Inmates escape California jail

Inmates escape California jail

LOS ANGELES

Three inmates escaped from a Southern California maximum-security jail by cutting through half-inch steel bars and rappelling from the roof by a makeshift rope, authorities said Saturday as they continued hunting for the men, who include a purported killer.

“It was very well-thought-out and planned,” Orange County sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Hallock said Saturday at a news conference.

The inmates were last seen at 5 a.m. Friday at the Orange County Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles. They could have escaped any time between then and late Friday night.

Boy, 5, killed in Wis. road attack

BELOIT, Wis.

A 5-year-old boy riding in the back seat of his father’s car in southern Wisconsin was killed after an SUV pulled up alongside them and someone opened fire, authorities said.

Police were searching Saturday for the person responsible for the attack, which happened Friday night in Beloit, a city 65 miles southwest of Milwaukee along the Illinois border. The boy, who the Rock County medical examiner’s office identified Saturday as Austin Ramos Jr., was shot at least once in the abdomen and died at a hospital.

He died from “firearm- related trauma” and investigators were conducting additional testing, the medical examiner’s office said in its news release.

Egypt warns against unrest

CAIRO

Egypt’s president, speaking ahead of next week’s anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, vowed Saturday to unleash a firm response to any unrest and to press ahead with the fight against the country’s Islamic militants.

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi spoke at a ceremony marking Police Day, which is Monday, the date the uprising began five years ago.

He posthumously decorated nearly 40 policemen killed in militant attacks, including eight generals and three colonels.

Leaking gas well ordered shut down

LOS ANGELES

The Southern California Gas Co. was ordered Saturday to permanently close and seal a storage well that’s poured natural gas into the air over a Los Angeles neighborhood for months and driven thousands from their homes.

A hearing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District also ordered the utility to fund an independent health study for residents of the Porter Ranch neighborhood and inspect all 115 wells at the Aliso Canyon storage facility to help prevent future leaks.

Salads packaged in Ohio tied to 1 death

WASHINGTON

Packaged salads produced at a Dole facility in Ohio are linked to one death in Michigan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

The CDC said 12 people in six states have been hospitalized in the outbreak since July after eating salads sold under the names Dole, Fresh Selections, Simple Truth, Marketside, The Little Salad Bar and President’s Choice.

The CDC said it linked the outbreak to the Dole salads this month after Ohio agriculture officials found listeria in a bag bought at a retail location. The strain of listeria was “highly related genetically” to the listeria that had made people sick.

The CDC said Dole had stopped all production at the Springfield, Ohio, plant and is withdrawing packaged salads on the market that were produced there. Consumers can identify the salads by the letter “A” at the beginning of the manufacturing code on the packages.

Associated Press