USA - Two days after Katrina, life in coastal Mississippi remained brutally primitive. There was no power, little to eat or drink and no sign of a quick recovery. Even the little things proved all but impossible.
SOMALIA - The lives of Somalis continue to be blighted by a "catastrophic" level of daily violence and "brutality", says a report by a medical charity.
ASIA - Oil prices surged to an all-time high of 67.10 dollars a barrel on August 12, and while they have since pulled back to around 64 dollars, analysts said prices remain volatile due to strong demand and tight supplies.
GERMANY - His visit to the Cologne synagogue, rebuilt after World War II, will mark only the second time in history that a head of the Catholic Church has entered a Jewish place of worship.
PORTUGAL - Police think they may have been started deliberately and they have arrested more than 70 people.
ITALY - Speaking before yesterday’s Angelus prayer to a group if some 8,000 pilgrims in Les Combes, in Italy’s Valle d’Aosta, where he is vacationing, the Holy Father recalled Europe’s deeply Christian roots and challenged the continent to return to them.
Pope Benedict noted today’s feast of the Apostle James, ‘whose relics are venerated in the famous shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the destination of countless pilgrims from all over Europe.’ He also recalled Friday‘s feast day of St Bridget of Sweden, patroness of Europe, and the July 11th feast of St Benedict, who he called ‘another great patron of the ‘old continent.’
‘Contemplating these saints,’ he said, ‘it is natural to pause and reflect on the contribution that Christianity has made, and continues to make, to the building of Europe.’
Benedict then turned to the pilgrimage made by ‘Servant of God John Paul II in 1982 to Santiago de Compostela, where he performed a solemn “European act” during which he pronounced these memorable words: ‘I, bishop of Rome and pastor of the Universal Church, from Santiago, address to you, old Europe, a cry full of love: Return to yourself! Be yourself! Discover your origins. Revive your roots. Experience again those authentic values that made your history glorious and your presence in other continents beneficial.’
USA - Engineers are scrambling to right the largest semi-submersible oil platform in the world, the $US1 billion ($1.34 billion) Thunder Horse in the Gulf of Mexico, which is tilting precariously following the passing of Hurricane Dennis, before another storm arrives.
USA - Hurricane Dennis heads for the US Gulf coast.
CUBA - Deadly Hurricane Dennis pummelled Havana into the early morning hours on Saturday, uprooting trees and leaving the city's 2.2 million people in darkness after earlier killing 32 people in southeastern Cuba and Haiti.
UK - A series of explosions ripped through London today as suspected terrorist attacks on tube trains and a bus killed at least 38 people, plunging the capital into chaos.
UK - Prime Minister Tony Blair called the win "a momentous day" for Britain.
UK - Crude oil hits a record $60 a barrel!
CHINA - Heavy floods have crashed into towns across southern China, killing at least 80 people, leaving dozens missing and forcing almost 700,000 to run for their lives, state media and residents said.
UK - Britain is being hit by a hi-tech crime wave. More and more of us are going online and so is international organised crime.
USA - The FBI missed several opportunities to uncover and possibly prevent the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, a high-level report has found.