A couple who massacred 14 people at a holiday party in California were discussing martyrdom online a year before they met in person and married, FBI director James Comey said.

At least eight people are dead and 38 people injured after a tour bus collided with two other vehicles in the mountains of Southern California early today.

A grizzly bear which appeared in a recent Will Ferrell film killed a 39-year-old trainer with a bite to his neck and had to be subdued with pepper spray.