South Carolina

Amber Kyzer told a court in South Carolina that Tim Jones Jr "did not show my children mercy by any means, but my kids loved him".

The 37-year-old was convicted in May of killing the siblings, aged one to eight, at his home near Lexington on 28 August 2014.

The jury is considering whether Jones should be executed or jailed for life.

"I hear what my kids went through and what they endured," Ms Kyzer said in court on Tuesday.

"And as a mother, if I could personally rip his face off I would.

"That's the mom in me. That's the mama bear."

Along the coast, residents prepared for a second round of flooding as rivers swollen from days of devastating rains make their way toward the Atlantic. In the Columbia area, where some returned home to assess damage and clean up, the threat of more flooding still hadn't lifted.

About 1,000 residents near the compromised Beaver Dam were told to evacuate Wednesday morning, though the order was lifted several hours later when crews shored up the dam.

Along the coast, residents prepared for a second round of flooding as rivers swollen from days of devastating rains make their way toward the Atlantic. In the Columbia area, where some returned home to assess damage and clean up, the threat of more flooding still hadn't lifted.

About 1,000 residents near the compromised Beaver Dam were told to evacuate Wednesday morning, though the order was lifted several hours later when crews shored up the dam.

State Law Enforcement Division agents say 43-year-old Jennifer Scott was charged Monday with second-degree assault and battery more than two years after the incident.

Agents say Scott hid contraband in sandwiches she gave to Berkeley County inmates as they took their medicine. But she accidently gave a special sandwich to the wrong inmate.

The Coast Guard says crews are still scouring waters from Florida to South Carolina on Friday but haven't found any new clues in the disappearance.

Fourteen-year-olds Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos of Tequesta have been missing a week. Their capsized boat was found Sunday.

The Coast Guard says it'll keep searching until it believes there's no reasonable chance the boys could still be found alive.

A judge sentenced Karlita Desean Phillips of Greenwood after a jury found her guilty of accessory before the fact of murder and soliciting a minor to commit a felony, according to prosecutor David Stumbo.

Authorities have said that Phillips, 41, hired a 17-year-old to kill her estranged husband in March 2013, but the teen killed her husband's brother, 31-year-old Jamil Phillips, by mistake.

The government and attorneys for 21-year-old Dylann Roof asked a judge Friday to postpone the hearing slated for Monday.

In a joint motion, the attorneys said they already have things scheduled for that day and a delay won't harm the case on either side.

The hearing is now scheduled for 11 a.m. next Friday before Magistrate Judge Bristow Marchant.

The landmark decision comes after nine black churchgoers were killed in a church shooting in Charleston by a gunman who police say was motivated by racial hatred and was photographed with the Confederate flag.

The flag will be pulled down from the Capitol's front lawn and the flagpole it flies on during a ceremony Friday morning, said Chaney Adams, a spokeswoman for Governor Nikki Haley. Then, the banner will be taken to a local history museum for display.

The two people aboard the smaller Cessna were killed, and the plane was completely destroyed, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said. 

The pilot of the F-16 ejected and "is apparently uninjured," he said. A press release from Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter said the pilot, Maj. Aaron Johnson from the 55th Fighter Squadron, was taken to Joint Base Charleston's medical clinic for observation.

The fighter jet crash-landed into woods around the privately owned Lewisfield Plantation, an estate dating to 1750.

However, a federal official tells The Associated Press that preliminary indications show the blaze was not the work of an arsonist.