New Orleans: Death, menace, fear, rape - anarchy

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.

“They have M-16s and they’re locked and loaded,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said yesterday of 300 National Guard troops who landed in New Orleans fresh from duty in Iraq.