Actress Laverne Cox will be the first transgender person to have a waxwork of themselves in the famed Madame Tussauds.

Passengers who finally escaped the disabled Carnival cruise ship Triumph have been checking into hotels for a hot shower, fresh-cooked food and sleep, or boarding buses for home after five numbing days at sea on a powerless ship.

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.

Officers stormed an underground bunker in the US where a five-year-old boy had been held hostage for nearly a week, rescuing him and leaving his kidnapper dead.

A mile-long oil sheen spread from an offshore oil platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico today.

BP engineers in the Gulf of Mexico said they will leave the leaky cap fixed to its well head closed as key ships stationed over the site were ordered to evacuate today as Tropical Storm Bonnie loomed.

British defence giant BAE Systems has completed the acquisition of Atlantic Marine Holding for $352m ($276.8m).

An evangelist who terrorised his family while preaching at revivals was sentenced to life in prison today after being convicted of killing his wife and storing her body in a freezer.

A US evangelist preacher and former paratrooper was convicted of murdering his wife and storing her body in a freezer for four years.

POLICE used a Taser gun on a deaf, mentally disabled man for failing to leave a shop’s bathroom in the latest controversial use of the stun gun in the US.

Police used a Taser gun on a deaf, mentally disabled man for failing to leave a shop’s bathroom in the latest controversial use of the stun gun in the US, it emerged today.

Dozens of cargo ships, petrochemical tankers and smaller vessels were stacked up near a closed stretch of the Mississippi River today, after a collision between a barge and tanker spilled more than 400,000 gallons of fuel oil into the busy shipping waterway.

Sinead O’Sullivan made her mark on American collegiate golf this week with a maiden tournament victory in Mobile, Alabama.

American Paula Creamer retained a firm grip on the Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions as she stretched her lead to six shots with a round to play in Mobile, Alabama.

FORMER world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield has denied any links to an internet steroid distribution ring from which authorities say he was a customer.

Sopranos star James Gandolfini will reign as celebrity monarch Bacchus during the 2007 carnival season in New Orleans.

England’s Karen Stupples, who is almost four months pregnant, carries British hopes in the elite field for tomorrow’s Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions in Mobile, Alabama.

THE Bush administration was yesterday fighting to save face after its botched rescue plans left New Orleans at the mercy of Hurricane Katrina.

US President George Bush, facing blistering criticism for his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, said today “the results are not acceptable” and pledged to bolster relief efforts with a personal trip to the Gulf Coast.

US President George Bush hopes his tour of Gulf Coast communities battered by Hurricane Katrina will boost the spirits of increasingly desperate storm victims and their tired rescuers.

Heavy rain drenched parts of Florida early today and heavy surf pounded beaches as Tropical Storm Arlene plodded toward the south-eastern US, chasing a few weather-weary residents into shelters.

Britain’s Laura Davies shot a tournament best seven-under-par 65 in the final round of the LPGA Tournament of Champions in Mobile, Alabama, but it wasn’t quite good enough to end her long victory drought on the LPGA Tour.

Fake guns, bombs and other weapons got past American security screeners one in four times at 32 major airports last month.

A mentally ill man who allegedly stalked actress Meg Ryan was placed in the custody of his father, who planned to put him in a treatment facility.