Kya deLongchamps celebrates the heroic and unlikely life of Thomas Francis Meagher (1823-1867) nearly 150 years since his mysterious disappearance.

A collision between a bus carrying Italian tourists and a lorry in Pennsylvania has left three people dead and many injured.

Three people were killed when a gunman fired shots through the wall of a municipal building in a town in north-eastern Pennsylvania during a meeting and then barged into the room, a witness said.

A former convict set a house and car ablaze in his lakeside New York state neighbourhood to lure firefighters then opened fire on them, killing two and engaging police in a shootout before killing himself while several homes burned.

The death toll from a tornado in the US has risen to at least seven after storms unleashed a “war zone” of destruction in north-west Ohio.

Residents were defying warnings and taking a wait-and-see attitude as a strengthening Tropical Storm Fay swept over the Florida Keys at the tip of the state and bore down on the Gulf Coast.

A boating woman who was killed when a stingray jumped out of the water in the Florida Keys and hit her face died of skull fractures and brain injuries, not from the animal’s poisonous barb, a medical examiner said.

A woman who was killed when a stingray jumped out of the water in the Florida Keys and hit her face died of skull fractures and brain injuries, not from the animal’s poisonous barb, a medical examiner said today.

Two people were killed when their mobile home was battered by a storm, US authorities said today.

Hurricane Wilma charged toward south-west Florida early today as a Category 3 storm, packing wind gusts of 120 mph, spawning tornadoes and churning up walls of seawater that could make thousands of residents regret they defied evacuation orders.

Rain pounded Key West early today as Hurricane Wilma accelerated towards storm-weary Florida, threatening residents with 115mph winds, tornadoes and a surge of seawater that could flood the Keys and the state’s south-west coast.

HURRICANE WILMA was headed toward Florida late last night and expected to pick up speed “like a rocket”, as thousands of residents had been ordered to evacuate.

Residents began fleeing the Florida Keys and parts of the United States mainland today as Hurricane Wilma headed towards Florida.

Monroe County officials have ordered visitors out of Florida Keys ahead of Hurricane Wilma, the first US evacuations caused by the Category 5 storm.

Many businesses were shuttered and streets were largely deserted as residents fled from this normally bustling island resort town of Key West amid concern that Hurricane Ivan was heading for Florida.

A man obsessed with his teenage niece killed her parents and abducted the girl before releasing her unharmed, authorities in the US said.

A man was arrested in Indiana for allegedly hurling his niece and nephew off a bridge and into a creek because he was angry at their mother. The two-year-old boy died.