Four police officers could face the death penalty after being accused of gunning down two unarmed people in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

It took a lot of muscle to haul her round the sky. Burnt to cinders – like a match. It would do what you wanted it to do. Pure joy. Like flying a brick. Just incredible. It had the wonderful ability to absorb battle damage. It became a good friend right from the start, and I loved it more and more. Very reliable. I never had to worry about that Merlin engine ... you're flying very low, a couple of trees high off the ground, and you do want it to keep going. Cross-wind landings are particularly easy. At 2,000 feet and 200mph, petrol consumption is 30 gallons per hour. The cockpit is weather-proof. Against a fighter, the Hurricane was hopeless."

Monterrey, Mexico, was recovering from Hurricane Alex after flooding destroyed homes, damaged bridges and left six people dead. More than a year's worth of rainfall fell in the space of three days, flooding the normally dry Santa Catarina riverbed near the city.

Washington was preparing a revised offshore oil drilling moratorium and cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico returned to normal yesterday after hurricane Alex passed through the region without doing major damage.

Hurricane Alex weakened to a tropical storm yesterday as it moved further inland over north-eastern Mexico, dumping heavy rains that flooded cities, but sparing US oil facilities near its path.

Is it possible to simulate earthquakes and hurricanes on stage? With a slew of new plays taking the destructive power of nature as their theme, Holly Williams steps behind the scenes to find out

BP's share price plunged to a 14-year low yesterday as the battered oil giant admitted that the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico had cost it $2.35bn (£1.57bn) so far.

Children in failing schools would do better if the schools were closed and their pupils moved elsewhere, research suggests.

Ten days after the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, as it became clear that leaking oil was going to pose a grave threat to the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration turned to Admiral Thad William Allen. Who else?

'I fantasise about going camel trekking in Libya'

Collapsed roads and highway bridges complicated rescue efforts in Guatemala yesterday after Tropical Storm Agatha drenched Central America, burying homes under mud and killing at least 146 people.

Stunned victims of Tropical Storm Agatha wept by destroyed homes and rescue crews dug bodies out of mud in Guatemala yesterday after torrential rain killed at least 113 people across Central America. People caked in dirt searched for their loved ones as the stench of mud and sewage from flooded drains filled the air of towns outside Guatemala City and emergency workers urged survivors to leave ruined houses and go to shelters.

Meteorologists in the United States are warning of an unusually active hurricane season this summer, stirring concerns that just one severe tempest at sea early on could cripple ongoing operations by BP and the US government to plug the crippled oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and contain the already giant spill.

The British habit of talking about the weather is usually taken to be a special way for strangers, particularly, to strike up a conversation on a neutral subject about which everyone can take a view.