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DEKLE BEACH, Fla. >> Tropical Storm Hermine was intensifying Saturday as it moved slowly up the Atlantic Coast with heavy rains, wind and storm surges making a mess of the holiday. Hermine (her-MEEN) already caused 2 deaths, damaged homes and businesses and left hundreds of thousands without electricity from Florida to Virginia. “This is not a beach weekend for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic to the northeast,” said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Hermine was centered 90 miles east of Duck, North Carolina, with top sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), moving east at 10 mph (17 kph). Tropical Storm Waings were in effect as fa...

BIG BEAR LAKE >> A magnitude-3.4 earthquake was reported Tuesday moing in the Big Bear area, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The shaker was reported at 7:25 a.m., almost 20 miles north northeast of the mountain community. There were no reports of damage as of 7:30 a.m. Advertisement Let's block ads! بخوانید...

AMATRICE, Italy — A strong earthquake in central Italy reduced three towns to rubble as people slept early Wednesday, killing at least 73 people and injuring hundreds more as rescue crews raced to dig out survivors with bulldozers and their bare hands. • PHOTOS: Devastation after earthquake strikes Italy The toll was likely to rise as crews reached homes in more remote hamlets where the scenes were apocalyptic “like Dante’s Infeo,” according to one witness. Complicating matters was that the area is a popular vacation spot in summer, with populations swelling, making the number of people in the area at the time difficult to estimate. “The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the ma...

AMATRICE, ITALY >> A strong earthquake rocked central Italy early Wednesday, collapsing homes on top of residents as they slept. At least 11 people were reported dead in two hard-hit towns where rescue crews raced to dig out survivors from the rubble, but the toll was expected to rise as crews reached homes in harder-to-reach hamlets. “The town isn’t here anymore,” Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi said. The magnitude 6 quake struck at 3:36 a.m. and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including the capital Rome where residents felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks. The temblor was felt from the Lazio region into Umbria and Le Marche on the Adriatic coast. The hardest-hit...

SAN FERNANDO >> A Long Beach man convicted of murdering a Cal State Northridge student from Saudi Arabia who had placed an online advertisement about a car he was trying to sell is scheduled to be sentenced this moing. Agustin Rosendo Feandez, now 30, was convicted June 9 of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Abdullah Abdullatif Alkadi, whose body was discovered along a freeway in Palm Desert in 2014. Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations that the 23- year-old engineering student was murdered during the commission of a robbery and carjacking, along with an allegation that Feandez used a knife as a deadly weapon. The Los Angeles County District Attoey’s...

When Keldren Joshua stepped out of his mother’s gray hatchback, he greeted family and friends who had waited a decade to see him on the free side of a prison fence. “Hi, everybody,” he said. The 45-year-old was arrested in Los Angeles for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams of methamphetamine and sentenced in 2006 to 15 years in prison after his mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years was extended because of outstanding traffic warrants. He became one of more than 200 nonviolent federal prisoners whose sentences were commuted last week by President Barack Obama, and Wednesday, made his exit from the federal prison on Terminal Island in San Pedro to a waiting group of family and friends. Birth...

Kristin Armstrong had just put together another golden effort in an Olympic time trial, this time slicing through driving wind and rain, when her 5-year-old son approached her at the finish. “Mama,” Lucas asked, “why are you crying? You won!” Once again. The American cyclist made it three consecutive gold medals on Wednesday, the ageless wonder conquering a brutal course at the Rio Games. Her time of 44 minutes, 26.42 seconds topped reigning bronze medalist Olga Zabelinskaya of Russia by the slimmest of margins: 5.55 seconds. As for the tears, well, “that’s a great question from a 5-year-old,” Armstrong said with her now-familiar grin. “That’s what we do, we cry when we’re happy. “I’m going...

TOKYO >> Japan summoned Chinese diplomats Saturday to protest after six Chinese coast guard vessels approached disputed East China Sea islands accompanying a fleet of hundreds of Chinese fishing boats. Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it filed the protest after the Japanese coast guard spotted the vessels Saturday along with a fleet of 230 Chinese fishing boats swarming around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. China also claims the islands, which it calls the Diaoyu. Japan was demanding that the ships leave the area. Three of the Chinese coast guard vessels were armed with what appeared to be gun batteries, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said. The Chinese fleet has n...

The city on Thursday will unveil new protected bike lanes in North Long Beach along Artesia Boulevard from Orange to Atlantic avenues. The lanes are the first to be constructed in the Artesia Bike Lane Project, and will eventually extend east on Artesia to the city’s border at Downey Avenue. “These protected bike lanes are another impressive milestone for our city, and an example of what we would like to see done throughout Long Beach,” Mayor Robert Garcia said in a written statement. “By creating additional protected bike lanes and expanding our bicycle network, we are ensuring our streets contribute to community life and our overall livability.” The lanes are located between the curb and ...

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korean space officials are hard at work on a five-year plan to put more advanced satellites into orbit by 2020, and don’t intend to stop there: They’re also aiming for the moon, and beyond. In an interview with The Associated Press, a senior official at North Korea’s version of NASA said inteational sanctions won’t stop the country from launching more satellites by 2020, and that he hopes to see the North Korean flag on the moon within the next 10 years. “Even though the U.S. and its allies try to block our space development, our aerospace scientists will conquer space and definitely plant the flag of the DPRK on the moon,” said Hyon Kwang Il, director of the s...

The development company that brought a Dunkin’ Donut franchise to Long Beach may acquire former redevelopment agency parcels on the city’s north end. Frontier Real Estate Investments, a Newport Beach company, may spend $2.1 million to obtain city-owned land near the northeast coer of the Artesia Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue intersection. The 93,230-square-foot property is currently vacant, according to a city staff report. That report also reveals that Frontier Real Estate Investments may develop a bank and restaurant space at the site. Dan Almquist, one of the firms’ managing partners, said the firm has yet to nail down future tenants and has yet to begin marketing its plans to other busin...

For the past 17 years, Rich Ford has fed and monitored thousands of tiny white sea bass that swirl around two tanks of ocean water at the SEA Lab in Redondo Beach. The fingerlings arrive just 4 inches long from the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute’s hatchery in Carlsbad, where they are bred, tagged with metal microchips and sent to 13 “grow-out” facilities as part of a decades-long effort to rebuild the state’s white sea bass population after years of overfishing and habitat destruction. Once they reach 8-10 inches, Ford and other volunteers remove a handful of the fish at a time from their growing pens and put them in nets, haul them into a stainless-steel tank in a truck bed and then driv...

The vacant lot on the west side of Atlantic Avenue just north of 61st Street could soon become a mix of shopping and services. Westland Real Estate President Yanki Greenspan said he’s in talks with the city about developing the 60,000-square-foot lot with retail, banking and possibly housing. The lot, a former Redevelopment Agency parcel, is owned by the city and Westland is about a third of the way through a six-month period of exclusivity contract. During their period of exclusivity, Westland will work to “put forth a proposal for the city to work with,” according to Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, who represents the Ninth District in North Long Beach. Richardson said he’s excited to work with...

The vacant lot on the west side of Atlantic Avenue just north of 61st Street could soon become a mix of shopping and services. Westland Real Estate President Yanki Greenspan said he’s in talks with the city about developing the 60,000-square-foot lot with retail, banking and possibly housing. The lot, a former Redevelopment Agency parcel, is owned by the city and Westland is about a third of the way through a six-month period of exclusivity contract. During their period of exclusivity, Westland will work to “put forth a proposal for the city to work with,” according to Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, who represents the Ninth District in North Long Beach. Richardson said he’s excited to work with...

The vacant lot on the west side of Atlantic Avenue just north of 61st Street could soon become a mix of shopping and services. Westland Real Estate President Yanki Greenspan said he’s in talks with the city about developing the 60,000-square-foot lot with retail, banking and possibly housing. The lot, a former Redevelopment Agency parcel, is owned by the city and Westland is about a third of the way through a six-month period of exclusivity contract. During their period of exclusivity, Westland will work to “put forth a proposal for the city to work with,” according to Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, who represents the Ninth District in North Long Beach. Richardson said he’s excited to work with...

SAN DIEGO >> Thousands of comic and pop culture fans cheered as Kylo Ren stopped battling with young Jakku scavenger, Rey, during Saturday night’s Comic-Con Inteational’s Masquerade costume contest, got down on one knee and asked her to be his bride and she said yes. “They were so loud you just couldn’t hear anything,” recalled Robert Monroe, 34, from Santa Clarita who convinced his usually shy and introverted girlfriend, Aly Ayers, 25, of New York to participate in the Comic-Con staple for cosplayers. “I got a little nervous because I couldn’t figure out what she said, but then a realized she had said yes and I picked her up and spun her around.” Monroe and Ayers aren’t the first to ...

North Neighborhood Library in Long Beach is scheduled to close at the end of the month so workers can move the branch’s books and other collections to the plaed Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library. Long Beach city officials aounced the plans on Tuesday. North Neighborhood Library is at 5571 Orange Avenue and it’s set to close at 4 p.m. July 31. Anyone who has checked out materials from North Neighborhood Library may retu them to that branch’s book drops, or take the materials to another Long Beach city library. Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library is scheduled to open at 10 a.m. Sept. 10 at 5870 Atlantic Ave. The new library is plaed to open on the former site of Atlantic Theater, and the ol...

LOS ANGELES >> The FBI is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a 27-year-old man with ties to Los Angeles and Orange counties who is suspected of killing his wife at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The body of Iris Armstrong, a human resources specialist assigned to the 189th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 82nd Airboe Division Sustainment Brigade, was discovered July 6 in the Nijmegen neighborhood home on Fort Bragg she shared with Jason Earl Armstrong Jr., according to the FBI. The FBI said James Armstrong allegedly killed his wife on July 1. A federal arrest warrant was issued in the U.S. District Court in the Easte District of North Carolina on July ...

A man crashed a Mercedes-Benz at the end of a police chase late Friday, holding a box cutter to his throat during a two-hour-plus standoff with a SWAT team, police said. The driver was initially pursued for reckless driving about 4:30 p.m. but managed to elude officers, said Long Beach Police Department Sgt. James Richardson. The vehicle was again spotted about 5 p.m. “and the driver fled again,” Richardson said. A short pursuit began in the 2900 block of 65th Street and extended into Bellflower, Richardson said. The Mercedes-Benz struck a vehicle at the intersection of Artesia and Lakewood boulevards in Bellflower, spurring a four-car accident, resulting in one of the other drivers sufferi...

A woman who may have deliberately placed herself in danger was taken to a hospital in critical condition Wednesday night after being struck by a vehicle in North Long Beach, authorities said. The pedestrian, whose name was not released, was walking in traffic about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday near the crossing of 56th Street and Cherry Avenue, according to Long Beach Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Pratt. Officers who responded to a report of the woman’s walking in the roadway discovered she had been struck by a vehicle before they arrived. The driver of the vehicle that hit the woman remained at the scene. Early indications suggest the woman appeared to be suicidal, but the incident remains u...