USA: Lottery ticket buyers in New Hampshire who dream of bringing home the bacon now can smell it, too.

A US cruise ship carrying a healthcare worker who is being monitored for signs of ebola has returned to port in Texas.

Carnival Cruise Lines’ boss said today he would go aboard and apologise personally to passengers for foul and dangerous conditions while the stricken liner Triumph was adrift for five nightmarish days.

Carnival Cruise Lines has cancelled a dozen more planned voyages aboard the Triumph.

Some of the people wounded in last week’s Colorado cinema rampage may face enormous medical bills without the benefit of health insurance.

Investigators found that the operator of a Texas home day care centre where a fire killed four children had left the youngsters in her care alone to go shopping, according to a court document.

Tar balls found on a Texas beach were confirmed as the first evidence that gushing crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon well had reached all the Gulf states.

THE US-based Galveston Island gas field – in which Irish exploration company Providence Resources owns a 10.8% stake – has begun producing gas, it was announced yesterday.

RATS, raw sewage and a no-excuses curfew await exiled residents who try to return to storm-wrecked Galveston Island when it reopens next week, officials have said.

Thousands of victims of Hurricane Ike huddled in shelters for what could be weeks and others queued wearily for food, water, ice and petrol as the misery of the disaster along the Texas coast became increasingly clear.

The death toll from hurricane Ike rose to 30 in eight states today as the storm slogged across the mid-US leaving a trail of flooding and destruction.

Rescue crews in the US navigated debris-strewn streets to reach people still stuck in some of the thousands of homes flooded by Hurricane Ike, while authorities in the fourth-largest US city, imposed a curfew and warned residents that it would be weeks before Houston is fully back up and running.

Rescue crews in the US searched neighbourhoods inundated by Hurricane Ike’s storm surge early this morning, racing against time to save those who spent a second harrowing night trapped amid flattened houses, strewn debris and downed power lines.

Howling ashore with 110 mph winds, Hurricane Ike ravaged the Texas coast today, flooding thousands of homes and businesses, shattering windows in Houston’s skyscrapers and knocking out power to millions of people.

Hurricane Ike ravaged south-east Texas early today, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who decided too late they should have heeded calls to evacuate made futile calls for rescue.

A monster-sized Hurricane Ike bore down on the Texas coast, threatening to rattle the sparkling skyscrapers of America’s fourth-largest city, shut down the heart of the US oil industry for days and obliterate waterfront towns already flooded with waist-high water.

A number of elements to the oil pricing dynamic have been jostling for dominance in the market so far this week with the result that oil stands at somewhat of a crossroads.

A young father was jailed for 25 years today for severely burning his baby daughter when he put her in a microwave and turned it on for up to 20 seconds.

The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that former BP chairman John Browne cannot be questioned without limits about his knowledge of the oil giant’s deadly Texas City refinery accident.

A hurricane watch was issued for a portion of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean as Tropical Storm Dean slowly moved across the Atlantic Ocean, forecasters said.

Blues musician BB King was “back to his old self” after being discharged from a hospital today, a spokeswoman for his management agency said.

US Blues entertainer BB King was admitted to hospital for undisclosed reasons but was in good condition early today, a hospital official said.

A woman whose parents were killed in an American oil refinery blast has received a payout after BP settled the last remaining lawsuit.

If bird flu makes the feared leap to human-to-human transmission, it is likely to grow far less deadly, researchers have said.

Texans are returning home today after 120mph Hurricane Rita failed to cause the feared Katrina-sized destruction.

Hurricane Rita ploughed into the Gulf of Mexico coast early today, lashing Texas and Louisiana with driving rain, flooding low-lying regions, knocking power out to nearly a million customers and sparking fires across the region.

Hurricane Rita ploughed into the Gulf Coast early today, lashing Texas and Louisiana with driving rain, threatening to flood low-lying regions and knocking power out to half a million people as transformers exploded in the pre-dawn sky.

Hurricane Rita ploughed into the Gulf Coast early today, lashing Texas and Louisiana with driving rain, igniting the pre-dawn sky with exploding transformers and threatening to flood the low-lying region.

Hurricane Rita steamed toward refinery towns along the Texas-Louisiana coast with 120mph winds early today, creating havoc even before it arrived.

A BUS carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire and was rocked by explosions early yesterday on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, Texas, killing as many as 24 people, authorities said.

HURRICANE Rita is a storm of breathtaking size, chillingly described by experts as the “perfect storm.”

Hurricane Rita roared toward the Texas and Louisiana coasts early today, a major Category 4 storm that spurred a traffic-snarled exodus toward higher ground and fears it could cripple the heart of the US petrochemical industry.

Hurricane Rita closed in on the Texas Gulf Coast and the heart of the US oil-refining industry with howling 145 mph winds, but a sharper-than-expected turn to the right set it on a course that could spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit.

HUNDREDS of thousands of people across the Houston metropolitan area struggled to make their way inland in a vast, bumper-to-bumper exodus as Hurricane Rita closed in on the fourth-largest city in the US with winds howling at 241 kilometres an hour.

CARS clogged Texas highways as 1.5 million people fleed Hurricane Rita yesterday.

Traffic came to a standstill and petrol shortages were reported today as hundreds of thousands of people in the Houston metropolitan area rushed to get out of the path of Hurricane Rita, a monster storm with 170mph winds.

Gaining strength with frightening speed, Hurricane Rita swirled toward the Gulf Coast as a Category 5, 175-mph monster today as more than 1.3 million people in Texas and Louisiana were sent packing on orders from authorities who learned a bitter lesson from Katrina.

AS many as one million people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast as hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated yesterday.

Hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated and as many as one million others were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast today as Hurricane Rita intensified into a Category 4 storm with 140mph winds that could batter Texas and bring more misery to New Orleans by the weekend.

Hurricane Rita strengthened to a dangerous Category 3 storm early today, sparing the Florida Keys but prompting mandatory orders to once again evacuate New Orleans as well as the Texas city of Galveston.

Hurricane Rita strengthened into a Category 3 storm with 115 mph winds early today after lashing the Florida Keys and sparking anxiety as it headed into the Gulf of Mexico.

HURRICANE Rita strengthened rapidly to a Category 2 hurricane as it lashed the Florida Keys with flooding rain and strong wind and sparked fears the storm could eventually bring new misery to the Gulf Coast.

Taking a cue from the suffering in New Orleans, residents lined up for plywood and officials called for a voluntary evacuation of the island city of Galveston as Hurricane Rita threatened to slam into the Texas Coast this weekend.

A DESPONDENT Andrea Yates is receiving treatment in a Texas hospital for depression so severe that she has refused to eat any food since around the anniversary last month of the day on which she drowned her five children, her lawyer said.