US: A man bought a domain name worth $15,000 (€13,000) for just $10.99 after a website glitch gave him the in-demand address by mistake.

A former firefighter accused of starting a wildfire that killed one person and destroyed dozens of homes in rural Northern California has pleaded not guilty to murder and arson.

A raging wildfire in Yosemite National Park has rained ash on the reservoir that is the chief source of San Francisco’s famously pure drinking water.

Residents have fled from thousands of homes as a wildfire pushed toward southern California mountain communities.

Thousands of residents have been evacuated and dozens of homes destroyed by three Colorado wildfires fuelled by hot temperatures, gusty winds and thick, bone-dry forests.

A man police believe to be the fugitive ex-Los Angeles officer wanted for three killings was barricaded inside a burning cabin today after a shootout in a California mountain town that left one deputy dead and another wounded.

Critical firefighting aircraft have been grounded during one of the busiest and most destructive wildfire seasons to hit the US west after a military cargo plane crashed battling a South Dakota inferno.

Rocker and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent has pleaded guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed in Alaska, saying he was sorry for unwittingly violating the law.

Police in Utah are questioning two men over killer booby traps – one of them a spiked boulder – rigged up along a popular trail.

Bruce Willis has said that he is willing to give away his central Idaho ski resort to a non-profit making organisation.

A US university student survived for nine days on just two chocolate bars while her car was stuck in the snow in a remote area of Arizona.

A family pulled from a sport utility vehicle that had been buried in a snowdrift for nearly two days said they feared they would not make it out alive.

A fugitive couple who sparked a nationwide US manhunt were captured at an Arizona campground after a forest ranger spotted them and their stolen vehicle hidden in the trees.

The entire western edge of the massive wildfire burning north of Los Angeles was under control today, but the arson-caused blaze continued to move unchecked into wilderness to the east, officials said.

The California wildfire that claimed the lives of two firefighters, ravaged more than 250 square miles and destroyed more than 60 homes was started deliberately, the US Forest service said today.

A MASSIVE wildfire near Los Angeles flared up yesterday and a new evacuation order was issued for homes in a remote canyon.

A massive wildfire near Los Angeles has today flared up and a new evacuation order has been issued for homes in a remote canyon.

Firefighters reported progress today against a gigantic blaze on the edge of Los Angeles that might herald even greater dangers ahead.

A RELENTLESS southern California wildfire raged yesterday with 53 homes up in smoke, thousands more threatened and new rounds of evacuations as towering flames crackled close to foothill neighbourhoods in the path of the blaze.

Firefighters today revealed they were finally ’optimistic’ in their struggle to contain huge wildfires in southern California.

A deadly wildfire destroyed dozens of homes as it roared through a tinder-dry Southern California forest, forced thousands of residents to flee and burned dangerously close to a vital mountaintop broadcasting complex.

A wildfire in the mountains above Los Angeles has surged in every direction, going in a single day from a modest threat to a danger to some 10,000 homes.

Strong winds are spreading multiple wildfires across parched parts of California as officials worry the gusts could ignite more blazes and force more evacuations in areas already under a state of emergency.

More fire crews were deployed across California today to gain control of a series of growing wildfires that have forced hundreds of people to flee their homes.

A wildfire tore through Los Angeles’ northern foothills early today sending thousands of residents fleeing in the dark, forcing a hospital to evacuate and destroying an untold number of homes.

As many as eight firefighters and a pilot are presumed dead after a helicopter crashed just after picking up workers battling a blaze in a Northern California forest.

Forecasters warned today that the cooler, damper conditions that helped efforts to fight a massive wildfire in Southern California would soon turn hot and dry.

Fresh firefighting crews were brought in today to help battle the huge wildfire charging through the coastal mountains of Santa Barbara County, one of more than 300 active blazes across California.

CALIFORNIA’s firefighters got a gift of mild, mostly windless conditions yesterday as they attempted to protect thousands of homes from a huge wildfire, with their energy and resources taxed by more than 300 blazes still burning around the state.

Cloudy skies and occasional raindrops brought a welcome improvement in conditions in southern California, where firefighters were battling wildfires.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated and thousands of homes remain at risk tonight as wildfires tear through southern California, US authorities said.

Efforts to tame a raging wildfire that has destroyed 200 homes near the Californian resort of Lake Tahoe suffered a setback when a backfire set to control the blaze jumped a fireline, forcing a new round of evacuations.

A BUS returning from a family reunion crashed in southern Kentucky yesterday, killing one person and injuring 66 others, officials said.

Authorities evacuated hundreds of homes after a massive wildfire along the Georgia-Florida border jumped a containment line overnight, authorities said today.

Calmer winds helped crews fighting a massive wildfire today that killed four firefighters and critically injured a fifth, while investigators searched for the arsonist who set the blaze roaring through the canyons of Southern California.

Authorities are offering a $500,000 (€393,000) reward for the arrest of the arsonist responsible for the deaths of four firefighters in America’s worst tragedy of its kind in five years.

FIRE crews yesterday struggled to protect homes from a wind-whipped wildfire that trapped and killed four firefighters in a wall of flames as it raced across almost 38 square miles in southern California.

FIREFIGHTERS struggled yesterday to prevent a fire that has charred nearly 39 square miles of brushland from crossing Interstate 5, which would force authorities to again shut down traffic on one of California’s busiest freeways.

A wildfire that authorities believe was sparked by remnants of a controlled burn grew in size overnight but crews made significant progress in containing it, officials said today.

A wave of residents returned to their southern California mountain communities following a week of wildfires that have killed 20 people and destroyed more than 3,400 homes.

A SECOND wave of residents displaced by Southern California’s wildfires were being allowed home yesterday after a weekend of cooler, calmer weather helped firefighters begin to bring the blazes under control.

A second group of residents forced to flee their houses by Southern California’s wildfires were being allowed to return home today.

Firefighters struggled desperately to save emptied-out resort towns in southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains as 200ft walls of flame engulfed dead and dried-out trees.

Tens of thousands of people fled mountain communities in southern California as frantic residents raced to avoid the state’s deadliest wildfires in more than a decade.