Bodies

An 18-year-old Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student was found dead in the surf at UC Santa Barbara , officials said Monday. The Santa Barbara County coroner's office plans to perform a toxicology screening on the body of Giselle Esme Ayala of Santa Rosa, officials said. She was found by a jogger Saturday morning in the water just west of Campus Point at the UC Santa Barbara campus. Ayala's friends had not seen her since 11 p.m. Friday and reported her missing the next evening.

SANTIAGO, Chile - Chilean authorities on Monday exhumed the body of Pablo Neruda to check claims by a former chauffeur that the Nobel Prize-winning poet may have been killed by government agents shortly after the 1973 overthrow of his friend, President Salvador Allende. Under a special tent and wearing protective clothing, a team of forensic pathologists that included a U.S. toxicologist gathered in the coastal resort town of Isla Negra to oversee the exhumation. Neruda died on Sept.

A body was discovered inside a burning car early Friday morning in Anaheim, and authorities are investigating the case as a homicide, police said. Shortly after 3 a.m., Anaheim police started receiving phone calls reporting a series of explosions in the 100 block of South Westchester Drive, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said. Callers also reported that a car was on fire. Dunn said the first police officer on the scene witnessed one of the explosions and saw glass from the white compact vehicle shatter across the roadway.

The Riverside City College student body president convicted of kidnapping and committing lewd acts with a child confirmed his status as a sex offender Thursday. But Doug Figueroa, 40, emphasized that he pleaded guilty, in part so that he “could immediately engage in … proactive change in my life.” In an email to The Times, Figueroa said he enrolled in school and became involved on campus to help foster that change. “My heart does go out to any victim of any kind of abuse,” he wrote in the email.

The Riverside City College student body president is a registered sex offender who has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and committing lewd acts with a child less than 14 years old. School officials knew about the status of Doug Robert Figueroa, 40, prior to his run for office, but in a statement, they said they had “determined that there was no policy, statute or ordinance that could prohibit this student from seeking office as student body president”...

A man whose body was found dangling outside a downtown Sacramento office tower may have been a tagger, authorities said. At some point Monday morning, it appears the man tied a rope around himself, authorities said. However, he was tied in a seated position like a rappeller. The rope was tied off with a window washing anchor, and fire officials believe that that anchor could have held his weight. But they don't think he was a window washer. Around 7:45 a.m., a person in another building reported seeing the man hanging near 12th and K streets.

L.A. County sheriff's detectives are looking into whether the death of a man whose body was found in a Pico Rivera alley is a homicide. The body was found about 6:30 a.m Sunday in the 4800 block of Layman Avenue, the department said. Sheriff's detectives did not identify the body. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS. ALSO: Cesar Chavez honored with Google doodle Seven injured after sheriff's patrol car crashes into van Major flaws found in  GPS ankle monitors used for high-risk sex offenders Twitter: @nicolesantacruz nicole.santacruz@latimes.com

T-shirts were once novelty items: Disneyland giveaways for deeply uncool vacationers, concert keepsakes for the young and disheveled, kitschy thrift-store finds for young women with hair in Princess Leia buns. But in the last decade the garments have transcended that reputation, becoming refined wardrobe staples for everyone, everywhere. Arguably this phenomenon started in L.A., with C&C California. The T-shirt company launched in 2002 out of the homes of founders Cheyann Benedict and Claire Stansfield.

Saoirse (pronounced SIR-sha, "like inertia") Ronan plays an alien and a human in the same body in the new romantic sci-fi film "The Host," based on a book by "Twilight" series author Stephenie Meyer. Ronan, who turns 19 in April, is already a seasoned thespian, with an Oscar nod for her performance in 2007's "Atonement. " Are you a fan of the "Twilight" vampire romance book and film series and its author, Stephenie Meyer? Is that what drew you to "The Host"? Yes, that was definitely one of the draws for me to work with Stephenie.

A SigAlert was issued Thursday morning for the bus lane on the southbound 101 Freeway at Western Avenue after a body was found there, the California Highway Patrol said. About 6:05 a.m., a 35-year-old man apparently jumped to his death from the Western Avenue overpass onto the bus lane below, police said. The bus lane will be closed until about 8 a.m. but all other lanes will remain open. The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating. The incident marks the second death on the 101 Freeway in a week.