Latest: A man opened fire inside a church in a small South Texas community on Sunday, killing more than 20 people, including children, and wounding at least 20 others.

A nine-year-old boy with a massive tumour was whisked from a gang-infested neighbourhood in Mexico by US agents and taken across the border for treatment in New Mexico.

TORN between reality and their political dreams, leading conservatives are defending Mitt Romney against attacks on his work in the private sector even as they search for a more palatable candidate amid a growing sense that his nomination looks certain.

A PASTOR shot and killed during his Sunday sermon deflected the first of the gunman’s four rounds with a Bible, sending a confetti-like spray of paper into the air in a horrifying scene that congregants initially thought was a skit, police said.