US New Orleans made a "desperate SOS" for help as authorities struggled to stem a descent into anarchy and evacuate survivors of Hurricane Katrina which is now believed to have killed thousands. US The US Senate, meeting in an extraordinary late night session, voted unanimously to authorize 10.5 billion dollars in special funding for Hurricane Katrina victims. US US President George W. Bush was to tour three southern US states ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, amid criticism of the government's handling of the response to the disaster. US The New Orleans Superdome was meant to be a hurricane refuge, but those who sought shelter there described a lawless, squalid "concentration camp" where two children were reportedly raped and other refugees terrorized by rioters. Iraq Mass funerals were held across Iraq for the nearly 1,000 Shiite pilgrims killed in a stampede on a Baghdad bridge as families continued their grim search for missing loved ones. Britain Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri emerged days before the anniversary of September 11 to threaten more anti-Western attacks like the July strikes on Britain, in a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera which also showed one of the London bombers. US scores of detainees are on hunger strike at the Guantanamo US 'war on terror' detention camp, lawyers for the detainees and US military authorities said. Mideast Israel was reaping the diplomatic dividends within the Muslim world of its pullout from the Gaza Strip, forging unprecedented contacts with Pakistan and deepening ties with Egypt and Jordan. Afghanistan A British engineer has been kidnapped and at least three policemen killed by Taliban rebels in Afghanistan, raising security fears before key elections this month. China Washington announced more restrictions on Chinese garment imports, hours after China and the US failed to solve a simmering textile row after three days of talks here. China Hundreds of thousands of people began trudging home after Typhoon Talim's whipping rain and winds walloped China's east coast and Taiwan, killing at least five people and injuring more than 100.