A draft plan for a massive overhaul of Sydney by 2030 has received widespread support.

The Chinese government has promised to help all those whose homes were damaged in recent winter storms to build permanent houses in the coming four months, said Vice Premier Hui Liangyu on Sunday.

U.S. experts have warned that Afghanistan risks becoming a failed state if urgent steps are not taken to improve security and reconstruction in the country.

The agency in charge of rebuilding tsunami-stricken Aceh, Indonesia, says it is on track to finish building houses there next spring. The Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency is now shifting its focus to economic recovery. The head of the organization says significant challenges remain, including inadequate electricity and a lack of foreign investment.

Two years ago, UC Berkeley civil engineer Bob Bea made national headlines critiquing New Orleans' levees and flood control system that failed under the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. Now he is equally damning about the reconstruction efforts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to make the city safer.

An epic drought during the mid-1100s dwarfs any drought previously documented for a region that includes areas of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The six-decade-long drought was remarkable for the absence of very wet years. At the core of the drought was a period of 25 years in which Colorado River flow averaged 15 percent below normal.