Authorities

With his photogenic wife at his side and a willingness to make eye contact and engage in small talk, Xi Jinping looks more like an American politician than the gray suits who populate the upper ranks of Chinese politics. One of his first acts as head of the Chinese Communist Party last year was to ban long speeches, banquets and red carpets. But during his first months in power, Xi has proved himself more hard-line on a number of issues than his recent predecessors. He has tightened censorship in academia and the media, and spearheaded China's territorial assertions in the South China and East China seas.

The semiautomatic weapon used in the Santa Monica shooting rampage appears to have been put together from various parts, possibly in an attempt to circumvent the state's restrictions on such guns, law enforcement sources said Wednesday. While certain types of AR-15-style rifles are banned in California, it's legal to purchase parts that can be used to assemble and customize the guns. Santa Monica police have said John Zawahri, 23, used an AR-15-style gun during the attack and was also carrying a .44-caliber handgun.

WASHINGTON - The massive leaks about U.S. spying systems caused sharp political and legal aftershocks Tuesday as the Justice Department prepared to file criminal charges against Edward Snowden, a government contractor who has publicly admitted disclosing highly classified telephone and Internet data-gathering operations. The vast scope of the government surveillance sparked the first federal lawsuit challenging its legality, a bipartisan effort in the Senate to declassify secret court orders that authorize the operations, and requests from Google and Facebook for permission to disclose more about National Security Agency requests for users' emails and other online communications.

The lost bulldog being sought in West Hollywood ought to be hard to miss. It's pink. It's wearing sneakers on its front paws. It has a water bottle strapped onto its back. Oh, yeah. And it weighs 200 pounds. Authorities say the bulldog is actually one of six sculptures placed last week in a Santa Monica Boulevard median in advance of last Sunday's gay pride parade. They said the pink pooch was stolen early Monday, perhaps as a prank. The bulldogs - three pink ones and three red ones - were cast in resin by Belgian artist William Sweetlove.

After a jury handed him a death sentence in 1989, the serial killer known as the Night Stalker reacted with a shrug. "Big deal," said Richard Ramirez, a devil-worshiping drifter whose spree of break-in murders terrorized California in mid-1980s. "Death always went with the territory. " The end turned out to be much further away and different than Ramirez likely envisioned that day. After more than two decades on death row, Ramirez died Friday morning of natural causes at Marin General Hospital, state corrections officials said.

Authorities on Thursday significantly increased the number of homes destroyed by the Powerhouse fire to 24, more than double the previous estimate. Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Anthony Akins attributed the rise in damage to a survey by ground crews that were able to explore the burn area more fully mid-week. All 24 of the destroyed homes were in or around Lake Hughes. Atkins said the newly discovered destruction was in a nearby canyon. The fire also claimed 29 outbuildings when erratic winds drove the flames toward the hamlets of Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake and surrounding areas overnight Saturday.

At Olympic High, Santa Monica's alternative school for students who have struggled in traditional programs, inappropriate behavior is not uncommon. But what a veteran English teacher saw on the computer screen of a student named John Zawahri stopped him cold. The solitary teen who regularly ditched class was surfing the Internet for assault weapons, the teacher recalled Monday. Alarmed, he sent Zawahri to the principal's office. Within days, the police were involved and Zawahri was admitted to UCLA's psychiatric ward.

The gig : Andrew Wiederhorn is the chairman and chief executive of Fatburger Inc., a fast-food restaurant chain based in Beverly Hills. The first Fatburger opened on Western Avenue in Los Angeles in 1947 and gained notoriety when rappers Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. all mentioned the restaurant in songs. Since 2003, Fatburger has been owned by Fog Cutter Capital Group Inc., a Santa Monica investment company of which Wiederhorn is also chairman and CEO. Self-starter : Wiederhorn grew up in a single-parent family in Portland; his father died when he was age 9. In high school, he hired a lawyer to help him get permits to rent out jet-skis on the Willamette River.

Police are investigating a shallow grave discovered off a freeway embankment in Downey as a homicide, authorities said Monday. The grave was found about 4:45 p.m. Sunday off the 105 Freeway near Bellflower Boulevard, authorities said. A California Highway Patrol deputy found the grave and notified local police. Downey Police Department homicide detectives have taken over the investigation, authorities said. The identity and description of the remains were not immediately available.

The White fire that burned nearly 2,000 acres in Santa Barbara County this week was started accidentally, officials said Friday. The blaze was sparked by embers that escaped from an approved fire-use site at the White Rock Day Use Area in the Santa Barbara Ranger District's Lower Santa Ynez Recreation Area, a joint investigation by Los Padres National Forest officials and the district attorney's Arson Task Force found. Preliminary estimates put the cost of the fire at $3 million.

WASHINGTON - Conservative Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte announced her support Sunday for the Senate's bipartisan immigration overhaul, lending momentum to the comprehensive measure. "Our immigration system is completely broken," the New Hampshire lawmaker said on CBS' "Face the Nation. " "This is a thoughtful, bipartisan solution to a tough problem. " Ayotte, who was elected in 2010, is the first Republican to endorse the measure apart from the four in the Senate's so-called Gang of Eight who crafted the bill: Sens.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles E. Schumer, awakened from a nap in his office, bounded to the Senate floor, staff in tow. It was approaching 2 a.m. The New Yorker joined fellow Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, who was presiding wearily over an almost empty chamber. The two senators and six others, Republicans and Democrats, had finished writing the most comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws in a generation. Now the bill was ready to be introduced. "I would like to thank everybody ... who worked so hard on this great legislation whose voyage begins now," Schumer said.

Authorities on Thursday significantly increased the number of homes destroyed by the Powerhouse fire to 24, more than double the previous estimate. Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Anthony Akins attributed the rise in damage to a survey by ground crews that were able to explore the burn area more fully mid-week. All 24 of the destroyed homes were in or around Lake Hughes. Atkins said the newly discovered destruction was in a nearby canyon. The fire also claimed 29 outbuildings when erratic winds drove the flames toward the hamlets of Lake Hughes and Elizabeth Lake and surrounding areas overnight Saturday.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The new Palestinian Authority prime minister is a British-educated academic with no political experience who will be charged with forming the fifth Palestinian government since 2006. But the tenure of Rami Hamdallah, 54, who has served since 1998 as president of An Najah National University in Nablus, may be short-lived because Palestinian leaders say they hope to form yet another new government in as few as three months. On Sunday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas named Hamdallah to replace Salam Fayyad, who had served in the post since 2007 before resigning in frustration in April.

The White fire that burned nearly 2,000 acres in Santa Barbara County this week was started accidentally, officials said Friday. The blaze was sparked by embers that escaped from an approved fire-use site at the White Rock Day Use Area in the Santa Barbara Ranger District's Lower Santa Ynez Recreation Area, a joint investigation by Los Padres National Forest officials and the district attorney's Arson Task Force found. Preliminary estimates put the cost of the fire at $3 million.

Switzerland has proposed a bill that it says paves the way for the country's banks, including Credit Suisse Group and Julius Baer Group, to resolve a tax-evasion dispute with the U.S. The bill authorizes Swiss banks to cooperate with U.S. authorities and transfer information while safeguarding the banks' interests, the government said in a statement Wednesday. The Swiss Parliament will consider the bill as soon as next week and it could take effect July 1. "The sense of urgency is because preparations were being made for more banks to be made responsible," Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told reporters in Bern, Switzerland.

A crew of burglars allegedly walked away with at least $6 million by cutting through the rooftops of San Gabriel Valley banks under the cover of darkness, according to law enforcement authorities. On Wednesday, authorities announced five Inland Empire men had been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the unusual bank heists. The arrests came after investigators searched for clues for more than a year and gathered DNA evidence from crime scenes. "It is one of the most elaborate crimes we have seen," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said at a news conference.

A man who allegedly brandished a handgun and shot at a deputy was killed in Lynwood when a deputy fired back, authorities said Tuesday night. The suspect was walking in the 4000 block of Agnes Street when he came into contact with at least one deputy shortly after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. The man opened fire, according to the department, prompting a deputy to return fire.  The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Pamela Devitt was taking a morning walk through her neighborhood earlier this month when a pack of pit bulls mauled her. The retired office manager suffered 150 to 200 puncture wounds in the fatal attack. When the first sheriff's deputy arrived on the scene in the Antelope Valley town of Littlerock, he saw Devitt on the ground with one of the dogs still mauling her. On Thursday, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office charged the dogs' owner with murder. Prosecutors could not recall ever filing a similar murder case, but said the incident warranted such serious charges because the owner's dogs had attacked others before mauling Devitt.

Jack Vance, who penned his first short stories while serving in the U.S. Merchant Marine in the 1940s and became a prolific, award-winning author of elaborate works of science fiction, fantasy and mystery, has died. He was 96. Vance died Sunday at his home in Oakland of what his son John Holbrook Vance II described as complications of old age. "Everything just finally caught up with him," his son said. Among his best-known works was "The Dying Earth," a collection of linked fantasy stories first published in 1950 that told of life on the planet in the far distant future, with a weak sun ever in danger of burning out. Complete with heroic quests and magical duels, it is considered to have influenced many more recent fantasy writers, including "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin, and was later expanded into several novels.