George Clooney at a lunch for Academy Award nominees in Feb. 2006. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Transport Congo-style, Clooneys in Sudan, dissatisfied Katrina survivors and a fatal virus brewing in New Orleans&${esc.hash}39; abandoned swimming pools.About 60 percent of people left in the danger zone when Hurricane Katrina struck didn&${esc.hash}39;t get any help for more than 48 hours, according to a study by the Fritz Institute.
And 26 percent said it took at least a week for them to get outside assistance. When help did come, about one-third said non-governmental organisations arrived first, followed by local police and religious groups. The military, coast guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were well behind.
People said they stayed behind when the evacuation order came because they didn&${esc.hash}39;t want to leave their homes (36 percent) or pets (19 percent) behind, didn&${esc.hash}39;t know where else to go (20 percent), didn&${esc.hash}39;t have transport (18 percent), or couldn&${esc.hash}39;t leave home without assistance (10 percent). From the maths, it&${esc.hash}39;s clear most people had more than one reason for staying put.
Up to 40 percent of Louisiana residents surveyed said they weren&${esc.hash}39;t satisfied with the delivery of relief services. The organisation which got the highest rating was the American Red Cross
Most survivors got financial support, food and water, and 91 percent said it was delivered in a caring manner. But more than three-quarters didn&${esc.hash}39;t get assistance with shelter, and only 13 percent said they got help locating missing family and friends.
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worry that thousands of swimming pools abandoned in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina could be a dangerous breeding ground for the potentially fatal mosquito-borne West Nile Virus.
NewsweekReports that evangelical right-winger Pat Robertson has donated thousands of mosquito-eating fish and mobilised an army of volunteers to distribute them in neighbourhoods that have been deserted since the hurricane hit last August. Each pool gets about 50 inch-long Gambusia affinis, which are native to the region. Bill Horan, president of Robertson&${esc.hash}39;s charity, Operation Blessing, fell into one of the fetid pools. &${esc.hash}39;It looked like a toilet that hadn&${esc.hash}39;t been flushed in five years,&${esc.hash}39; he told Newsweek.
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Making a seamless link from West Nile Virus to a country which shares a border with the West Nile region, U.S. actor-director George Clooney visited southern Sudan and eastern Chad with his father, journalist Nick Clooney.
The Clooneys, travelling with International Rescue Committee (IRC), crossed into Chad despite heightened tensions there, to meet refugees from Darfur. From pictures on IRC&${esc.hash}39;s website, it looks like George took the role of cameraman, while his father did most of the talking.
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U.S. celebrities go to Sudan, and a Sudanese celebrity goes to Britain. Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal, an ex-child soldier in the two-decade north-south war that ended a year ago leaving two million people dead, has been touring in Britain this month. He topped the Kenyan charts with the song Gua, and has a new website to publicise his 2005 album Ceasefire.
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Ever been perched on the back of an overcrowded minibus with the door hanging open? Whether you have or not, you might get a giggle out of Kinshasa blogger Le r&${esc.hash}39;nouveau congolais who&${esc.hash}39;s taken the time to photograph the kind of transport solutions that spice up daily life in a lot of the world.
How do you move a whole town? That&${esc.hash}39;s a question facing the 25,000 inhabitants of Balakot, in northern Pakistan. Their town -&${esc.hash}39; where about 2,500 people died in last October&${esc.hash}39;s earthquake -&${esc.hash}39; sits on four fault lines, and the authorities say they have to move to new site, 15 miles (24 km) away.
Declan Walsh, reporting in the Guardian, says shops have sprung back to life, but there&${esc.hash}39;s little sign of rebuilding and most people live in shelters among the rubble. The police station is in a tent, he says.
Some of Balakot&${esc.hash}39;s residents are keen to make a new start away from bad memories, but others don&${esc.hash}39;t want to leave behind the graves of their relatives. &${esc.hash}39;This is the first time in the history of Pakistan we are relocating a city,&${esc.hash}39; says a local government official. &${esc.hash}39;I&${esc.hash}39;m sure it won&${esc.hash}39;t be smooth sailing.&${esc.hash}39;
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If you want to know how Australia spends its aid money, have a look at Tim Colebatch&${esc.hash}39;s analysis in The Age.
Papua New Guinea is high up the list, along with the Solomon Islands and Indonesia. A lot of the budget pays for Australian security forces and consultants, while spending on programmes to promote health and education have apparently shrunk. Australia doesn&${esc.hash}39;t put conditions on its aid, but Colebatch says aid agency World Vision estimates 80 percent of Australian aid money ends up paying for Australian goods and salaries.
Ruth Gidley
AlertNet Journalist
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