Thousands flee deadly S. California fires
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- California firefighters were diverted from battling spreading wildfires Monday because of residents who ignored evacuation orders and needed to be rescued.
Officials said by morning wildfires had penetrated the city limits of San Diego driven by hurricane-force winds shoved the flames against trees, vehicles and buildings, CNN reported.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for seven counties in Southern California.
At least one person was killed by the fire and 20 others were injured. The Los Angeles Times reported at least 12 blazes, feeding on brush and whipped by hurricane-force winds, consumed more than 40,000 acres.
Officials were poised to evacuate 14,000 people from Topanga Canyon if the fire moved into Las Flores Canyon, which was evacuated overnight.
The most troublesome of the fires was in Malibu, Calif., where more than 2,200 acres were scorched, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Michael Freeman said in a briefing. Gusts of up to 50 mph prompted flare-ups and the heat was so intense, boulders exploded, the Times reported.
Freeman said firefighters probably wouldn't be able to contain the Malibu fire before Tuesday or Wednesday. Malibu's landmark Castle Kashan and a Presbyterian church burned completely, the report said.
Another fire blackened more than 12,500 acres around Santa Clarita, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, officials said.
Residents of 10,000 homes around Ramona, northeast of San Diego, were told to leave their homes late Sunday as a wildfire had burned 8,000 acres, was out of control and moving closer to their community, CNN said.
2 U.S. personnel dead in Bahrain shooting
MANAMA, Bahrain, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Two female U.S. Navy sailors were killed and a third person critically injured Monday at a base in Bahrain, in an attack the Navy said wasn't terror-related.
A Navy statement said the incident occurred at 5 a.m. and sources told the BBC stemmed from a "domestic situation" in the barracks.
The injured sailor was reportedly male, CNN said.
There was no intrusion of the base, which went into lockdown in Manama for an hour after the shootings, the report said.
Officials refused to release other details.
Some 3,000 U.S. personnel from the navy's 5th Fleet are in Bahrain, which the United States considers a significant non-NATO ally.
Baghdad bomb hits bus, kills three
BAGHDAD, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A roadside bomb blast in a residential area of Baghdad struck a bus Monday and killed three civilians, the Interior Ministry reported.
The explosion also injured 15 people and completely destroyed the bus, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported.
A statement released Monday by the Sunni General Council for the People of Iraq party confirmed one of its political advisers had been gunned down in Baghdad last Thursday, the report said.
The party is part of a coalition that holds 44 of the 275 parliamentary seats.
There was no report of further violence in the predominantly Shiite part of Baghdad called Sadr City, where a day earlier, three U.S. raids were met with stiff insurgent resistance.
The military said all 49 Iraqis killed in the fighting were guerrillas, although civilians said many of those killed or injured were innocents, CNN reported.
SKorea to host talks on NKorea energy aid
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- South Korea reportedly will be the host for the next working level talks on further energy aid to North Korea in exchange for its denuclearization.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said the talks set for Oct. 29-30 will be on the South Korean side of the border village of Panmunjom, which is jointly administered by the two Koreas, Yonhap news agency reported Monday.
North Korea, under an agreement signed with China, Russia, the United States, South Korea and Japan, has shut down its main nuclear facilities and is getting ready to disable those facilities. In return, Pyongyang has been promised substantial energy and economic aid from these nations.
The Foreign Ministry said the Panmunjom talks will deal with heavy fuel oil and other energy-related equipment and supplies to be provided to the North.
North Korea has already received 100,000 tons of heavy fuel oil from South Korea and China.
Earlier this month, the North agreed to disable its key nuclear facilities and submit a complete list of its entire nuclear programs by year's end. In return, it is to receive an additional 950,000 tons of heavy oil or equivalent assistance, the report said.
Fact twisting alleged in U.S. Senate probe
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Former CIA operative Valerie Plame accused U.S. Senate Republicans of twisting the facts about the selection of her husband for a mission to Niger.
In an interview with USA Today to mark the Monday publication of her book, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House," Plame singled out three GOP members of the Senate Intelligence Committee for criticism.
She accused Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; and Sen. Kit Bond,m R-Mo., of misstating her role in the CIA's choice of her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, to investigate reports that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger.
"They took a fairly straightforward thing and obscenely twisted it into a political version of events," Plame told USA Today.
Joseph Wilson's conclusion that the reports were false and his subsequent charge that the Bush administration ignored his findings led to his wife's employment at the CIA being disclosed in a newspaper column.
A spokeswoman for Bond told USA Today that CIA documents don't appear to support Plame's version of events.
