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Wildfires rage in Texas

BASTROP, Texas, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Hundreds of people were forced out of their homes Tuesday as wildfires still burned in central Texas.

Two fires in Bastrop County southeast of Austin remained totally uncontained, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Melissa Yunis, a spokeswoman for the state Forest Service, said the Bastrop County fire had grown to close to 29,000 acres, while the smaller Union Chapel fire had charred 750 acres.

She said the main fire was about 2 miles from the Bastrop city limits on Tuesday morning.

"Numerous subdivisions, a local hospital, residents, outbuildings such as barns and sheds, ranch land, infrastructure such as power lines and 25 historical cabins at Bastrop State Park are threatened," she said.

Another fire killed a mother and her 18-month-old child who were unable to escape their mobile home near Gladewater, east of Dallas. KETK-TV said the fire, which spread to 1,300 acres, had burned six homes and 15 other buildings.

Texas has been having one of its worst wildfire seasons ever. Since December 2010, 20,900 fires have been reported and more than 1,000 homes burned, 700 of them in the past week, the American-Statesman reported.

Gov. Rick Perry, who temporarily gave up his presidential campaign because of the fires, said at a news conference Monday that firefighters still had "a long way to go to contain this thing," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Boehner, Cantor ask Obama for meeting

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The top two House Republicans asked President Obama for a bicameral, bipartisan meeting to discuss his jobs plan ahead of his scheduled Thursday address.

In their letter to Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the meeting was needed to help reach a bipartisan deal on jobs and outlined potential areas of cooperation, The Hill reported Tuesday.

"We would suggest that prior to your address to Congress you convene a bipartisan, bicameral meeting of the congressional leadership so that we may have the opportunity to constructively discuss your proposals," the letter said.

During his news briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration welcomes "signs that that level of interest in bipartisan cooperation has increased."

"We certainly think ... that we expect the members of Congress -- House and Senate -- heard in their districts and states the same kinds of things from their constituents that the president heard when he visited the Midwest on his bus tour and previous trip as well, that there is a level of frustration with Washington that is palpable," Carney said. "Americans of all stripes, whether they are registered Republicans or independents or Democrats ... are tired of gridlock and political posturing getting in the way of Washington doing the things that can and should be done to help them and help the economy."

They also asked Obama to provide ahead his national address an accounting of the cost of more than 200 regulations the administration signaled it would enact that Republican leaders said could harm small businesses.

Boehner and Cantor said both parties will have to give ground to spur job growth.

Deal said struck for Gadhafi stronghold

BANI WALID, Libya, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Rebel leaders said deals were struck with tribal leaders for the surrender of Bani Walid, one of the remaining strongholds for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Meanwhile, Gadhafi remains out of the public eye and speculation about his whereabouts grows, the latest report being he was in a convoy crossing the Sahara Desert in Niger, The Daily Telegraph reported.

However, Nigerien Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum said Gadhafi was not in the convoy. However, Gadhafi's intelligence chief, Mansour Daw, was in the caravan, a Niger radio broadcast said.

"It is not true," Bazoum said of the chatter. "It is not Gadhafi and I do not think the convoy was of the size attributed to it."

U.S. officials had said they didn't believe Gadhafi was in the convoy and was still hiding out in Libya.

"Our ambassador in Niger has been in touch with Nigerien officials today to discuss this convoy," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said during the daily media briefing. "Apparently, a convoy has entered, and it does include some senior members of the Gadhafi regime, but we do not believe that Gadhafi himself was among them."

Nuland said the United States urged Nigerien officials to detain those members of the regime "who may be subject to prosecution," confiscate any weapons and impound any state property "so that it can be returned to the Libyan people."

NATO stops transfers to some Afghan jails

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The head of the NATO mission in Afghanistan has ordered a halt to transfers of detainees to some Afghan prisons, British defense officials said Tuesday.

U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen listed nine locations where an unreleased U.N. report says inmates are tortured, The Guardian reported. The report describes one in Kabul as the worst, and says beatings and electric shocks are routinely administered to inmates in the nine jails.

Haji Salari, a former district governor in Uruzgan, where torture of prisoners is believed to be common, said police officers use it as a form of extortion. He said after an arrest officers ask the prisoner to pay an "entry fee."

Those who refuse are beaten and then allowed to meet with their relatives, he told the British newspaper.

A NATO official said the International Security Assistance Force is acting "with appropriate caution."

Nevada IHOP shootings kill 3, wound 6

CARSON CITY, Nev., Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A gunman opened fire at a Carson City, Nev., restaurant Tuesday, killing three people and wounding six others, authorities said.

Two of the victims killed at the International House of Pancakes restaurant were described as National Guard soldiers who were in uniform, a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper said.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said the suspected gunman was described as gravely injured with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"There does not appear to be any safety concerns outside of this area," Furlong said. "It appears to be isolated to this parking lot."

It was not known what state the guardsmen were from. Carson City is located a short distance from the California state line.

A witness told the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal she saw the suspect get out of a minivan in front of the IHOP and shoot a man on a motorcycle in the parking lot. He then went inside and allegedly fired a number of shots with an automatic weapon.

Furlong declined to release any details of the suspect, who was still alive when he was sent to a hospital. It was not known if he had any connection to the restaurant.