California firefighters battled wind-whipped wildfires that tore across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes, clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled and straining resources as officials prepared for the situation to worsen early Wednesday.

The first international commercial flight since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad landed Tuesday at the Damascus airport.

A wildfire whipped up by extreme winds swept through a Los Angeles hillside dotted with celebrity residences Tuesday, burning homes and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Pope Francis on Monday named the first woman to head a major Vatican office, appointing an Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, to become prefect of the department responsible for all the Catholic Church's religious orders.

The US offered to trade a Guantanamo Bay prisoner in exchange for the release of three Americans held in Afghanistan, a source familiar told CNN.

Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting Tuesday.

Firefighters scrambled to corral a fast-moving wildfire in the Los Angeles hillsides dotted with celebrity homes as a potentially 'life-threatening, destructive' windstorm hit Southern California on Tuesday, fanning the blaze seen for miles while roads were clogged with cars as residents tried to flee.

The world's largest island is now 'central to the geopolitical, geoeconomic competition in many ways,' partly because of climate change, said Ohio University security and environment professor Geoff Dabelko.

Four fraternity members at San Diego State University are facing felony charges in connection with a skit performed at a party last year during which a pledge was set on fire, causing third-degree burns that covered over 16 per cent of his body, prosecutors said.

Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returns to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting on Tuesday.

Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returns to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting on Tuesday.

Firefighters scrambled to corral flames churning along Los Angeles hillsides as winds gained strength Tuesday across Southern California.

Firefighters scrambled to corral flames churning along Los Angeles hillsides as winds gained strength Tuesday across Southern California.

Two men were killed and a third suffered life-threatening injuries in a shooting Tuesday at the premises of a company in southwestern Germany, police said.