Police in Florida have defended a father who beat an 18-year-old unconscious after finding him sexually abusing his 11-year-old son.

The family of an Irishman shot dead in the US at the weekend say they are hoping to bring his body back to his native town for burial.

A four-year-old British girl was killed after being run over by a car on a Florida beach, the Highway Patrol said today.

Fairgoers at a central Florida carnival caught a two-year-old girl whose mother was forced to drop her after they were both stranded 30ft off the ground on a ride.

With no options left to earn her 2009 LPGA Tour card, Michelle Wie has entered the first stage of tour qualifying next week at Mission Hills Country Club.

Emergency crews launched airboats into submerged streets to rescue central Florida residents trapped by rising floodwaters from a stalled Tropical Storm Fay, which soaked the state for a third consecutive day.

Wildfires fuelled by dry, windy weather damaged about 50 homes on Florida’s central Atlantic coast and driving hundreds of residents away as the governor declared a state of emergency.

Atlantic storm Ophelia regained hurricane strength, on a course expected to swing towards the Atlantic Coast, as forecasters urged residents from northern Florida to the Carolinas keep close watch on its path over the next few days.

Tropical Storm Ophelia strengthened into a hurricane today as it stalled 70 miles off the north-east Florida coast, churning up waves that caused beach erosion and drenched Kennedy Space Centre with rain.

PRESIDENT BUSH won a convincing victory in Florida, erasing the trauma of four years ago when the outcome of the presidential election remained in limbo for 36 days while election officials scrambled to recount ballots.

Jeanne, Florida’s fourth hurricane in six weeks, piled on destruction in already ravaged areas, slicing across the state with howling wind that rocketed debris from earlier storms and torrents of rain that turned streets into rivers.

Thousands of residents desperate to return home after fleeing Hurricane Frances have ignored Florida’s plea to stay put, jamming main roads, delaying emergency workers and causing tempers to flare in the sticky heat.

WEAKENED but persistent, Tropical Storm Frances swept into north-western Florida yesterday as its successor, Hurricane Ivan, gathered in the Caribbean, threatening Barbados and St Lucia.

Weakened but persistent, Tropical Storm Frances took aim at north-western Florida today as its successor – Hurricane Ivan -gathered in the Caribbean, threatening Barbados and St Lucia.

Nearly half a million people were ordered to evacuate as Hurricane Frances swirled toward Florida today just three weeks after Charley’s devastating visit, threatening to deliver the most powerful double punch to hit a state in at least a century.

The US presidential helicopter flew low over destroyed homes, downed power lines and uprooted trees today,as George W. Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush got a bird’s eye view of the destruction caused by Hurricane Charley.

Hurricane Charley struck west-central Florida with a mix of wind and water, ravaging oceanfront homes and trailer parks, tearing apart small planes and inundating the coast before moving inland to assault Orlando and Daytona Beach.

An ex-convict who blamed a young woman for taking his video game system and clothes recruited three teenagers to stab and beat her and five others to death, Florida investigators said.

AN eight-year-old boy escaped with bites on his hands and arms when he was attacked by a shark while swimming in Florida with his father.

A Muslim woman has gone to a Florida appeal court in a bid to be allowed to wear her veil for her driving licence photo.

A female biker campaigning for the right to go topless in public plans to lead hundreds of half-naked women through the streets of Florida.

Sobbing that ‘‘there’s no sense in keeping me alive’’, one of the first known female serial killers in the United States won a court victory in Florida in her bid to sack her lawyers and hasten her execution.

Fallen baseball star Darryl Strawberry spent four days on the run smoking crack cocaine with a woman from his Alcoholics Anonymous group, a probation report reveals .