Katrina - chief slept in

BELEAGUERED US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has testified that he did not take charge of his department's faltering response to hurricane Katrina because his experience during the September 11 terrorist attacks convinced him that micro-managing by senior officials could make matters worse.

But members of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which has spent months probing the disaster, sharply criticised Mr Chertoff for being so out of touch with the unfolding disaster that he went to bed unaware that the New Orleans levees had collapsed hours before, killing and injuring hundreds and leaving much of the city under water.