The evidence is circumstantial but the case looks strong. Multiple cats missing without a trace, a freshly killed body, and one well-fed, 120lb Burmese python lurking in the Florida underbrush.

President Barack Obama, raising cash from celebrities in California, took a good-natured shot at his own underwhelming debate performance, marvelling at how his friends in the entertainment business could turn in flawless showings every time.

Front-runner Mitt Romney has predicted victory in the pivotal Florida primary, but his chief rival Newt Gingrich vowed to stay in the race for the Republican presidential nomination until the party’s national convention this summer even if he loses Tuesday’s vote.

The bodies of a woman clutching two children, and a man lying nearby, were discovered on an isolated stretch of road in Florida.

An elderly Florida woman has attacked her husband with a butcher's knife in a row over Hurricane Isabel.