13-year-old rescued after dozen hours in LA sewer

LOS ANGELES - A 13-year-old boy has been rescued after spending 12 hours trapped in a maze of sewer tunnels in Los Angeles.

"I was just praying to God to help me and to not die," Jesse Hernandez told NBC News. "You could just hear the water running through. You couldn't see anything."

Jesse was on an Easter Sunday outing with his family at Griffith Park, one of the largest urban parks in the United States, when he and his cousins went to explore an abandoned building, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The boys were jumping on wooden boards when a plank broke, sending Jesse plunging 25 feet (8 meters) down a sewer pipe around 4:30 pm, the newspaper said.

A massive rescue effort was launched involving more than 100 firefighters, police and sanitation workers.

At 4 am Monday morning, sanitation workers lifted up a manhole cover and found Jesse looking up at them, the Times said.

He had traveled about two-thirds of a mile (over 1 kilometer) from where he fell into the sewer.

"This young man rose like Jesus," Bryant Jones, a city sanitation manager, was quoted as saying by the Times.

Jesse was taken to hospital, decontaminated and released.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

California mudslide death toll rises to 15

LOS ANGELES - California rescuers worked through the night plucking stranded Santa Barbara residents from mudslides that have killed at least 15 people and devastated the coastal community after it was drenched by rain, authorities said on Wednesday.

The death toll could go higher still as rescuers continued searching for victims, mostly in the upscale enclave of Montecito - where mudslides slammed into homes, covered highways and swept away vehicles - officials warned.

"We don't know how many additional people are still trapped," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said on the "CBS This Morning" program. "We know there are some, and we're still making our way into certain areas of Montecito and the adjacent areas to determine if anyone is still there and still alive."

The mudslides followed an ordeal of fire and water for the area northwest of Los Angeles. A torrential downpour on Tuesday soaked the area, which was left vulnerable after much of its vegetation burned in the state's largest wildfire last month.

Forecasters were calling for clear skies on Wednesday.

Emergency workers began their task on Tuesday using search dogs and helicopters to rescue dozens of people stranded in mud-coated rubble in the normally pristine area, sandwiched between the ocean and the sprawling Los Padres National Forest.

A 14-year-old girl was found alive on Tuesday after firefighters using rescue dogs heard cries for help from what was left of her Montecito home, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"I thought I was dead there for a minute," the teenager Lauren Cantin, covered in mud, told NBC News after workers spent six hours rescuing her.

Rescuers worked through the night, searching for victims amid the dozens of homes that were destroyed, and using helicopters to lift more than 50 stranded residents from the mud.

"We're finding people continuously," said Yaneris Muniz, spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Joint Information Center. "We had a helicopter and several crews out all night, and now that it's day, we’ll be able to intensify those searches."

Officials have ordered residents in a large swath of Montecito to stay in their homes so that rescuers can better go about their work.

About 300 people were stranded in a canyon. Local rescue crews, using borrowed helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard, worked to airlift them out, officials said.

The county initially ordered 7,000 residents to evacuate and urged another 23,000 to do so voluntarily, but only 10 to 15 percent complied with mandatory orders, said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

The county set up an evacuation shelter at Santa Barbara City College, where some people showed up drenched in mud, and also provided a place for people to take their animals.

The number of fatalities surpassed the death toll from a California mudslide on Jan. 10, 2005, when 10 people were killed as a hillside gave way in the town of La Conchita, less than 20 miles south of the latest disaster.

Last month's wildfires, the largest in California history, left the area vulnerable to mudslides. The fires burned away grass and shrubs that hold the soil in place and also baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.

Some local residents had to flee their homes due to the fires last month and again this week because of the rains.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Star Wars' actress Carrie Fisher has mid-air heart attack

Hollywood star Carrie Fisher was fighting for her life Friday after suffering a massive heart attack on a flight, emergency workers and witnesses said.

The 60-year-old "Star Wars" actress was flying from London to Los Angeles when she suffered cardiac arrest, and was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation by an emergency responder on board.

Fisher collapsed 15 minutes before the plane landed at LAX, according to celebrity news website TMZ, and was rushed to UCLA Medical Center on a ventilator.

TMZ, citing witnesses, said the actress's eyes were closed and she appeared unconscious as she was rushed through the terminal, where paramedics worked for 15 minutes before they could get a pulse.

The Los Angeles Times said her condition was critical, quoting an unnamed source who said the actress was "in a lot of distress on the flight."

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) did not refer to the actress by name but confirmed it had responded to an alert just after midday over "a patient on an inbound flight in cardiac arrest."

"LAFD firefighter paramedics were standing by and provided immediate advanced life support and aggressively treated and transported the patient to a local hospital," spokesman Erik Scott told AFP.

United Airlines said medical personnel met Flight 935 from London upon arrival after the crew reported that a passenger was unresponsive.

Fisher was catapulted to worldwide stardom as the rebel warrior Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, which has been a cultural phenomenon since the release of the films from 1977 to 1983.

Steeped in Hollywood excess from an early age, she was the product of the four-year marriage of movie star Debbie Reynolds, best-known for her role in "Singin' In The Rain," and singer Eddie Fisher.

The relationship, and the happy home in Beverly Hills, came to an end when Fisher left Reynolds for her close friend, the actress Elizabeth Taylor.

- Searingly honest -

Fisher's co-stars led tributes as Hollywood reacted with shock to news of her collapse.

"As if 2016 couldn't get any worse... sending all our love to @carrieffisher" tweeted Mark Hamill, who plays her on-screen twin Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" saga.

The American actress has talked and written frequently about her years of drug addiction and mental illness.

Fisher is known for her searingly honest semi-autobiographical novels, including her best-selling debut "Postcards from the Edge" which she turned into a film of the same name in 1990.

She has given various interviews over the years about her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and addiction to prescription drugs and cocaine, which she admitted using on the set of "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980).

She has also discussed being treated with electroconvulsive therapy, in which small electric currents are passed through the brain, to trigger brief seizures.

Writer and actress Anna Akana, who said she was on board Fisher's flight, described the mid-air drama in a series of tweets, voicing her "shock and sadness."

"Don't know how else to process this but Carrie Fisher stopped breathing on the flight home. Hope she's gonna be OK," she said.

"So many thanks to the United flight crew who jumped into action, and the awesome doctor and nurse passengers who helped. Feel weird even tweeting about it but I JUST finished her book and was fangirling out over seeing her dog Gary in person."

Fisher's famous "Star Wars" character features as part of the storyline to spin-off "Rogue One," which is currently riding high in box offices around the globe, although the actress is understood not to have been involved in the production.

"The whole world is sending you so much love! Sending you the universe's most powerful Force," tweeted English actress Gwendoline Christie, who played the warrior Brienne of Tarth in HBO's "Game of Thrones" and Captain Phasma in Fisher's most recent "Star Wars" episode, "The Force Awakens."

ft/acb

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Chris Brown arrested after standoff at LA home

LOS ANGELES -- Pop star Chris Brown was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on Tuesday after a daylong standoff and search at his Los Angeles home that began when a woman called 911 in the predawn hours, police said.

Brown, 27, denied any wrongdoing in posts on Instagram before he was taken into custody and said he had woken up to find police outside the property in the Tarzana neighborhood in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley.

"He is being transported to robbery homicide, where he will be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon," Lieutenant Chris Ramirez of the Los Angeles Police Department told reporters at an impromptu media conference outside Brown's home.

Ramirez declined to elaborate on the charges against Brown, saying an investigation was still under way. Earlier TMZ.com and the Los Angeles Times reported that the singer had pointed a gun at the woman, who later left the property.

Police who responded to the 911 emergency call at around 3 a.m. spent hours surrounding the home before obtaining a search warrant and beginning a search of the sprawling premises in the early afternoon.

During that search, TMZ posted a photo of Brown standing on the front porch with a police officer and his attorney, Mark Geragos. Geragos could not be reached by Reuters for comment.

"I don't sleep half the damn night I just wake up to all these ... helicopters, choppers is around, police out there at the gate," Brown said in a video he posted on Instagram as police were stationed outside his house.

"What I do care about is you are defacing my name and my character and integrity," he added, saying he had done nothing wrong and criticizing police actions.

"I don't care y'all going to stay playing with me like I'm the villain out here, like I'm going crazy ... good luck when you get the warrant or whatever you need to do. You're going to walk right up in here and you're going to see nothing you idiots," he added.

In 2009, Brown assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna, and in 2015 finished a lengthy term of probation, community service and domestic violence classes.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why Kobe Paras pulled out of UCLA

LOS ANGELES, California -- There's been a change of plans for Kobe Paras, one of college basketball’s most high profile, highly anticipated recruits: He will no longer be a UCLA Bruin.

The University of California in Los Angeles announced the withdrawal of 18-year-old Filipino on Wednesday morning.

In a statement, the school said: “Incoming freshman guard Kobe Paras, admitted upon condition to UCLA, has withdrawn from the university due to academic conditions of his admission not being met."

But his coaches at Middlebrooks Academy said he is academically eligible to play for an NCAA Division 1 program.

The Los Angeles Times quoted Cathedral High School officials as saying that there was an issue with Paras's Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) score, despite being a consistent honor student.

Paras had verbally committed to UCLA in the fall of 2014 as a high school junior. He went on to have a phenomenal junior season attracting fandom at many of his games as a player for Cathedral High School.

He went on to participate in several high-profile camps.

Due to an issue in his transfer and credit this past school year, Paras suited up for the Middlebrooks Academy, a basketball prep program that is also run by Cathedral's coach William Middlebrooks.

Last February, Cathedral High School announced that Paras had scored 1750 on his SAT, which is regarded as a high score.

However, the average incoming UCLA freshman has a score of 2064.

The withdrawal comes just weeks after Paras checked in on campus with the school, tweeting his visits and his locker room nameplate. He even had a chance to meet his fellow class of 2016 recruits during his visit.

“The issue is SAT. Based on UCLA’s standards and his announced score, he fell below the UCLA average,” coach William Middlebrooks said.

Although Paras is no longer UCLA-bound, his coaches said he will still play college basketball at a Division 1 level. According to reports, some schools have already contacted his coaches.

Just as when he first arrived in LA, they expect a number of suitors lining up to bring in the 6-foot-5 wing player.

Paras himself has been silent throughout the ordeal with Middlebrooks basketball requesting for privacy.

The program said they will clarify the issues and details surrounding the young athlete's withdrawal soon.

No matter where Paras will eventually play, that school will have a well-conditioned athlete. The hoops phenom has been in tip top basketball shape, spending most of his time in the gym and getting ready for the next phase of his basketball life.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Four killed as small planes collide in California

LOS ANGELES, United States - Four people were killed Sunday when a pair of small aircraft collided in southern California near the Mexican border, US media reported.

One of the aircraft was a twin-engine Sabreliner and the other a single-engine Cessna 172.

They crashed near Brown Field Airport in San Diego, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The crash killed four and caused small brush fires, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

No cause for the crash was known but aviation authorities were investigating.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Grandson of Getty oil founder found dead in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES - The grandson of billionaire Getty oil founder J. Paul Getty was found dead on Tuesday afternoon at his home in Los Angeles, the family said in a statement.

Andrew Getty's parents, Ann and Gordon, confirmed the 47-year-old's death and requested privacy for the family during "this extremely difficult time" and that further details would be released as they became available.

Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Commander Andrew Smith said it was very early in the investigation and witnesses were being questioned, but no one was in custody.

"At first glance, it does not appear to be a criminal type of act. But that could change," Smith said on Tuesday night.

The cause of Andrew Getty's death was not immediately clear.

Celebrity news website TMZ.com reported earlier that Getty, an heir to his grandfather's oil fortune, was found in a bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home about 2 p.m. under suspicious circumstances and that a former girlfriend was being detained as a potential witness or suspect.

The Los Angeles Times said Andrew Getty had sought a restraining order against a woman two weeks earlier.

The paper reported that according to an anonymous law enforcement official Getty appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma though the cause was unclear.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office could not be reached for comment by Reuters on Tuesday evening.

Police blocked off the street leading to the home with yellow crime-scene tape and more than a dozen news crews and photographers gathered at the scene.

Getty's grandfather, J. Paul Getty, merged several smaller oil companies into Getty Oil in the 1960s.

At one time one of America's richest men, he was also an avid art collector who established the trust that funds the J. Paul Getty Museum and several other institutions.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Pacquiao, Mayweather camps at odds over doping penalty

LOS ANGELES - Tension appeared to be rising around the long awaited welterweight world title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, with the fighters' camps reportedly at odds over a proposed doping penalty.

Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that he was "a little puzzled and dismayed" that Mayweather wouldn't agree to the $5 million penalty Pacquiao had proposed should either fighter test positive for a banned drug.

Mayweather Promotions chief executive Leonard Ellerbe, however, told the newspaper that the drug testing protocol for the May 2 fight in Las Vegas had been "rigorously negotiated" by Pacquiao promoters Top Rank.

In comments to ESPN.com, Ellerbe called Koncz an "idiot."

"If this moron didn't convey his fighter's wishes when the negotiation was going on that's their problem," Ellerbe said. "This is a lame-ass attempt to generate publicity."

Drug testing was an issue in attempts to put a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight together in late 2009 and early 2010.

Mayweather wanted random Olympic-style blood and urine testing, but Pacquiao objected to some of the protocols and the deal disintegrated.

Mayweather later accused the Filipino ring icon of using performance-enhancing drugs, a charge which Pacquiao denied.

Pacquiao sued Mayweather over the accusation and the two settled out of court.

Drug-testing differences have been just part of the long and winding road to the May 2 match-up between the two fighters widely considered the best pound-for-pound fighters of their generation.

The bout has required rival telecasters Showtime and HBO to work together to produce a fight considered a lock to break all records for pay-per-view viewers and revenue.

Pacquiao, a two-term Congressman from Sarangani province in the Philippines, is 57-5 with two drawn and 38 knockouts while Mayweather is 47-0 with 26 knockouts.

Last week, the US Anti-Doping Agency said both fighters had agreed to undergo Olympic-style random drug testing prior to the bout.

Mayweather has submitted to USADA testing for all of his bouts since 2010.

Both fighters must provide USADA with their whereabouts and make themselves available for blood and urine tests for drugs including human growth hormone (HGH) and the blood-boosting erythropoietin (EPO).

Pacquiao first suggested the reciprocal fine for a failed drug test as extra insurance that a doping issue wouldn't scupper the fight that fans worldwide have clamored for.

But Ellerbe charged the arrangement was an attempt to "put a $5 million price tag if Manny tested positive."

"It will cost Manny a lot more than some $5 million if he comes up positive," Ellerbe said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why measles is a danger for adults, not just kids

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Doctors say the recent measles outbreak isn’t just a threat for children — it is a danger for adults as well.

A Los Angeles Times report showed that 59 percent of the confirmed cases in the current U.S. outbreak are adults 20 years old and older.

Most of them had no record of being immunized.

Infected adults pose a greater threat to the public than children, because they travel and come into contact with more people.

They also say many adults who were vaccinated against measles as children may need a second vaccination when they’re older — depending on the levels of antibodies in their blood.

Dr. Herminigildo Valle, the chief of staff at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Calif. told Balitang America that the strength of a measles vaccinations from childhood wears off over time.

“Vaccines have about a 3 percent failure rate. So even if they have the vaccination, they can still get the disease, although not at bad, and not as contagious as someone who wasn’t vaccinated,” Dr. Valle said.

He added: “There’s been reports that within 10 years the level of immunization goes down to a certain point that the antibodies cannot be detected.”

Read more on Balitang America. http://www.balitangamerica.tv/

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Kobe Paras nets 30 as Phantoms advance to finals

MANILA, Philippines – Cathedral High School marched to the title game of the San Fernando Invitational Tournament on Tuesday night after beating Alemany High School, 77-67.

Kobe Paras scored 30 points as the Phantoms led by as many as 24 points in the second half.

Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times reported that Paras received "M-V-P" chants from Cathedral fans thanks to his performance, which included two dunks.

"I'm feeling more comfortable. The first game, I did pretty bad," Paras told the LA Times. The Filipino youngster only scored four points in his first game for Cathedral.

"I just practiced a lot and listened to what coach wanted me to do," he added.

The five-day tournament features 20 teams from Southern California.

Cathedral, which features several top-ranked players including Fil-Am Jameel McGill, has blown out their opponents by more than 20 points in their first three games.

They will take on Chaminade High School in the finals. Chaminade is 8-0 so far, and defeated Crespi, 64-53, to advance to the finals.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

L.A. Times, other newspapers honored at journalism awards

The Los Angeles Times won newspaper of the year for 2011 at the California Newspaper Assn.'s annual Better Newspaper Contest.
The Times won first-place awards among newspapers with circulations of 150,000 or more in the following categories: local government coverage, investigative reporting, sports, and arts and entertainment. The paper also received second prize for design and general excellence in the contest sponsored by the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., a nonprofit trade group.
"It's an honor for The Times to be recognized and also to see all the incredible journalism being done by news organizations across the state," Times Editor Davan Maharaj said.

Maharaj singled out Times legal counsel Karlene Goller, who has been recognized by the CNPA for her work in press rights and public access. "So much of our best journalism we do is possible because Karlene fights for access and openness of public institutions," he said.

The San Jose Mercury News won first place for general excellence and local breaking news. The Contra Costa Times took the top prize for its coverage of the environment, while the Sacramento Bee won first place in the category of business, financial or economic news.

Other winners included the Press-Enterprise of Riverside, which took home 13 prizes in the 25,00 to 150,000 circulation category, and the Mercury News, which won 11 awards in all.

The Times was awarded the inaugural newspaper of the year award, which was based on a point system.

The annual contest is designed to judge papers of similar size against one another in various categories, such as local breaking news and photography. More than 3,000 entries are received each year.

Winners of the 2011 awards were announced during a luncheon at the association's annual summit in San Jose.

source: latimes.com