Prosecutors are considering charges against US rapper Snoop Dogg after authorities discovered a 21-inch collapsible baton in his bags as he boarded a New York-bound flight.

A sniper opened fire Saturday at a rural Southern California recycling centre, wounding a worker and a deputy, then fled before being killed hours later in a shoot-out after deputies spotted him from a helicopter.

Initial tests have convinced US officials that a male mountain lion shot after an attack on a cyclist is the same one which killed a man.

A man was killed by a mountain lion in the same area where a bicyclist was attacked by what was believed to be the same animal, officials in the United States said today.

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman has been released from custody after being arrested for allegedly being drunk in public.

A CHILD'S body that resembles an abducted five-year-old American girl was found in a rugged, heavily forested area of a neighbouring county, but officials couldn't immediately say if it was that of missing Samantha Runnion.

Three people are confirmed to have died in a train crash in Los Angeles.