Three people, including two children, have been killed after a vehicle struck a Halloween-themed trailer in Mississippi.

Prosecutors today filed three murder charges against a Micronesian man accused of opening fire inside a Missouri church, killing three people and wounding five others during a worship service of a mostly Micronesian congregation.

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.