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.

Fugitive US killer Christopher Dorner died from a single gunshot wound to the head as authorities were pumping tear gas into a mountain cabin during a deadly gun battle with sheriff’s deputies.

The man carjacked by Christopher Dorner on a rural mountain road spoke of his ordeal at the hands of America’s most wanted man.

Charred human remains have been found in a burned-out cabin where a fugitive former police officer was believed to be, US police have confirmed.

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.

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.

Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in US history, was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool today. He was 47.

A moderate earthquake has rattled Southern California.

A vehicle ploughed into a crowd at a popular off-road race in the Southern California desert, killing eight people and leaving 12 wounded.

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

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 MASSIVE wildfire raging in California nearly doubled in size early yesterday, threatening 12,000 homes in a 30-kilometre swathe of flame and smoke and surging towards a mountaintop broadcasting complex.

A massive wildfire raging in California nearly doubled in size overnight, threatening 12,000 homes in a 20-mile swathe of flame and smoke and surging towards a mountaintop broadcasting complex.

An 11-year-old boy died in the intense heat of America's Death Valley National Park after he and his mother became stranded in one of the world’s most inhospitable areas and survived for several days on bottled water, Pop-Tarts and cheese sandwiches.

An 11-year-old boy died after his mother's car got stuck in the sand in Death Valley for five days during a camping trip.

Southern California went back to work as usual today after being shaken by a strong earthquake.

A strong earthquake shook Southern California tonight, causing buildings to sway and triggering some precautionary evacuations.

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.

With some of the worst wildfires dying down, many southern Californians lucky enough to find their homes still standing are likely to face hardships for weeks to come.

Thousands of homes were still under threat from wildfires in California today despite a break in the strong winds fanning the flames.

Firefighters were given a breathing space in their battle against the blazes sweeping Southern California today.

Firefighters were battling two raging wildfires in Southern California that forced nearly 2,000 people to evacuate.

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.

A powerful storm has pounded California for a second day, flooding freeways and desert roads, tossing boats ashore and triggering a rockslide that blocked the central coast highway.

Rescuers found the bodies of seven people and continued searching for at least nine others missing since mudslides engulfed two camps in southern California.

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.

Arsonists are to blame for at least three of the raging fires in southern California that have so far claimed the lives of 20 people and destroyed more than 2,600 homes, authorities said.

THE hot Santa Ana wind that has been driving California’s most destructive wildfires in history was giving way to cooler, more humid conditions yesterday, but that did little to tame the blazing tide as crews fought to save more homes.

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.

WITH wind-driven flames threatening the densely populated San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, firefighters dug in yesterday for another brutal day of battling one of the most destructive and deadly wildfire seasons in Californian state history.

With wind-driven flames threatening the densely populated areas near Los Angeles, firefighters dug today for another brutal day battling one of the most destructive and deadly wildfire outbreaks in California history.

Ash fell on the beach like snow as California’s deadliest outbreak of fires in more than a decade destroyed more than 1,100 homes, killed at least 15 people and consumed land from south of the Mexican border to the suburbs north of Los Angeles.

WILDFIRES driven by hot Santa Ana winds flared into gigantic waves of flame that devoured entire neighbourhoods, choking the sky over Southern California with smoke and ash, and killing at least 13 people, in the state's deadliest outbreak of fires in more than a decade.

Powerful winds drove two ferocious firestorms that had already burned more than 200 homes into dozens more houses in California today.

With ash and smoke turning day into night, a wind-driven wildfire closed in on several Southern California communities east of Los Angeles today, destroying four houses and forcing firefighters to make their stand in back gardens.

A 13-year-old girl is recovering from gunshot wounds after the second US school shooting in the past three days.