World leaders offer condolences to Katrina victims

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.

Several speakers at the United Nations summit in New York that opened yesterday took a few minutes during their turn at the podium to remember the disaster of Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans and several other areas on the US Gulf Coast in late August.