The US soldier Daniel Pharr was tied to skydiving veteran George Steele when the instructor stopped talking as the pair hurtled towards the ground over Chester County in South Carolina.

California ground squirrel is released after being checked by scientists in a conservation programme designed to aid burrowing owls in San Diego County.

He had come to Kemper County to break ground for a coal-fired gasification plant designed to capture, store and eventually sell most of its emissions.