USDA Forest Service

Around 700 firefighters are battling a wildfire near Los Angeles that forced the evacuation of hundreds of tourists camping over the holiday weekend, officials said.

Around 700 firefighters were battling a wildfire near Los Angeles that forced the evacuation of hundreds of tourists camping over the holiday weekend, officials said.

US President Barack Obama was expected in Colorado on Friday, where the most destructive wildfire in the western state's history has torched nearly 350 homes and left one person dead.

HARRISBURG, Illinois (Reuters) - Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing nine people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said.

HARRISBURG, Illinois (Reuters) - Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing nine people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said.

HARRISBURG, Illinois (Reuters) - Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said.

LOLO HOT SPRINGS, Montana (Reuters) - Along a remote stretch of mountain highway near the Idaho/ Montana border, on the very same route that nearly killed the legendary 19th century explorers Lewis & Clark, two men are huddled in the snow, guarding a gargantuan blue box owned by Canada's Imperial Oil Ltd.

(Reuters) - A college student stranded in her car for nine days on a barren northern Arizona road has been rescued after living on candy bars and melted snow, authorities said.

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - The U.S. government proposed protecting old-growth forests in Idaho and Washington state on Tuesday to save the nation's dwindling population of mountain caribou, popularly known as wild reindeer.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A government study released on Tuesday links many wildfires in the Arizona-Mexico border region to illegal immigrant activity, a finding that Arizona Senator John McCain said backs up comments he made blaming border crossers for some of the blazes.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A Washington state man charged with chopping down federally protected timber that was made into prized musical instruments pleaded not guilty to felony theft on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that the government properly designated millions of acres of national forests as off limits to logging and road construction, overturning a lower court ruling in a long-running battle over preserving the land.

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A grizzly bear attacked and killed a Nevada man whose friend moments earlier had shot and wounded the animal during a hunting trip in northwest Montana, authorities said on Saturday.

Outdoor raids in region becoming more common. As a law enforcement team assembled Wednesday morning, two men guarding a marijuana farm rested at a makeshift mountainside camp. The men had a kitchen stocked with food, a small stove and a pellet gun. And for when they could relax, two tents - filled with backpacks, shirts, jeans, high-top sneakers, sleeping bags, 9-mm ammunition and a crumpled Budweiser can - provided a retreat of sorts. The camouflaged dwellings sheltered them from the elements and, until Wednesday, kept them hidden from authorities. That's when a multijurisdictional squad trekked 10 miles over the rugged terrain to the marijuana grow site on the west side of the Spring Mountains, near Mount Charleston. It was the latest in a string of raids to dismantle outdoor marijuana grow operations, many on public land, that have popped up in Southern Nevada this year.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - An out of control wildfire has charred 100,000 acres of a northeastern Minnesota wilderness area popular for canoeing and camping, though cooler temperatures and some rain slowed its growth on Wednesday.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - A wind-stoked wildfire in a pristine area of northeastern Minnesota popular with canoers and wilderness campers grew five-fold in a day to more than 60,000 acres on Tuesday, threatening 36 homes and sending a smoke trail as far south as Illinois.

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A 15,000-acre wildfire in forested peaks in Idaho has forced the evacuation of 100 people and halted construction work on a planned strategic metal mine, officials said on Wednesday.

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Firefighters struggled on Thursday to control a fast-growing 28,000-acre wildfire raging within several miles of spent nuclear fuel stored at a U.S. Energy Department lab in the high desert of eastern Idaho.

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Firefighters struggled on Thursday to control a fast-growing 28,000-acre wildfire raging within several miles of spent nuclear fuel stored at a U.S. Energy Department lab in the high desert of eastern Idaho.