LOS ANGELES

Lightning strikes 14 people, leaves 2 critically injured

Lightning struck 14 people, leaving two critically injured, as rare summer thunderstorms swept through Southern California on Sunday, authorities said.

Thirteen people, including a 15-year-old, were treated at Venice Beach in Los Angeles after lightning hit the area around 2:30 p.m., and at least one required CPR, city fire spokeswoman Katherine Main said.

Four people were treated at the scene and the rest were taken to hospitals, where two are in critical condition, she said. Other fire officials said most of those taken to hospitals were mainly shaken up and were expected to recover.

Some appear to have been in the water and others on the beach’s famed boardwalk. Lifeguards performed CPR on at least one person pulled from the water.

PHILADELPHIA

Officials offer reward in search for carjackers

The hunt for two Philadelphia carjackers who rammed a stolen SUV into a family, killing three children, entered its third day Sunday as officials offered a $110,000 reward for information leading to their capture.

Investigators said they are working hard to apprehend the suspects, who fled on foot after crashing the vehicle Friday at an intersection in North Philadelphia where Keisha Williams, 34, and her three children, aged 7 to 15, were selling fruit for a church fundraiser.

PLYMOUTH, Calif.

Firefighters battling pair of destructive wildfires

Firefighters in Northern California on Sunday battled a wildfire that has destroyed 10 homes and forced hundreds of evacuations in the Sierra Nevada foothills, while a fire near Yosemite National Park destroyed one home and grew significantly overnight.

East of Sacramento, the Sand Fire in the Sierra foothills has burned about 3,800 acres, roughly 6 square miles, of steep, rugged terrain since Friday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

BAMAKO, Mali

Air Algerie black boxes to be analyzed in France

Black boxes from the Air Algerie plane that crashed in northern Mali last week will be transferred to France for analysis, the French embassy in Mali said Sunday, as officials prepared for the process of identifying the remains of the dead.

U.N. peacekeepers located the second black box on Saturday amid the wreckage of the plane that took off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and was heading to Algiers, Algeria when it crashed early Thursday.

– From news service reports