California

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- A wildfire starting Friday from a prescribed burn in Santa Cruz County, U.S. northern California, was 83 acres (about 0.33 square km) large and 25 percent contained, fire officials said on Saturday.

The Estrada fire, burning between Watsonville and Morgan Hill above Hazel Del Road near Santa Clara County, was "part of the" Estrada Ranch Prescribed Burn, according to Cecile Juliette, a spokesperson for the San Mateo and Santa Cruz Unit (CZU) of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

LOS ANGELES (AP) — New York real estate heir Robert Durst, who days ago was sentenced in a two-decade-old murder case, has been hospitalized after contracting COVID-19, his lawyer said Saturday,

Defense Attorney Dick DeGuerin said he was notified that Durst was admitted after testing positive for the coronavirus. DeGuerin told multiple media outlets that Durst is on a ventilator. Additional details on his condition were not immediately made available.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hoping to recover a lost anchor chain, a work boat dragged a grappling hook along the seabed near an oil platform off the Southern California coast. But it hooked something else -- a pipeline carrying crude oil from the towering rig to shore.

Once snagged, the 197-foot (60-meter) boat dragged the pipeline until it snapped on one of the drilling platform’s legs. The gushing oil created a slick that ran for miles along the Ventura County coast northwest of Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — New York real estate heir Robert Durst was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without chance of parole for the murder of his best friend more that two decades ago.

Durst, 78, was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court last month of first-degree murder for shooting Susan Berman point-blank in the back of the head at her home in December 2000.

SOLVANG, Calif. (AP) — A major highway in Southern California coastal mountains remained closed Wednesday and evacuation orders were in place as a growing wildfire chewed through dry vegetation in the region.

More than 760 firefighters battled the Alisal Fire, which covered 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) along the south Santa Barbara County coast and was only 5% contained, county fire officials said.

SANTEE, Calif. (AP) — A twin-engine plane that killed at least two people and left a swath of destruction in a San Diego suburb nose-dived into the ground after repeated warnings that it was flying dangerously low, according to a recording.

The Cessna 340 smashed into a UPS van, killing the driver, and then hit houses just after noon Monday in Santee, a suburb of 50,000 people. The pilot also is believed to have died, and at least two people on the ground were hurt, including a woman who was helped out the window of a burning home by neighbors.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It took little more than 48 hours from the moment a major oil spill was discovered off Southern California until the first lawsuit was filed against the Houston company that owns and operates the ruptured pipeline.

Finding the cause, who is to blame and if they will be held accountable will take much longer.

Several federal and state agencies are investigating in parallel as they seek the cause of the pipe rupture, how quickly pipeline operators responded and determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Richard Beach stayed clear of the ocean for several days after an undersea pipeline leaked crude into the waters off Southern California, sending a foul smell across the shore.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- A nuclear-powered U.S. Navy fast-attack submarine was damaged after it "struck an object" while submerged in waters in the Indo-Pacific region on Oct. 2, the U.S. Navy said in a statement on Thursday.

The Seawolf-class submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) "remains in a safe and stable condition" and its "nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational," the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in the statement.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Investigators searching for the cause of an oil pipeline break off the Southern California coast have pointed to the possibility that a ship anchor dragged the line across the seabed and cracked it, but two videos released so far provide only tantalizing clues about what might have happened 100 feet (30 meters) below the ocean surface.