A white Texas police officer faces a murder charge after firing into a car of teenagers leaving a party, killing a black 15-year-old passenger, say authorities.

Hail, Caesar! 4/5

Taking a cue from the suffering in New Orleans, residents lined up for plywood and officials called for a voluntary evacuation of the island city of Galveston as Hurricane Rita threatened to slam into the Texas Coast this weekend.

WITH the last weary refugees rescued from the Superdome and Convention Centre, New Orleans turned its attention yesterday to gathering up and counting the dead across a ghastly landscape awash in perhaps thousands of corpses.