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White House: Summit yields broad agreement

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Leaders at the global economic summit in Washington agreed Saturday on a general framework for dealing with the global financial crisis, the White House said.

Bush administration officials said understanding was achieved in five critical areas, The Hill reported. Those included the cause of the crisis, steps to resolve it, stimulating economic growth, reforming international economic institutions and committing to free markets.

"Since the outbreak of this crisis, the world's leading nations have coordinated actions more closely than ever before," a White House statement said. "Thanks in large part to these decisive measures, once frozen global credit markets are beginning to thaw and businesses around the world are gaining access to essential short-term financing."

The gathering -- known as the Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy -- brought together members of the G20 including new economic powers like China and India and developing countries like Brazil.

"We must use the crisis as an opportunity to correct things that were wrong before the crisis and strengthen multilateral bodies, because in a globalized world we need serious and representative forums to take global decisions," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told The Washington Post.

More than 600 homes burned in Calif. fires

SYLMAR, Calif., Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Wildfires in Southern California Saturday damaged or destroyed at least 600 homes and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people, officials said.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County, where the Sayre Fire charred more than 6,500 acres and raced through a mobile home park in the San Fernando Valley early Saturday, destroying an estimated 600 homes. Some residents of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park wept during a briefing when Fire Capt. Steve Ruda held up a charred U.S. flag retrieved from the park as the residents -- in a temporary shelter in a high school gym -- learned their homes were gone.

Later in the day, the Freeway Complex Fire forced evacuations in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. Dozens of houses and apartments were burned in that fire, and residents of Anaheim Hills were ordered out of their homes as flames raced through Yorba Linda and jumped a freeway, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The fires -- made worse by low humidity and winds of up to 70 mph -- followed close on a fire in an upscale area of Santa Barbara County. The Montecito Fire, which destroyed 111 homes, was declared 40 percent contained Saturday.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked city residents to conserve water. He told a news conference major power lines along Interstate 5 were threatened.

The Oakridge Mobile Home park was being treated as a crime scene, with authorities leaving open the possibility that the Sayre Fire was deliberately set. LA police officials said five people were arrested Saturday on suspicion of fire-related looting in the San Fernando Valley.

Officials closed several freeways and major thoroughfares to facilitate the firefighting operations.

Two dead in U.S. East Coast storms

KENLY, N.C., Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Authorities blamed tornadoes for the deaths of two people Saturday in North Carolina.

State police said the body of a woman was found in the debris of her home in Kenly, while her son was missing and her father was hospitalized with injuries, WECT-TV in Wilmington reported.

A 7-year-old boy died in Wilson.

The victims' names were not immediately available.

A string of storms hit about 1 a.m., knocking down trees and power lines in a half-dozen communities.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley is to tour the damaged region Sunday, WRAL-TV in Raleigh said.

"I want to express my sympathy to the families who lost loved ones in this damaging storm, as well as my concern for those who were injured, have had homes and property destroyed or damaged," Easley said. "We will do all we can to assist those in the affected areas."

Thousands rally in support of gay marriage

NEW YORK, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Thousands of people rallied Saturday from New York to San Francisco, Minneapolis to Salt Lake City, to support same-sex marriage.

The demonstrations were motivated by Proposition 8, the California referendum approved by voters Nov. 4 to reverse a state Supreme Court ruling allowing gay couples to marry.

In Minneapolis, about 500 people gathered in front of a large banner that read "Legalize Love," the Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported.

"From Golden Gate Park to Loring Park, we will step together until this battle is won," City Council Member Gary Schiff told the crowd, referring to parks in San Francisco and Minneapolis.

Bernie Bernbrock, who attended a march in Montclair, N.J., with his partner, Glenn Vatasin, and 7-year-old daughter, was one of 120 people rallying in the New York suburb.

"I don't think any one family is in any position to judge another family," he told The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. "It's not their right to come into my home and take my rights away."

Voters in Arizona and Florida also passed bans on gay marriage and Arkansas barred unmarried couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents.