SAN DIEGO -- U.S. President George Bush visited areas affected by the Southern California wildfires as the death toll from the blazes rose by six.The death toll rose with the discoveries of six bodies -- a married couple from Escondido, Calif., and four suspected illegal immigrants -- apparently killed by the fires, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.Bush on Thursday made a visit to part of the area affected by the fire, meeting with evacuees ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Department issued a joint bulletin warning of shoe bomb use by terrorists.The bulletin warned that terrorist groups were trying to use “modified footwear as a concealment method for explosive devices,” CBS News reported Friday.The agencies said in Wednesday's bulletin that European authorities discovered a pair of shoes in September that were used to transport electric blasting caps across international borders so they could be ... [full story]

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Authorities in Southern California said they believe two of the fires that recently ravaged the area were intentionally started.Authorities have offered a $150,000 reward for finding the arsonists believed to be responsible for the Rosa fire in Riverside County and the massive Santiago Canyon fire in Orange County, CBS News reported Friday.Two men have been arrested and one other questioned but authorities wouldn't comment on the suspects.Officials earlier said the Santiago ... [full story]

NEW YORK -- Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's campaign hasn't outwardly shown concern over recently revealed threats on the former New York mayor's life. Giuliani's security remained apparently minimal Thursday after it was revealed at a Brooklyn trial Wednesday that high ranking mob bosses had discussed putting a hit out on him when he was a federal prosecutor, New York Newsday reported Friday."If you have got to live with threats, you live with threats," Giuliani ... [full story]

ATLANTA -- Georgia's highest court Friday ordered the release of an African-American teenager in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a party.Genarlow Wilson, a former high school football player in Douglas County, Ga., was convicted of aggravated child molestation in 2005, when he was 17, and sentenced to 10 years in state prison with no chance of parole. The sex act was videotaped by his friends at a New Year's ... [full story]

MANILA, Philippines -- Philippine President Gloria Arroyo Thursday granted former President Joseph Estrada executive clemency, sparing him prison for corruption.Arroyo has promised not to seek public office again, Voice of America reported. The government also has a policy of pardoning convicts who are over age 70.The pardon was controversial. Arroyo was convicted after a six-year trial, of making millions of dollars from illegal gambling and sale of shares in government pension funds.Another former president, Fidel ... [full story]

OKHA, Russia -- A faulty stove is believed to be responsible for the deaths of five people Thursday on Sakhalin Island in Russia's Pacific border region.The dead were found in two apartments in a building in the town of Okha, Itar-Tass reported. A married couple, both age 49, were in one apartment and a 64-year-old woman and two children were in the other."Supposedly, they all died at night," an emergency official said. "An investigation is ... [full story]

NEW DELHI -- India’s Hindu nationalist party dismissed claims revealed in secret video recordings that it was allegedly involved in the 2002 attacks on Muslims.The BBC reported the claims against India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party were made in secret recordings on the violence in the western Gujarat state, whose government is led by the party.The recordings by Tehelka magazine claimed the party government in Gujarat supported the violence in which more than 1,000 people ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The Pakistani military, after taking heavy casualties in northwest Swat valley, Friday attacked the hideout of a pro-Taliban cleric.The BBC, quoting local police, reported that Pakistani troops had surrounded an area described as the stronghold of Maulana Fazlullah but it wasn't known if the cleric was inside.Swat, a popular tourist spot, has increasingly come under the control of Fazlullah and his Islamic brigade, who have been attacking Pakistani troops sent there to ... [full story]

PARIS -- The French Ministry of Culture has stepped in to block the mayor of Rouen from returning the mummified head of a Maori warrior to New Zealand.The ministry said the head is a work of art that belongs to France and returning it would jeopardize the status of other works of art in museums across the country, The New York Times reported Friday.The mayor of Rouen had arranged to send the head back to ... [full story]