US Police sanctioned to use force to clear the last stubborn survivors of Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans, as President George W. Bush called for an additional 52 billion dollars in relief funding. US-UN-Iraq UN chief Kofi Annan said that he assumed responsibility for serious management lapses in the oil-for-food program for Iraq, but the head of an independent probe into the scandal said member states and the Security Council must share the blame. Mideast US officials reminded Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas of his responsibility to maintain order in the Gaza strip following the assassination of a top security official. Saudi Saudi Arabia said that five Al-Qaeda suspects on a most-wanted list were killed in a three-day battle with security forces in the eastern city of Dammam, the latest in a series of offensives against the militants. Iraq US-led forces freed an American contractor kidnapped in Iraq 10 months ago after raiding an isolated farmhouse south of Baghdad on a tip-off from an Iraqi prisoner. NKorea US investigators are probing Bank of China and two banks in the southern Chinese territory of Macau for possible links to a fund-raising network for North Korea's nuclear programme, the Asian Wall Street Journal reported. Egypt Indignant opposition candidates and independent monitors claimed that incumbent Hosni Mubarak's camp had massively violated electoral law during Egypt's first contested presidential poll. India-EU-Britain India and the European Union adopted a plan to strengthen ties including in the fight against terrorism, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed for world condemnation of those inciting acts of terror. Philippines-Norway Communist guerrillas in the Philippines denied agreeing to resume peace talks and renewed demands for the government to win their de-listing as a terrorist organisation and free jailed militants.