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.

MAJOR contracts for the Hurricane Katrina clean-up have been awarded without bidding or with limited competition, prompting controversy in the United States.

Major contracts for the Hurricane Katrina clean-up have been awarded without bidding or with limited competition, prompting controversy in the United States.

The damage inflicted by Hurricane Rita paled in comparison to Katrina, Texas Governor Rick Perry said today – but urged evacuees to stay where they are until local officials say it’s all right to return.

Residents along the Texas and Louisiana coasts began clearing away debris today as crews worked to restore electricity to more than one million customers in four states after Hurricane Rita tore through the US Gulf Coast, causing less damage than feared.

Three million Americans evacuated before Hurricane Rita pummelled east Texas and the Louisiana coast, were urged not to hurry home today.

Hurricane Rita poured more water into New Orleans for a second day today and inundated fishing villages along Louisiana’s coast, where dozens of people were rescued from homes swamped by up to 6 feet of water.

Hurricane Rita roared toward the Texas and Louisiana coasts early today, a major Category 4 storm that spurred a traffic-snarled exodus toward higher ground and fears it could cripple the heart of the US petrochemical industry.

OUTER bands of rain from Hurricane Rita began falling in New Orleans yesterday and forecasts of between eight and 13 centimetres of rainfall in the coming days raised fears the patched levee system could fail and flood the city all over again.

The outer bands of rain from Hurricane Rita began falling in New Orleans today, and forecasts of between 8 and 13 centimetres of rainfall in the coming days raised fears the patched levee system could fail and flood the city all over again.

AS many as one million people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast as hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated yesterday.

The Mayor of New Orleans has suspended the reopening of large portions of the city and ordered nearly everyone out because of the risk of a new round of flooding from another tropical storm.

AUTHORITIES yesterday said their first systematic sweep of New Orleans found far fewer bodies than expected, suggesting that Hurricane Katrina's death toll may not be the catastrophic 10,000 feared.

Police in New Orleans supported by troops have begun to use force to remove people from their homes in the city.

More stragglers seemed willing to flee the filthy water and stench of death as increasingly insistent rescuers made what may be their last peaceful pass through swamped New Orleans before using force.

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.

As flood waters receded, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin authorised police and the US military to force the evacuation of all residents who refuse to heed orders to leave the dark, dangerous city.

ONE week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region, residents began to return to New Orleans amid warnings from the mayor that 10,000 people may have died.

One week after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region, miles-long lines of vehicles crawled into suburban New Orleans today as residents were allowed to return to salvage what was left of their homes. New Orleans’ mayor warned that 10,000 people may have died.

Police shot eight people carrying guns on a New Orleans bridge today, killing five or six, a deputy chief said.

Days after Hurricane Katrina inundated much of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, massive aid is arriving, yet with people still clinging to dry areas hoping for rescue, questions have arisen about the level of preparedness and response.

Hurricane Katrina probably killed thousands of people in New Orleans, the city’s mayor said today.

Army engineers trying to plug New Orleans’ breached levees struggled to move giant sandbags and concrete barriers into place, and the governor said today the situation was growing more desperate and there was no choice but to abandon the flooded city.

President George W Bush was today visiting hurricane-stricken Florida and Alabama – the third such visit to Florida – as Hurricane Ivan victims faced another day of digging through debris for their belongings and waiting hours in queues for food and water.

The US Defence Department is removing the Army Corps of Engineers from overseeing oil imports into Iraq, just weeks after Pentagon auditors said Halliburton – Vice President Dick Cheney’s former firm – may have overcharged taxpayers under the corps’ supervision.

The official number of people missing at the World Trade Centre dropped to 5,960 after multiple lists of the victims were double-checked, New York’s mayor Rudolph Giuliani said.

Aircraft carriers and guided missile destroyers moved into the waters near New York and Washington after President George Bush placed the US military on its highest alert status.