From the Scotsman (newspaper in Scotland)
(http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1891072005)

Beleagued Bush forced to admit US is unable to cope
TIM CORNWELL

Key points
• US government requests aid from Europe and NATO
• Countries worldwide offer assistance; Vatican to co-ordinate Catholic aid
• Bush faces mounting criticism over his lacklustre response to disaster

Key quote
"We have been abandoned by our own country" - Aaron Broussard, president
of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans

Story in full:

 THE United States has asked the European Union and NATO for emergency
assistance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina as salvage efforts in
New Orleans and other cities begin to move from rescuing the living to
recovering the dead.

Britain will send 500,000 military ration packs, the Ministry of Defence
said yesterday, as Germany and Italy announced military shipments of
their own. The 4,000-calorie British armed forces meal packs are
designed to last one person one day, with foods ranging from Lancashire
hotpot and chicken curry to fruit dumplings with custard and Yorkie bars.

The US requests for blankets, first-aid kits, water trucks and food
underlined the continuing struggle by the world's richest nation to cope
with the biggest natural disaster in its history.

A week after Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast, driving
winds of more than 100mph and a massive storm-surge into some of the
poorest American states, the city of New Orleans was still showing signs
of lawlessness. Police said they shot eight people carrying guns on a
bridge, killing five or six of them.

The US Army Corps of Engineers said a group of its contractors, who were
walking across a bridge on their way to launch barges to fix a canal,
had come under attack and the police had shot the assailants.

Deputy Police Chief WJ Riley said the shootings took place on the
Danziger Bridge, which connects Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi
River.

Scattered groups of people still remained in the heart of a city of
500,000 yesterday, but attention was turning to the growing demands of
hundreds of thousands of people left homeless and destitute.

The European response geared up rapidly yesterday. Both the European
Commission and NATO, the 26-member military alliance, said they were
co-ordinating European aid efforts after US requests to help the
"humanitarian crisis" in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The Defence Secretary, John Reid, promised as many daily flights as
necessary to deliver the British rations. "No-one could help but be
moved by the pictures of devastation to New Orleans and the surrounding
areas and the plight of those affected," he said.

The German defence ministry was already sending its second Airbus loaded
with 15 tons of rations, while Italy was sending a C-130 military cargo
plane packed with blankets, bed supplies, dinghies, water purifiers and
first-aid kits - enough for about 15,000 people. Belgium and Spain sent
teams of experts to assess needs on the ground.

A string of other countries offered help. Pope Benedict asked the
Vatican's central charity organisation, Cor Unum, to co-ordinate Roman
Catholic aid. Kuwait offered $500 million in oil products, impoverished
Afghanistan pledged $100,000 and Iran offered to send supplies through
the Red Crescent organisation.

The administration of George Bush, meanwhile, was still struggling to
respond to intense national and international criticism over its
lacklustre response to the disaster.

Battered and sickened survivors made no attempt to disguise their anger.
"We have been abandoned by our own country," Aaron Broussard, president
of Jefferson Parish, just south of New Orleans, told NBC's Meet the Press.

"It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans," Mr
Broussard said. "Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater
New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now."

In Iraq, an al-Qaeda group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi seized on the US
calamity, in a message it allegedly posted on an Islamic website. "God
attacked America and the prayers of the oppressed were answered," it said.

In a White House appearance, Mr Bush paid a sombre tribute to the US
Supreme Court chief justice, William Rehnquist, whose death was
announced yesterday, but did not take questions on the hurricane relief
operation.

It was left to the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and others
to defend Mr Bush against charges that the government's sluggish
response showed racial insensitivity, given the numbers of black victims.

"Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on
the basis of race," said the highest-ranking black member of his
administration, visiting her native Alabama.

In Washington, the transportation secretary, Norman Mineta, said more
than 10,000 people had been flown out of New Orleans in what he called
the largest ever airlift on US soil. He said flights would continue as
long as needed.

About 20,000 people, including dozens of Britons, were finally evacuated
from the New Orleans Superdome stadium and the surrounding area on
Saturday night. The survivors reported stepping over bodies as they made
their way to waiting buses. Others described rapes, killings and a
suicide inside the arena.

Convoys of buses headed for the region at the weekend to help ferry
survivors from the disaster zone, including 100 New York City buses,
dispatched with an escort from the New York City Police Department.

The administration said more than 50,000 troops were now in the disaster
zone. Three cruise ships were pressed into service by the US government
to provide shelter for up to 7,000 hurricane victims. All pleasure
cruises have been cancelled to make the vessels available for six
months, a spokesman said.

There were also reports yesterday that the city of New Orleans could
remain off-limits for as long as nine months. The Army Corps of
Engineers said crews had closed a 300ft gap in one levee, where
floodwaters poured into the city after the storm-surge from Katrina. But
it could take from 30 days to nearly three months to end the flooding,
it was estimated.

From neighbouring Texas came warnings that the state, which is already
providing temporary shelter for 200,000 hurricane refugees, was running
out of room. Emergency workers at the Astrodome Houston stadium were
told to expect 10,000 new arrivals daily.