All of the workers at a propane gas plant in the U.S. State of Florida rocked by massive explosions were accounted for early Tuesday morning after officials initially reported more than a dozen employees missing.

John Herrell of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said early Tuesday that there were no fatalities despite massive blasts that ripped through the Blue Rhino propane plant late Monday night. Seven people were injured and transported to local hospitals.

Six people were shot to death in a shootout in an apartment building near the U.S. city of Miami that ended early Saturday when police killed the suspect, police said.

Authorities said there was gunfire on several floors of the Hialeah building before the suspect decided to hunker down in an apartment, taking the couple inside hostage.

The first named storm of the Atlantic season hammered Florida with rain, heavy winds, and tornadoes Thursday as it moved toward the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas, promising sloppy commutes and waterlogged vacation getaways through the beginning of the weekend.

Tropical Storm Andrea was losing speed late Thursday and not expected to strengthen into a hurricane but forecasters warned it could cause isolated flooding and storm surge over the next two days.

A small plane crashed into a parking lot near a South Florida airport Friday afternoon, killing all three people on board and burning about a dozen vehicles. No one on the ground was hurt.

Fire-Rescue Division Chief John San Angelo said the Piper Navajo, a twin-engine turboprop, began experiencing engine trouble shortly after taking off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at about 4:30 p.m.

Floridians keen to protect the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades will have their mettle tested next month as the wildlife service seeks help in eradicating the giant Burmese python.

The public has been asked to join in a month-long hunt for the invasive species, which, lacking natural predators, snacks on native birds, deer, bobcats and other large animals, some of them protected.

President Barack Obama has won Florida's 29 electoral votes in the presidential election, further fattening his substantial margin of victory in what had been predicted to be a close race.

The state was the last to report its tally from the election last Tuesday, in which Obama beat Republican Mitt Romney.

As Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, the tight White House race between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney has narrowed to a fight over less than 10 states.

Obama's strategy is to solidify his last line of defense in the industrial Midwest, and to try to pluck away several insurance states from Romney's target list elsewhere.

Barack Obama pummeled Mitt Romney as "all over the map" on foreign policy, dismissing his "wrong and reckless" leadership in a heated final debate of a knife-edge White House race.

With just two weeks until polling day, Obama has unexpectedly found himself running neck-and-neck with his once unfancied challenger, and Monday's face-off on world affairs was perhaps a last chance to land a decisive blow.

After days of cramming, two intense earlier debates, and a bitter months-long campaign, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will come out swinging Monday in their third and final showdown.

With this rematch focusing on foreign policy, the president and his Republican rival will no doubt trade blows over security shortcomings in Libya; how to contain Iran; the roiling crisis in Syria; a rising China; and ending the Afghan war.

Two people were killed and a third critically wounded when a firefight broke out at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reported Sunday.

Lieutenant Doug Seely, a spokesman for the police in the town of Winter Springs north of Orlando, told the Sentinel that a confrontation in the parking lot preceded the shooting.