WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service said on Thursday it would cut 7,500 jobs and close seven district offices and 2,000 post offices as it handles less mail and faces greater staff costs and competition from FedEx and United Parcel Service.

"It's critical that we adjust our work force to match America's changing communications trends as mail volumes continue to decline," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement.

In November, the Postal Service reported a net loss of $8.5 billion for fiscal year 2010, its fourth consecutive year of losses.

Joanne Veto, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service, said, "We know that we cannot look the same 10 years from now. The mail volume isn't there. We have to adjust to keep up with the mail and customer needs."

She said the Postal Service would close 2,000 post offices around the United States over the next 12 months, while eliminating the 7,500 jobs.

As of the end of January, the agency employed 583,000 people.

The first round of job cuts are expected to be completed by May 31. As part of the first round of cuts, the Postal Service said it was offering voluntary early retirement of $20,000 paid over two years to employees 50 years old with 20 years of service, or any age with 25 years of service.

The job cuts are expected to be completed by March 2012.

The Postal Service, which delivers about 40 percent of the world's mail, does not receive tax revenue. It relies on the sale of products and services to fund its operations.

The agency said the job cuts and office closings would save about $750 million per year.

The United States started organizing mail delivery in 1775 under the stewardship of Benjamin Franklin and the Second Continental Congress. In 1792 the Post Office Department was created and almost 200 years later, in 1971, it was reorganized at The U.S. Postal Service.

The Postal Service lost a bid last summer to raise rates on first-class mail beyond the pace of inflation. It has also asked Congress for permission to cut Saturday mail delivery. The Postal Service is an independent agency of the U.S. government.

The Government Accountability Office observed in a report in February that the Postal Service had been slow to modernize, and it recommended looking into alternative delivery methods, such as digital mail or allowing customers to pick up parcels from machines 24 hours a day.

(Reporting by Emily Stephenson)

DENVER (Reuters) – A wind-whipped wildfire forced the evacuation of 9,500 homes southeast of Denver on Thursday just as firefighters were gaining the upper hand on a separate blaze that has burned stubbornly for five days west of the city.

Deputy Michelle Rademacher of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said the latest fire has scorched about 1,600 acres in the wooded bluffs near Franktown, Colorado.

"We're not aware of any structures lost, but the high winds are pushing it close to heavily populated neighborhoods, so we called for mandatory evacuations," she said.

The fire grew quickly as sustained winds of 40 miles per hour fanned the flames through dry brush, grasses and trees.

Aerial and ground crews from several agencies were called in to fight the fire.

Television coverage showed firefighters rescuing panicked horses from the many stables that dot the area.

Most of Colorado east of the Continental Divide is at high risk for wildland fires this week because of low humidity, an unusual lack of snow or rainfall and high winds.

Thursday's blaze erupted just as crews were gaining control of the 1,500-acre Indian Gulch fire near Golden, Colorado, that prompted evacuations earlier in the week.

More than 400 firefighters have battled that blaze in the foothills west of Denver from the air and ground, and expect to have it contained by the weekend.

But Rowdy Muir, the federal fire manager at Indian Gulch, said dry conditions and gusty winds have made for an early start to the wildfire season.

"If we don't get moisture this spring, we're going to see a lot of fires in the Rocky Mountain region," Muir told reporters at a Thursday briefing.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Jerry Norton)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Prosecutors unsealed an indictment on Thursday charging an accused serial killer dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" with murdering 10 girls and women during a Los Angeles-area crime spree that spanned three decades.

The suspect, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 58, who worked as a neighborhood mechanic, has been jailed without bond since he was arrested outside his home on July 7, partly on the basis of DNA evidence linking him to the killings through genetic material of his son.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury on Wednesday, supersedes a criminal complaint filed against Franklin last year with the same charges -- 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the case of an 11th victim who survived.

He is accused of shooting to death or strangling seven of his victims between August 1985 and September 1988 and three others between March 2002 and January 2007. The suspect was dubbed "the Grim Sleeper" because of a gap of more than 13 years between the killing sprees.

The girls and women he attacked ranged in age from 14 to 36, and many were prostitutes. Some were raped before they were slain. Their bodies were dumped in alleys and trash bins and covered with debris.

The surviving victim was shot in the chest, raped, then pushed out of the suspect's car and left for dead in 1988.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said in a statement it has not decided whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison without parole if he is convicted.

The indictment spares prosecutors the need for a preliminary hearing to determine whether sufficient evidence exists to take their case against Franklin to trial.

"The families of the victims should be accorded timely resolution of the allegations of the murders of their loved ones," District Attorney Steve Cooley said in a statement.

Franklin is due in court April 4 for a pre-trial hearing.

(Editing by Peter Bohan)