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A Cal Fire helicopter on the way to pick up water in the Sun Lakes development between Beaumont and Banning

FIRST PERSON | BANNING, Calif. -- Early Wednesday afternoon saw a billowing cloud of smoke forming over the San Jacinto Mountains as yet another fire had cropped up. Named the Silver Fire, this pocket of flames developed along Highway 243 between Banning and Idyllwild. The fire sparked up just 20 miles away from the region burned by July's Mountain Fire that eventually spread over 43 square miles.

The Silver Fire burned quickly throughout the afternoon andencompassed more than 6,000 acres by nightfall. The fire has closed Highway 243 and forced evacuations of a number of small mountain communities, including Silent Valley, Poppet Flats, Vista Grande, and Twin Pines. A number of structures have already been destroyed in the T win Pines area, and no estimates about possible containment have been given.

Spectators stood with me at the end of First Street, near the Sun Lakes gated community, and watched as flames crested the nearby hillside and began creeping down toward the valley. Joy, a resident of Sun Lakes, explained that she has "never seen a fire this close to the community. It doesn't bode well for people that live here."

We watched as a Cal Fire helicopter drew water from the small reservoir through the trees behind us. The group lost sight of it between the ridge lines before it could drop the load. We were lucky enough to watch a tanker drop a load of water along the ridge just ahead of the advancing flames just as the sun started to go down. A couple of us stood watching and worrying until it was so dark that flames were all we could see.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks to the media outside the High Court in London December 5, 2011. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

(Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has called President Barack Obama's announcement of plans to limit sweeping U.S. government surveillance programs a victory of sorts for fugitive former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. � "Today, the President of the United States validated Edward Snowden's role as a whistleblower by announcing plans to reform America's global surveillance program," Assange said in a statement referring to Obama's announcement on Friday.

"Today was a victory of sorts for Edward Snowden and his many supporters," Assange said in the statement, which was posted on the WikiLeaks website on Saturday.

"As Snowden has stated, his biggest concern was if he blew the whistle and change did not occur. Well reforms are taking shape, and for that, the President and people of the United States and around the world owe Edward Snowden a debt of gratitude."

Assange, who has been holed up at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for more than a year, fearing extradition to the United States for publishing classified U.S. documents, rejected Obama's assertion that his reforms were planned before Snowden's disclosures about U.S. surveillance activities.

"The simple fact is that without Snowden's disclosures, no one would know about the programs and no reforms could take place," he said.

Assange accused the U.S. government of "stunning" hypocrisy in its treatment of Snowden while it gave asylum to thousands of dissidents, whistleblowers and political refugees from countries like Russia and Venezuela.

The Obama administration has vigorously pursued Snowden to bring him back to the United States to face espionage charges for leaking details of U.S. surveillance programs to the media. Snowden is now in Russia, where he has been granted asylum.

Assange himself is wanted in Sweden on sexual abuse allegations he denies. He has sought sanctuary in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London because he fears he could be extradited to the United States to face potential charges over the release of thousands of confidential U.S. documents on WikiLeaks.

Assange charged that the Obama administration had prosecuted "twice as many" whistleblowers as all other U.S. administrations combined, in spite of the president's 2008 campaign pledge to champion transparency and those who fought for it.

He said it was fortunate for the world that Snowden and others "of good conscience," like Private First Class Bradley Manning - who was convicted last month of leaking classified data to WikiLeaks - had chosen not to remain silent.

In announcing his reform plans on Friday, Obama vowed to improve oversight of surveillance and restore public trust in the government's programs, saying the United States "can and must be more transparent."

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Fire and rescue personnel surround the aftermath of a plane crash between two homes in East Haven, Connecticut, August 9, 2013. REUTERS/Glenn Duda

By Richard Weizel

MILFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - A plane flown by a retired Microsoft Corp. executive that crashed into a Connecticut neighborhood was upside down when it hit two houses, killing the pilot, his son and two young girls on the ground, officials said on Saturday.

Patrick Murray, a lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said there was no preliminary indication the plane was in distress or suffering from mechanical failure before it slammed into the houses in East Haven on Friday.

The pilot, Bill Henningsgaard, and his 17-year-old son, Maxwell, were on a trip to visit colleges when the plane crashed. Both died in the accident.

On Saturday, authorities identified the two other victims, a 13-year-old and one-year-old, both girls, who were inside one of the houses at the time of the crash.

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A burnt home is pictured at the site of a plane crash in East Haven, August 9, 2013. REUTERS/Michell …

The mother of the two girls, 39-year-old Joann Mitchell, was at home at the time and survived without any injuries.

"My heart is at a standstill," Mitchell wrote on her Facebook page. "The feeling of emptiness engulfs me. Mommy will always love you ... RIP my sweet angels."

The twin-engined propeller plane took off from Teterboro airport in New Jersey on Friday morning and had been attempting to land at Tweed New Haven Airport, about 40 miles south of Hartford, in rainy weather when it crashed.

"We don't know yet whether that played a role in the crash," Murray told reporters.

"There is no evidence right now that the pilot was in distress during his last conversation with the control tower and it appears he was turning to try and land when the tower lost contact with him," he said.

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Connecticut's Governor Dannel Malloy speaks to the media after a plane crashed in East Haven, August …

East Haven is a town of about 30,000 people located near the Long Island Sound, about 85 miles northeast of New York City.

A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that Henningsgaard was a former employee of the company.

The pilot's brother, Blair Henningsgaard, described Bill Henningsgaard as a careful pilot who had taken up flying after retiring from Microsoft.

"This is the third plane he's owned," Henningsgaard told Connecticut's WTNH television. He added that his brother had crashed once before, in 2009, when the fuel system on his plane malfunctioned.

That hadn't deterred him from returning to the cockpit, Henningsgaard said. "He believed that there wasn't anything that he couldn't figure out and accomplish if he put his mind to it," he said.

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Fire and rescue personnel and residents stand near the aftermath of a plane crash between two homes …