Wind-whipped wildfires blacken parts of West

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. -- A wildfire sparked by lightning burned about a mile from homes Friday but posed no immediate danger, officials said. The blaze, which charred 300 acres, or almost half a square mile, was 80 percent contained and seemed to be burning back on itself, said Joe Zarki, a Joshua Tree National Park spokesman. The fire was among a half-dozen started by lightning Thursday in wilderness areas of inland Southern California, where naturally occurring wildfires have scorched vast areas this month. The other new fires went out but crews were concerned as more thunderstorms rolled through the Mojave Desert.

2 girls found starving; stepsiblings well-fed

WICHITA, Kan. -- A police lieutenant called it the worst case of malnutrition he had ever seen: Two girls -- 6 and 7 years old -- were found starving in a basement while their stepsiblings were well-fed and living upstairs. The emaciated girls told police they ate only when their father wasn't traveling on business. They were hospitalized in an advanced state of starvation. The girls' stepmother, whose biological children were found healthy upstairs, was taken in for questioning. Their father, traveling on business, was to be questioned when he returned, police said. The two girls told police they ate whenever their father was home, which wasn't a lot. With the father gone this week and next week, "they were really hoping they could eat this weekend," said police Lt. E.J. Bastian. The house had plenty of food, and the stepsiblings, a 4-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, were well cared for, Bastian said. A doctor told police it didn't appear the girls had eaten in six days or had anything to drink in three days, despite recent temperatures above 100 degrees. But it was obvious the girls had been starved for much longer than that, he said.

Homeless man finds bonds worth $21,000

DETROIT -- A homeless man searching a trash bin for returnable bottles instead found nearly $21,000 in savings bonds. So what did he do with the surprise windfall? He gave it back. Charles Moore, 59, took the bonds to a 24-hour walk-in homeless shelter, where a staffer tracked down the family of the man whose name was on the bonds. "They belong to him," Moore told The Detroit News. "I did the right thing." "What a good Samaritan," said Neil Lehto, who on Friday picked up the bonds that had belonged to his late father, Ernest. Lehto's family left Moore a $100 reward. The bonds were found in a bag of clothes, and Ernest Lehto's family had given away many of his clothes shortly after his death in 2004.

Southwestern China earthquake kills 19

BEIJING -- An earthquake in southwest China Saturday killed at least 19 people as it toppled homes and set off landslides. The magnitude-5.1 quake also injured 60 as it rattled Yunnan province. Chinese television showed roads blocked by landslides, a car crushed under fallen rocks and several single-story homes with tiled roofs that had completely collapsed. Liu Tengfei, a high school student, was at a friend's house when the temblor hit. "The house was shaking and then a clock on the wall fell down and broke, so we ran out," Liu said by telephone. He said many buildings were badly cracked and officials had ordered people to sleep outdoors Saturday night.

Congo gears up for critical election

NDAKU YA PEMBE, Congo -- Election Day is coming to Congo on July 30, making it one of Africa's growing array of countries that have embraced democracy, however fitfully. If multiparty politics can take hold here, after decades of dictatorship, misrule and two multinational conflicts that came to be called an African world war, all of Africa will have turned a critical corner. The Congolese have seized the moment with gusto. In some districts so many candidates are running that the six-page ballot slips are bigger than newspapers. The candidates are a mixed and not entirely promising bag: former rebels accused of killing, looting and pillaging resources; former cronies of Mobutu Sese Seko, the late and little-lamented dictator; Mobutu opponents who served in his government and fell out with him; and the front-runner, Joseph Kabila, who has headed a transitional government for four years.

-- From wire reports