Oklahoma plans to use nitrogen gas to execute inmates once the US state resumes using the death penalty, marking the first time a state would use the gas to carry out capital punishment.

HE has been called an idiot, an incompetent and worse. The vilification of federal disaster chief Michael Brown, emerging as chief scapegoat for whatever went wrong in the US Government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, has ratcheted into the stratosphere.

THE White House was under fire again yesterday with reports US President George W Bush chose unqualified political supporters instead of disaster experts to head the agency leading the Katrina relief effort.

Michael Brown, the head of the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency, was hand-picked by the President to take charge of the recovery effort in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

LESS powerful but still dangerous Hurricane Lili pounded low-lying Louisiana coastal towns in the USA with heavy wind and rain on Thursday as it washed inland. Nearly a half-million people had been urged to flee.