A state appeals court will decide in the coming weeks whether chimpanzees are entitled to "legal personhood" in a case that could lead to expanded rights for animals such as gorillas, elephants and dolphins, according to the lawyer advocating for a 26-year-old chimp named Tommy.

An animal rights group is fighting for chimpanzees in the US to be given rights as legal people so they are ensured better treatment.

SHACKLED and surrounded by 19 officers in a cinder-block jail room, the suspect in a rampage that left a judge and three others dead appeared before a magistrate yesterday and was informed that authorities plan to charge him with murder.

A man being escorted into court for his rape trial yesterday stole a deputy’s gun, killed the judge and two other people and carjacked a reporter’s vehicle to escape, setting off a massive manhunt and creating widespread chaos across Atlanta.

A judge presiding over a rape re-trial was shot dead in his court by the defendant today who then killed two others while fleeing.

Bobby Brown has been ordered to stand trial on charges of assaulting his superstar wife Whitney Houston.

SINGER Bobby Brown has been charged with battery in Atlanta, three days after he hit his wife, singer and actress Whitney Houston.

Pop singer Whitney Houston has told police in Atlanta that her husband Bobby Brown beat her, causing a one-inch bruise on her cheek and a cut upper lip.

US PROSECUTORS have said a fugitive millionaire accused of killing his wife will not be spared the death penalty because he carries an Irish passport.

Tornados have killed five people in Mississippi and a two-year-old boy in Arkansas.