A jury in Chicago has convicted Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s former brother-in-law of murdering her mother, brother and seven-year-old nephew in what prosecutors’ described as an act of vengeance by a jilted husband.

The gunman believed to have killed four people at a Colorado megachurch and a missionary training school had been thrown out of the centre a few years ago and was sending it hate mail, police said.

Authorities searched a home in the US state of Colorado early today, seeking any link between two deadly shooting sprees at Christian religious centres that left both communities baffled and stunned.

Stray gunfire pierced a window and killed a 10-year-old girl during her birthday party in Chicago, the second time in as many weeks that a child has been shot to death in their South Side neighbourhood.

Wilson Pickett, the soul pioneer best known for the fiery hits Mustang Sally and In The Midnight Hour, died of a heart attack yesterday in a Reston, Virginia, hospital, according to his management company. He was 64.

A WET and slow-moving tropical storm Henri pushed heavy rain into Florida’s Gulf Coast yesterday, threatening to flood rivers and streams already full after one of the wettest summers in recent years.