Hurricane Gustav weakened slightly to a Category 2 storm as it headed towards New Orleans today, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

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.

Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, directing residents of a city still recovering from the devastation left behind three years ago from Hurricane Katrina to flee from the approaching Hurricane Gustav.

Officials in the US city of New Orleans are considering a curfew to help stem violence after at least eight killings in the city in the first week of the New Year, a senior police chief said tonight.

Acting at the mayor’s request, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco said she would send National Guard troops and state police to patrol the streets of New Orleans after a bloody weekend in which six people were killed.

NEW Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin looks to be on course to be re-elected to oversee the rebuilding of the city after topping the ballot in the first round of a poll hit by the dispersal of more than half the voters in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans is better prepared for the upcoming hurricane season because of stronger flood walls and better evacuation plans after Huricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin said today.

THE mayor of New Orleans has apologised for saying the hurricane-ravaged city would be rebuilt as a “chocolate” city and for blaming the storm on the wrath of God over US involvement in Iraq.

New Orleans’ controversial mayor has been forced to apologise after claiming Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for the war in Iraq and predicting the city would be “chocolate” again.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said today he was abandoning his proposal to create a casino district as a way of revitalising the city’s shattered economy, bitterly complaining of resistance from Mississippi politicians.

SHOCK waves from Hurricane Katrina continued to batter New Orleans as some 3,000 city workers - half the workforce - faced the losing their jobs as the city has no money to pay them.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said the city was laying off as many as 3,000 employees – or about half its workforce – because of the financial damage inflicted on the city by Hurricane Katrina.

Mayor Ray Nagin said today that the city was laying off as many as 3,000 employees – or about half the city’s workforce – because f the damage done to New Orleans’ finances by Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, eager to welcome back his city’s residents, says he’s fighting a national impression “that we’re tainted, we’re not ready".

A combative Michael Brown blamed the Louisiana governor, the New Orleans mayor and even the Bush White House that appointed him for his agency’s dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in a fiery appearance before Congress.

AREAS of New Orleans newly flooded by Hurricane Rita could be pumped dry within a week after levee damage is repaired, far sooner than initially predicted.

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.

Searchers smashed through doors in New Orleans, bringing their hunt for the dead to homes that had been locked and to blocks hardest hit by Katrina’s flooding.

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.

Residents began trickling back today as part of a plan by the mayor to reopen New Orleans one postal code at a time, despite repeated warnings from the top federal official on the scene – and US President George Bush himself – that the city is not ready.

NEW ORLEANS' mayor has the authority to let residents return to his hurricane-damaged city, but the Coast Guard official in charge of the federal disaster response said yesterday that all the information from health and environmental experts recommends against it.

NEW ORLEANS Mayor Ray Nagin announced yesterday that large parts of the city will reopen early next week, and the French Quarter the week after that. “The city of New Orleans will start to breathe again,” he said.

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.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush headed to the US Gulf Coast yesterday to confront a region where the flood waters of Hurricane Katrina were receding but anger and frustration still overflowed.

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.

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.

TO the estimated 10,000 residents still holed up in this ruined city, the mayor had a blunt new warning: get out now or risk being taken out by force.

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.

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.

Before New Orleans was swamped by flood waters and anarchy the world had never heard of Ray Nagin, a small time official on the giant stage of American politics.

New Orleans descended into anarchy as corpses lay abandoned in the streets, fights and fires broke out, police officers turned in their badges and the governor declared war on looters who have made the city a menacing landscape of disorder and fear.

NEW ORLEANS’ mayor issued an urgent plea for relief of his flooded city on Thursday as gunshots and looting hampered the evacuation of desperate crowds trying to escape Hurricane Katrina’s destruction.

The evacuation of Hurricane Katrina refugees from the Superdome in New Orleans was suspended today after shots were fired at a military helicopter, an ambulance official overseeing the operation said. No immediate injuries were reported.

With thousands feared dead and the city’s remaining residents told to evacuate for weeks, conditions deteriorated further in submerged New Orleans today as looting spiralled out of control.

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

Rescuers along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast pushed aside the dead to reach the living in a race against time and rising waters, while New Orleans sank deeper into crisis and Louisiana’s governor ordered storm refugees out of this drowning city.

NEW ORLEANS Mayor Ray Nagin warned of a “significant” death toll as the exact scope of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction remained unknown.

AN immediate evacuation for all of New Orleans was ordered last night as Hurricane Katrina bore down with wind revving up to nearly 175mph and threats of a massive storm surge.

An immediate mandatory evacuation for the southern US city of New Orleans was ordered today as Hurricane Katrina bore down with winds up to nearly 175 mph and a threat of a massive storm surge.