AP - A second former New Orleans police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to covering up the deadly shooting of unarmed residents after Hurricane Katrina, with a judge calling the plot a "despicable" scheme that immeasurably compounded the storm's damage.

AFP - Victims of Hurricane Katrina are seeking to sue carbon gas-emitting multinationals for helping fuel global warming and boosting the devastating 2005 storm, legal documents showed.

AP - Many of the more than 1 million Northeastern homes and businesses plunged into the dark by a storm were running on electricity Monday, three days after the hard-hitting combination of snow, rain and hurricane-force winds.

AP - Rescue workers in dinghies cruised flooded streets on France's Atlantic coast Monday, searching for people still trapped in their homes by storms that smashed through concrete sea walls and killed at least 62 people across Western Europe.

AFP - Hurricane-force winds, surging seas and driving rain lashed western Europe on Sunday, leaving at least 53 people dead and more than a million households without power.

AFP - A powerful storm packing hurricane-force winds moved north to the west coast of France on Sunday after lashing Spain and Portugal, killing at least three people and causing transport chaos.

AFP - A powerful storm packing hurricane-force winds lashed Spain, Portugal and France on Saturday, killing at least three people, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power and causing transport chaos.

AP - A fire that started in an unoccupied oceanfront hotel was fanned by hurricane-force winds and spread to several nearby buildings, engulfing and destroying an entire block of businesses on a stretch of Hampton Beach popular with summer tourists. No injuries were reported.

Reuters - Seasonal rains and hurricanes spell trouble for Haiti in the best of times, but with hundreds of thousands of people living in flimsy makeshift shelters after last month's earthquake, this year the dangers are much greater.

AP - Top researchers now agree that the world is likely to get stronger but fewer hurricanes in the future because of global warming, seeming to settle a scientific debate on the subject. But they say there's not enough evidence yet to tell whether that effect has already begun.

AP - Nearly 1 1/2 years after Hurricane Ike battered Galveston, this southeast Texas island community fears the natural disaster could land another harsh blow.

AP - A powerful tropical storm missed American Samoa early Saturday morning, causing heavy rains and high winds but sparing more devastation to the U.S. territory battered by a deadly autumn tsunami.

AP - Two former Blackwater Worldwide employees say the security company repeatedly billed the U.S. government for excessive or inappropriate expenses, including a prostitute for workers in Afghanistan and strippers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.