A small plane that crashed in a working-class neighbourhood near a Connecticut airport yesterday and engulfed two houses in flames may have killed six people.

The Government has been asked to intervene immediately in the case of a black man on death row for 28 years in the US.

Hurricane Lili gave Louisiana’s coast a 100 mph overnight battering that swamped streets, knocked out power and snapped trees.

Thirty-one employees of the US Senate tested positive for exposure to a highly concentrated form of anthrax, officials said, prompting congressional leaders to order an unprecedented shutdown of some of their offices.