Rescues

He's one traffic accident victim that from now on will be watching for oncoming cars like a hawk. That's because the Hollywood resident that returned home Saturday after being hospitalized more than a month with injuries from a presumed car collision is a hawk. Wildlife experts from a Calabasas animal rehabilitation center returned a red-tailed hawk that had been injured in November to the busy urban neighborhood it calls home. The bronze and white bird was found Dec.

The calls and e-mails keep coming, and they are increasingly desperate: "I've lost my job. I'm losing my home. I can't afford to keep my horse. . . . Can you take it?" The answer is usually no, said Jill Starr, president of Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue in Lancaster. The ailing economy, soaring feed prices and the high cost of euthanizing old or sick animals are forcing many horse owners throughout Southern California to relinquish their pets, according to owners and caretakers.

The Navy SEALs who ended the pirate-hostage drama off Somalia with three deadly sniper shots began their training on a strip of the beach known as the Silver Strand. Every aspiring SEAL must pass a grueling six-month regimen at the facility here. Attrition is high: Only a quarter to half make it. Those who do then undergo another six months of advanced training. Given the elite nature of the SEALs, no one here was surprised at the success of the rescue mission, said Capt.

Search parties combed the San Fernando Valley for traces of the wounded victim. Outraged citizens pledged $6,000 of their own money for the perpetrator's capture. Posters pleading for leads in the case were plastered all over the city. But a week after the American white pelican was spotted with its beak punctured by an arrow, hope for the bird's rescue is running out.

It all happened so fast, and so easily. Oscar R. Gonzales, 24, had snowboarded on this mountain for years. He knew just how to maneuver 20 feet off the trail at Mountain High ski resort in northeast Los Angeles County and go speeding through a familiar grove of trees. This time, in thick powder at about 3 p.m. Friday, his board hit a rock. He plummeted 30 feet off the back side of the ridge, landing on another rock so hard that it carved a dark red welt on the skin of his back.

Fifteen illegal immigrants aboard a rickety boat were rescued by U.S. authorities off the San Diego coast Wednesday morning after an apparent botched maritime smuggling attempt. The dehydrated and sunburned passengers were taken off the 24-foot boat named "Seaulater" by federal authorities nearly a day and a half after leaving Rosarito Beach bound for Southern California, authorities said.

Snickers is only 8 months old. But the cocker spaniel already has spent three months adrift on a 48-foot boat and survived four months on a tiny Pacific atoll where his owners had to leave him behind when they were rescued by a cargo vessel that wouldn't allow the pup on board. Now Snickers is in Honolulu, rescued by cruise ship workers, the Humane Society, an airline, and others who have united to find him a home.

A gust of wind blew a 2-year-old in a stroller into Lake Michigan, where the boy remained submerged for at least 15 minutes before being pulled out unconscious but alive. The child's grandfather, who had been pushing the stroller on the lakeside Friday afternoon, jumped into the harbor to try to save the boy, the Chicago Fire Department said.

Divers managed to get inside a capsized ferry today but found only bodies and no survivors, three days after the vessel carrying more than 800 people capsized during a powerful typhoon, officials said. Philippine navy spokesman Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo would not speculate on whether anyone still might be found alive but indicated that the amount of time that had passed since the disaster made it unlikely. He said the ship's interior was too dark to even determine how many bodies were there.

Adam Deem was driving through burned brush in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest west of Redding when he spotted a black bear cub teetering oddly in the middle of the road. It was Thursday morning, weeks into the state's fire siege. Deem, a forester with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, grabbed a camera from the back seat and took a few photos. Then he noticed that the cub's fur was singed. Its paws looked badly burned.