Neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman followed and confronted the black teenager he is accused of murdering after a police dispatcher told him to back off, prosecutors in the US said.

A convicted sex offender has been sentenced to death for kidnapping and raping a nine-year-old girl before swaddling her in rubbish bags and burying her alive in his Florida garden.

A judge in Florida who briefly heard arguments in cases involving Anna Nicole Smith’s death was today ordered to undergo drug testing for six months on a misdemeanour marijuana possession charge.

A judge who played a role in the recent Anna Nicole Smith proceedings was cited for smoking marijuana in a city park, police said today.

A US Supreme Court justice today denied a motion by Anna Nicole Smith’s mother, Virgie Arthur, to halt the burial of the former Playboy Playmate and take her body to Texas, according to reports tonight.

A white hearse carrying Anna Nicole Smith’s body drove toward a Bahamas church today where the former Playboy Playmate and reality TV star was to be laid to rest in a beaded gown and tiara after a tightly guarded memorial service.

The coffin holding Anna Nicole Smith’s body was today loaded onto a private flight to the Bahamas for her funeral, after weeks of legal wrangling over where the pin-up should be buried.

ANNA Nicole Smith’s ex-boyfriend testified yesterday that he tried to curb the former centrefold’s drug use and the judge referred to her long-time companion, Howard K Stern, as “maybe an enabler”.

Anna Nicole Smith’s estranged mother and her ex-boyfriend both testified that the starlet said she wanted to be buried in California, not the plots in the Bahamas or Texas that have been the focus of the fierce week-long legal debate.

The drawn-out US court battle over what to do with Anna Nicole Smith’s body has a new sense of urgency – the starlet’s remains are decomposing more quickly than expected and a public viewing could be in danger.

A grief-stricken Anna Nicole Smith threw herself over her son’s body last fall as he lay in a coffin in the Bahamas, wailing, “If Daniel has to be buried, I want to buried with him,” her boyfriend testified at a hearing on where the former centrefold should be laid to rest.

A Florida judge today tried to broker an agreement among the three people fighting over Anna Nicole Smith’s remains about procedures for embalming the body of the former Playboy Playmate.

A judge ordered another DNA sample be taken from Anna Nicole Smith’s body as he heard fiery arguments in the fight over the former Playboy Playmate’s remains and custody of her infant daughter.

The bickering over Anna Nicole Smith spiralled into a post-death legal war, with judges on both US coasts issuing rulings and a parade of lawyers fighting for control of the body.

Rap star Eminem and his high school sweetheart have divorced for a second time, less than a year after they remarried.

A man sought by US police in connection with the rape of two teenage girls in an underground room behind his home had been recommended for South Carolina’s sexually violent predator programme.

The brother of a former Ku Klux Klan leader convicted in connection with the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers, threatened to kill the judge presiding over his recent trial, it has been claimed.

ONE-TIME Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to the maximum 60 years in prison yesterday for masterminding the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers.

One-time Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to the maximum 60 years in prison today for masterminding the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers.

Testimony begins today in the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen, a one-time Ku Klux Klansman charged with killing three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964.

A jury of four blacks and 13 whites has been sworn in to hear the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen – a one-time Ku Klux Klansman charged with killing three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964.

REPUTED Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen watched from a wheelchair yesterday as jury selection began in his murder trial in one of most shocking crimes of the US civil rights era — the 1964 slayings of three voter-registration volunteers.

Reputed Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen watched from a wheelchair today as jury selection began in his murder trial in one of most shocking crimes of the civil rights era – the 1964 slayings of three voter-registration volunteers that was later depicted in the movie “Mississippi Burning.”

An associate of two men who murdered abortion doctors in the 1990s has gone on trial accused of molesting a teenager from Northern Ireland at a home he ran for troubled girls and women.

A 14-year-old boy charged with murdering a classmate in a school toilet had planned to kill him, another schoolmate and any witnesses, according to excerpts from his diary.

TEENAGE sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was sentenced to life in prison without parole yesterday for an October 2002 killing spree in the Washington DC area that left 10 people dead.

A JUDGE rejected John Allen Muhammad's insistence of innocence and sentenced him to death, saying his actions in the Washington-area sniper shootings that left 10 people dead were "so vile that they were almost beyond comprehension".

Sniper John Allen Muhammad has been sentenced to death for his role in the October 2002 killing spree that left 10 people dead in the Washington DC area.

The jury in the Washington sniper murder trial of Lee Malvo was due to consider its verdict today, after hearing closing arguments from both sides in the case.

THE ex-wife of Washington sniper John Muhammad has said she called police to report a car similar to the one used in the killing spree near her home — supporting a defence argument that she was the ultimate target.

The ex-wife of Washington sniper John Muhammad has said she called police to report a car similar to the one used in the killing spree near her home - supporting a defence argument that she was the ultimate target.

A man accused of molesting children may travel to Northern Ireland with his lawyer to question a girl who was his alleged victim, but only if authorities in the UK allow the visit.

A US jury recommended yesterday that John Allen Muhammad should be executed for masterminding the deadly sniper attacks that terrorised the Washington area for three weeks last autumn.

A US jury recommended today that John Allen Muhammad should be executed for masterminding the deadly sniper attacks that terrorised the Washington area for three weeks last autumn.

A woman killed outside an Alabama liquor store the month before the Washington-area sniper spree probably died from a shot from a high-powered rifle, a witness testified yesterday.

The trial of Washington sniper suspect John Lee Malvo will not be postponed to allow time for a mental health expert to examine him, a judge ruled.

SNIPER suspect John Allen Muhammad yesterday withdrew a request that might have allowed him introduce mental health evidence at his trial.

Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad withdrew a request today that might have allowed him to introduce mental health evidence at sentencing to persuade a jury to spare his life.

A 42-year-old man entered not guilty pleas today at the beginning of a trial over the killing of 10 people during a three-week reign of terror in and around Washington last year.

A rock group said it will go ahead with an on-stage suicide during a concert in the US next weekend, in defiance of a hastily enacted law designed to scuttle the plan.

A woman who threw a cream pie at Taoiseach Bertie Ahern during this year’s General Election campaign today agreed to carry out community service rather than go to jail.

Supermodel Niki Taylor, critically injured in a car accident last year, is suing a British magazine publisher over photographs taken of her scars.

Lawyers for a former Ku Klux Klansman accused of murder in the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls in Alabama said they would begin their case today by arguing that prosecutors had not proved their case.