Hurricane Florence forced some residents of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to evacuate their homes last week.

All those on board are presumed dead.

The Government has been accused of acting ‘Scrooge’ by not paying hard-pressed Naval Service personnel and agreed increased allowance before Christmas.

Rescue crews in central Italy were racing against time in the search for survivors of the huge earthquake which levelled three towns, as the death toll rose to 241.

The number of people known to have died in yesterday's earthquake in southern Taiwan has risen to 28 - with 120 still unaccounted for.