LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Police in riot gear and biohazard suits removed anti-Wall Street activists from their camp at Los Angeles City Hall Wednesday, arresting nearly 300 people and fencing off the area.

On the East Coast, about 100 Occupy protesters in Philadelphia swiftly and peacefully vacated their encampment overnight, but police later arrested 52 around the city on charges ranging from obstructing a highway to assaulting a police officer, officials said.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Police in riot gear and biohazard suits removed anti-Wall Street activists from an encampment outside the Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday, arresting dozens of people as they enforced the mayor’s eviction order.

Busloads of police closed in on the 8-week-old camp after midnight and declared the hundreds of protesters congregated on the lawn, sidewalks and streets around City Hall to be an “unlawful assembly,” ordering them to disperse or face arrest.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Police in riot gear and biohazard suits removed anti-Wall Street activists from an encampment outside the Los Angeles City Hall on Wednesday, arresting at least a dozen people as they enforced the mayor’s eviction order.

Busloads of police closed in on the 8-week-old camp after midnight and declared the hundreds of protesters congregated on the lawn, sidewalks and streets around City Hall to be an “unlawful assembly,” ordering them to disperse or face arrest.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Police in riot gear closed in on anti-Wall Street activists in Los Angeles early on Wednesday, determined to enforce the mayor’s order to evict protesters who have camped outside City Hall for the past eight weeks.

Hundreds of Occupy LA activists, joined by supporters streaming into the area in a show of solidarity, crowded the lawn, sidewalks and streets around City Hall as hundreds of helmeted officers moved into the encampment.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Throngs of anti-Wall Street protesters braced for eviction on Tuesday night from their encampment outside Los Angeles City Hall, as word spread by broadcast news reports and the Internet that a police raid was imminent.

Hundreds of Occupy LA activists, joined by supporters streaming into the area in a show of solidarity, stood crowding the lawn, sidewalks and streets around City Hall awaiting the expected arrival of police.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A man accused of killing eight people during a shooting spree at a Southern California hair salon in October pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to murder and attempted murder charges.

Scott Evans Dekraai, 42, entered his plea during a brief appearance in Orange County Superior Court at which a judge also set a preliminary hearing for April in the high-profile case.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Homicide detectives who have reopened an investigation into the death of Natalie Wood after three decades said on Friday that the film star’s husband, actor Robert Wagner, was not considered a suspect.

The new inquiry into Wood’s mysterious drowning off the California coast in 1981 comes amid new attention to the case on its 30th anniversary. The captain of the yacht she was on before her death now says that he lied to police at the time and holds Wagner responsible for her death.

LOS ANGELES, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Homicide detectives who
have reopened an inquiry into the death of Natalie Wood said on
Friday the film star’s husband, actor Robert Wagner, was not
considered a suspect in the case.

The new investigation was opened into Wood’s 1981 drowning
off the California coast after a yacht captain said he lied
about the incident three decades ago and now holds Wagner
responsible for her death.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Homicide investigators will reopen an investigation into the drowning death three decades ago of screen icon Natalie Wood, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said on Thursday.

The body of Wood, 43, was found floating in a Catalina Island cove in 1981, and her death was ruled an accidental drowning by the Los Angeles County Coroner.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Tensions were rising at anti-Wall Street protests in three western U.S. cities on Friday as demonstrators in Portland, Salt Lake City and Oakland defied orders by police to dismantle their camps.

In Portland, police said they had received reports that protesters were digging a reinforced hole and fashioning make-shift weapons out of wood and nails after Mayor Sam Adams gave them until midnight on Saturday to clear out of two downtown parks.