BEIJING (Reuters) - China has arrested an activist on a charge of subversion, his brother and a rights group said on Sunday, the second such arrest in less than two months and the latest sign that the authorities are hardening their stance toward dissent.

Yang Lin, 45, a critic of China's one-party system who lives in the southern province of Guangdong, was arrested on a charge of "inciting subversion of state power", his brother, Yang Mingzhu, said by telephone.

In China, an inciting subversion charge is commonly levelled against critics of one-party rule. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail, though lengthier sentences have been handed down.

Yang Mingzhu said he had received a notice of his brother's arrest, dated July 19, but it gave few details.

The U.S.-based group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Yang Lin, had spent a year in a labor camp, and he was also a signatory of "Charter 08" - a manifesto organized by jailed Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo - which calls for political reform.

"He would not hesitate in throwing himself wholeheartedly in helping disadvantaged citizens fight for their rights and in activities promoting constitutional democracy," the advocacy group said on its website on Sunday.

Chinese liberals and intellectuals had hoped the new government that took over this year, under President Xi Jinping, would be more tolerant of calls for reform but authorities have seemed to indicate they will not tolerate any challenge to their rule.

In recent months, authorities have detained at least 16 anti-corruption activists involved in demonstrations calling for government officials to disclose their assets.

The Futian District Detention Centre, where the brother said Yang Lin was being held, declined to comment.

A formal arrest usually leads to a trial. Activists who are detained are sometimes released before they are formally arrested.

In June, authorities formally arrested a man for inciting subversion after he applied for permission to demonstrate on June 4, the 24th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Robert Birsel)

The atmosphere in Zimbabwe after the reelection of strongman Robert Mugabe is not one of great celebration, but of tension.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the main challenger, says he will not join in a new governing coalition but is contesting the credibility of the July 31 vote in court.

Fears are on the rise in the capital of Harare, reports say, that under one-party rule, a host of Mr. Mugabe’s old partners, cronies, henchmen, and friends will start to come out of the woodwork to take advantage of the hour.

Foreign-owned banks, mines, and businesses have heard that, to fulfill a campaign promise made by Mugabe, their assets may be seized and restructured into a majority national ownership arrangement.

Now it appears the considerable property of the Anglican church in Zimbabwe, though it is mostly a black membership, may also be under renewed scrutiny by the unscrupulous.

The chief Anglican bishop in Zimbabwe, Chad Gandiya, this week accused a renegade clergyman and friend of Mugabe of restarting a campaign using brutality, the courts, and police to seize churches, orphanages, and missions owned by mainstream Anglicans.

Mr. Gandiya told the Associated Press that Nolbert Kunonga, a defrocked bishop who stumped for Mugabe and last week called him a leader “sent from God,” is using the emotion around the landslide vote as an opportunity to seize property associated with the Church of England.

Several years ago Mr. Kunonga, who is US educated and has told The New York Times that he is a “superior person” to the other members of the Anglican clergy, began by legal and extralegal means to take over church properties, including the cathedral of Harare.

Gandiya told reporters that Kunonga this week sent thugs into his own home in Harare, where they stole cellphones and records of church holdings and personnel.

Gandiya also said that in the area of Murewa, outside Harare, local police are supporting Kunonga’s effort to take over a mission, and to evict 100 children from the Shearly Cripps orphanage, first started by British and American missionaries.

Anglican clergy and assets have been under attack in Zimbabwe for years as part of Mugabe’s long standing tryst with the West and its institutions of influence.

Mugabe is a Roman Catholic but has sought and found alliances with those in other faiths, like Kunonga, who share his anti-Western ideology.

But now, on the heels of a contested “landslide” election where Mugabe promised to expand “reform” policies that earlier led to evictions of white farmers from their land, a variety of Protestant and Catholic churches, despite being largely black, are again worried.

Officials from Mugabe’s Zanu PF party spoke this Tuesday of instituting new forms of “wealth transfer.”

Foreign-owned mines and banks are worth an estimated $9 billion in value.

So the limited Zimbabwe religious blogosphere is taking notice of the behavior of Kunonga, who had been excommunicated in 2007. He formed a splinter church and began to appropriate and “share” Anglican property with the apparent blessing of Mugabe.

Kunonga’s splinter church for a time enjoyed standing but is now in legal limbo. But this could change again. Kunonga currently holds, in contravention of a court order, some of the largest Anglican church buildings and edifices in Harare, including the main cathedral, along with bank accounts and vehicles.

He has also developed a reputation for brutality. Two years ago, Kunonga told a New York Times reporter in Harare that he planned to take over some 3,000 Anglican properties in Africa for his own use and profit.

In the interview, he alluded to the use of violence, saying, “You must have a very good reason to kill people. Being a political scientist, I know who to eliminate if I wanted to physically, and to make it effective. I’m a strategist.”

He added that, “If I want to pick on people to kill, Gandiya would not survive here.”

The head of the Anglican church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has said he is seeking a visit to speak with Mugabe about the issue.

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BANNING, Calif. (AP) — California truly is the Golden State this summer — golden brown — and that has fire officials worried heading into the peak of the wildfire season.

It's still weeks before the fire-fanning Santa Ana winds usually arrive and already it's been a brutal fire season, with nearly twice as many acres burned statewide from a year ago, including 19,000 scorched this week in a blaze still raging in the mountains 90 miles east of Los Angeles. That fire, burning nearly 30 square miles, was almost half contained Saturday morning.

So far this year, California fire officials have battled 4,300 wildfires, a stark increase from the yearly average of nearly 3,000 they faced from 2008 to 2012, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Until last week, those fires had already burned more than 71,000 acres, about 111 square miles. The totals were up from 40,000, about 63 square miles, during the same period last year.

The annual average for charred land in the last five years was 113,000 acres, roughly 177 square miles, he said.

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An air tanker drops fire retardant on a hot spot as firefighters continue to battle a wildfire on Fr …

"We have seen a significant increase in our fire activity and much earlier than normal," said Berlant, adding that fire season began in mid-April, about a month ahead of schedule after an especially dry winter. "We're not even yet into the time period where we see the largest number of damaging fires."

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who lives in Riverside County, said more than 165,000 acres or 258 square miles have burned in California this year, and climate change is setting conditions for more disastrous blazes, while budget cuts are limiting resources to fight them. Boxer's data comes from both California officials and federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service.

This year, state fire officials have called up more firefighters and reserve engines on days with hot, dry conditions, Berlant said.

And while state officials encouraged residents to rid their properties of dry brush before fire season starts, he said authorities are now urging the public not to use lawnmowers or weed eaters during the heat of the day because a spark off the metal blades can trigger a blaze.

On Friday, firefighters launched a fleet of seven retardant-dropping airplanes against Southern California's latest destructive wildfire, which has destroyed 26 homes and threatened more than 500 others in the San Jacinto Mountains.

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A home destroyed by a wildfire is seen on Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, near Banning, Calif. Southern Califo …

The so-called Silver Fire injured six firefighters and seriously burned one civilian and had grown to nearly 30 square miles early Saturday.

At its peak, it forced the evacuation of 1,800 people, including 800 campers, but orders were lifted for many areas Friday and only a few hundred evacuees remained.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared an emergency for the area Friday, freeing up additional funds and resources for the firefight and recovery.

In the Twin Pines neighborhood outside Banning, Andy Schrader said he couldn't get out in time. The wildfire crept up suddenly and blew over his house, burning his motor home and singeing his hair as he sprayed water from a hose to try to keep the house wet.

"I could feel my face burning," the 74-year-old carpenter said. "And I thought I was going to die."

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A helicopter drops water over a wildfire on Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, near Banning, Calif. Southern Cali …

Most of Southern California's severe wildfires are associated with Santa Ana winds, caused by high pressure over the West that sends a clockwise flow of air rushing down into the region.

This week's fire, however, was being fanned by a counter-clockwise flow around a low pressure area over northwest California. The National Weather Service said conditions could change in the second half of next week, with weaker winds in the mountains and deserts.

Wildfire experts say the traditional fire season has grown longer in California as rainfall has been lower than usual over the last two years and tapered off sooner.

Los Angeles, for example, received only 5.85 inches of rain from July 2012 through June 2013, compared with 8.71 inches a year before and a 30-year average of 14.93 inches, said Eric Boldt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Tom Scott, a natural resources specialist who teaches at University of California campuses in Riverside and Berkeley, said plants can have a harder time staying hydrated under such conditions.

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Firefighters look for hot spots as they walk through the scorched area on Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, near …

"The whole system is like a bank account — it's being drawn down," he said.

Richard A. Minnich, a professor of earth sciences at University of California, Riverside, said much of Southern California is in pretty good shape because older vegetation burned off during a spate of wildfires over the past decade, but there are spots at serious risk because of the prevalence of old-growth chaparral.

"Wherever there is very old chaparral, we've got a tremendous threat," he said.

Fundraising efforts are underway to rebuild the Al Bahr Shriners Camp in the Laguna Mountains after it was destroyed by a fire last month. It will take more than $1 million to replace more than 100 buildings, including the camp's 87-year-old lodge, dining hall and kitchen, were destroyed in the blaze.

"Everyone lost a lot," former Shriner potentate Donald Wierman told U-T San Diego. "If not material things they've lost memories. Generations have been going to that place."

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An air tanker drops fire retardant on a hot spot as firefighters continue to battle a wildfire on Fr …