World/Nation

California blaze grows, more are evacuated

LOWER LAKE, Calif. - Wildfires are charging through several states in the parched West, scorching homes and forcing people to flee. Flames are plaguing some California residents, who had to evacuate for the second time in recent weeks after blazes exploded in size.

A Northern California blaze, which erupted Sunday near the community of Lower Lake, grew Tuesday to almost 22 square miles. It was 5 percent contained, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

The fire, burning in the rocky hills about 100 miles north of San Francisco, almost more than doubled in size overnight despite cooler temperatures and higher humidity.

More than 1,100 firefighters are battling the blaze that is threatening 50 structures. No homes have been destroyed, and no injuries have been reported.

Meanwhile, firefighters have nearly surrounded the larger nearby blaze that started about two weeks ago and has burned 109 square miles. That fire destroyed 43 homes.

Hillary Clinton relents, gives up email server

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton relented Tuesday to months of demands she relinquish the personal email server she used while secretary of state, directing the device be given to the Justice Department.

The decision advances the investigation into the Democratic presidential front-runner's use of a private email account as the nation's top diplomat, and whether classified information was improperly sent via and stored on the homebrew email server she ran from her house in suburban New York City.

Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said she has "pledged to cooperate with the government's security inquiry, and if there are more questions, we will continue to address them."

It's not clear if the device will yield any information - Clinton's attorney said in March that no emails from the main personal address she used while secretary of state still "reside on the server or on back-up systems associated with the server."

Clinton had to this point refused demands from Republican critics to turn over the server to a third party, with attorney David Kendall telling the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that "there is no basis to support the proposed third-party review of the server."

Kerry, Democratic senator spar over Iran nuclear deal

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State John Kerry sparred Tuesday with the lone Democratic senator to publicly oppose last month's historic Iran nuclear deal, saying there was no way the U.S. could prevent American allies from doing business with Tehran if Congress were to reject the agreement.

Speaking across town in New York, Sen. Chuck Schumer disagreed and suggested Washington still could force the world into isolating the Iranians until they make deeper nuclear concessions.

The dispute goes to the heart of the questions that American lawmakers are considering as they prepare to vote on the nuclear accord.

If they were to shelve the deal - and override an expected presidential veto - they could severely complicate the Obama administration's ability to honor its commitments to roll back economic sanctions on Iran. In exchange, Iran has agreed to a decade of tough restrictions on Iran's nuclear program and a far more intrusive inspections regime.

Republicans are almost universally opposed at this point.