Blood found at a fast-food restaurant in 1983 linked a convicted burglar to one of Texas’ oldest unsolved mass murders, a court was told.

A US man convicted in the shooting death of a convenience store clerk became the 400th person to be executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982.

Recovery efforts were in full swing today as water-logged Texas dealt with the rainy remnants of Tropical Storm Erin, which authorities blamed for at least four deaths and said could be a prelude to

The US Supreme Court threw out death sentences for three killers in the state of Texas today because of problems with instructions given to jurors who were deciding between life in prison and death.

Former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith is going to the US’ highest court in her fight over the fortune of her 90-year-old late husband.

CRUDE oil prices dropped sharply yesterday, the second straight day of declines, as traders welcomed news that Hurricane Rita had weakened, suggesting that damage to refinery capacity in the Gulf could be less severe than originally feared.

HURRICANE Emily was gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as it took aim at north-eastern Mexico and south Texas, a day after ripping roofs off resort hotels and stranding thousands of tourists in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Hurricane Emily stranded thousands of tourists along Mexico’s luxurious Mayan Riviera and left hundreds of local residents homeless yesterday, forcing many to remain in crowded, leaky shelters.

A woman today pleaded guilty to strangling and decapitating her three young children, after reaching an agreement with prosecutors that spares her from the death penalty.

An obscenity charge has been dropped against a woman who received nationwide attention in the United States when she was arrested for selling two sex toys to undercover police officers posing as a couple.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon secured unprecedented US backing for his plan to hold on to parts of the West Bank, a policy shift by President George Bush that strengthens Sharon politically just weeks ahead of a vote in his Likud Party on a proposed Gaza Strip pullout.

Palestinians and Israeli hard-liners rejected statements by US President George W Bush supporting some Israeli settlements in the West Bank and ruling out the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel.

Prosecutors seeking the death penalty for Texas housewife Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children, would face an uphill battle, legal experts said before today’s punishment phase of the trial.