Mad Men scores awards hat-trick

21 June 2011 Last updated at 07:58 GMT Mad Men stars best drama actor Jon Hamm as an advertising executive in 1960s New York Mad Men was the big winner at the inaugural Critics' Choice Television Awards in Los Angeles, taking three awards including best drama.

Modern Family won best comedy but failed to add further prizes despite leading the field with six nods.

Organisers hope the event will be as successful at predicting Emmy winners as sister ceremony the Critics' Choice Movie Awards is at Oscar forecasting.

This year's TV Emmy nominees will be announced on 14 July.

Emmy winners will be announced on 18 September.

Mad Men's Jon Hamm won best drama actor while co-star Christina Hendricks shared best supporting actress with Justified's Margo Martindale.

Mad Men, which stars Hamm as an advertising executive in 1960s New York, made it a hat-trick of best drama Emmys at the 2010 ceremony.

Awards presenter Cat Deeley was nominated for best reality show host for So You Think You Can Dance

Modern Family also won best comedy at last year's awards.

Best actress in a drama went to Juliana Margulies for legal show The Good Wife while the equivalent comedy award went to Tina Fey for 30 Rock, set behind the scenes in a fictional live sketch comedy.

Other comedy prizes went to best actor Jim Parsons, for The Big Bang Theory, best supporting actor Neil Patrick Harris, for How I Met your Mother, and best supporting actress Busy Philipps, for Cougar Town.

The Real Housewives of Beverley Hills and Hoarders were joint winners of best reality series, American Idol won best reality competition and Jon Stewart's The Daily Show won best talk show.

Meanwhile, Danny DeVito, who won an Emmy in 1981 for TV sitcom Taxi, was honoured with the Icon Award.

The awards lunch was presented by Briton Cat Deeley who missed out on best reality show host - for Dancing with the Stars - to fellow nominee Mike Rowe, for Dirty Jobs.

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'Scores missing' after US tornado

26 May 2011 Last updated at 18:50 GMT Video footage showed the tornadoes and their aftermath

The US state of Missouri has released a list of more than 230 people missing since a devastating tornado struck the city of Joplin on Sunday.

But the list is shrinking as people are located, and officials hope others have simply failed to contact relatives.

The tornado killed at least 125 people, injured 750 and wrecked as much as a third of the city, making it one of the most destructive in US history.

US President Barack Obama plans to visit Joplin on Sunday.

On Thursday, the Associated Press found Sally Adams, 75, alive and well.

Neighbours rescued her after Sunday's tornado, but she had lost her mobile phone and was unable to contact her family, who reported her missing to authorities.

Another series of tornadoes struck Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 16 people.

On Thursday, Oklahoma authorities discovered the body of a three-year-old boy who went missing after a tornado struck his home.

'We are hopeful'

Search teams in Joplin, Missouri, home to 49,000 people, have scoured the wreckage for survivors. But by Thursday morning, authorities began weighing when to begin using bulldozers and other heavy kit to clear debris - a step that would indicate no more survivors were expected to be found.

Joplin Fire Chief Mitch Randles was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: "We've had stories from earthquakes and tsunamis and other disasters of people being found two or three weeks later, and we are hopeful we'll have a story like that to tell."

Mason the dog, missing since tornadoes hit Alabama in April, turned up 20 days later with broken legs

Those leading the search effort say it is impossible to know how many people are truly missing, since many may have simply left the area and not been in contact with relatives.

Mike Hare said his 16-year-old son Lantz was among the missing. Mr Hare told AP he had searched the neighbourhood where the boy was last seen and had called hospitals as far away as Dallas and Kansas City.

Lantz Hare had been driving with a friend when the tornado struck on Sunday evening. The tornado destroyed the car, and Mr Hare found Lantz's backpack in the wreckage.

"We know he's hurt somewhere," Mr Hare said on Wednesday. "We just can't sit and keep calling. You've got to be moving."

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