DEVELOPMENTS

DEVELOPMENTS
Hurricane Katrina
Al Gore helped airlift some 270 Katrina evacuees on two private charters from New Orleans, acting at the urging of a doctor who saved the life of the former vice president's son. Gore criticized the Bush administration's slow response to Katrina in a speech Friday in San Francisco but refused to be interviewed about the mercy missions he financed and flew Sept. 3 and 4.
Police fearing deadly confrontations with jittery residents enforced a new order that bars homeowners from owning guns. That order apparently does not apply to the hundreds of M-16-toting private security guards hired to protect businesses and wealthy property owners.
The military began providing cages to homeowners to allow them to evacuate with their pets. "We got the capacity, and it seemed like the right thing to do," said Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore.
Scores of Louisiana National Guardsmen began arriving home from Iraq. About 800 members of Louisiana's 256th Brigade Combat Team volunteered to join the relief effort, and about 1,500 will return to their civilian jobs, if any of those positions are left.
Marines from Mexico, the Netherlands and the United States are allies in an international Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort based on ships about 20 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Four Canadian ships are on the way. For the first time in the history of the Mexican military, women have been assigned a mission, said Lt. Leonardo Tun Humbert of the Papaloapan: Three female physicians and two nurses from the Mexican navy are aboard the ship waiting to be assigned to hurricane relief work.
Oil-industry experts said gasoline prices could remain above $3 per gallon for the rest of the year, and home-heating-oil costs could soar by as much as 70 percent.
Combined dispatches