A drunken driver linked to the deaths of two pedestrians when parts from his car were found near their bodies has avoided a lengthy prison term because Kansas City authorities sold key evidence – his car – for scrap.

Howling wind and rain from Hurricane Emily lashed beaches in the Mexican resort of Cancun today, after thousands of tourists, many of them Britons, were evacuated from their hotels to improvised shelters at schools and gymnasiums.

Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry says the Bush administration has stretched the US military too thin, complicating the mission to create a stable Iraq.

American soldiers are firing so much ammunition that the military’s largest supplier of bullets can’t keep up.