The white police officer who killed Michael Brown has resigned from the Ferguson Police Department, nearly four months after the fatal confrontation with the black 18-year-old that led to protests across the US.

A family was driven from their suburban St Louis, Missouri home by up to 6,000 venomous spiders that fell from the ceiling and oozed from the walls.

Several people have been wounded in a shooting at an Illinois church near St Louis, according to media reports in the US.