Some of the people wounded in last week’s Colorado cinema rampage may face enormous medical bills without the benefit of health insurance.

If bird flu makes the feared leap to human-to-human transmission, it is likely to grow far less deadly, researchers have said.

Hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated and as many as one million others were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast today as Hurricane Rita intensified into a Category 4 storm with 140mph winds that could batter Texas and bring more misery to New Orleans by the weekend.