Fish dead by the millions!

LOS ANGELES —

Biologists have tentatively concluded that the fish died from oxygen deprivation after being driven by a storm into a closed-off pier area, California Department of Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan told Reuters.

"It looks like they just swam in the wrong direction and ended up in a corner of the pier that doesn't have any free-flowing oxygen in it," Hughan said.

"There's nothing that appears to be out of sorts, no oil sheen no chemicals, no sign of any kind of illegal activity," Hughan said. "As one fisherman just told me, this is natural selection."

Hughan said such incidents were rare but not unheard of.

While biologists investigated, authorities were beginning the job of removing the fish from the water, using buckets and nets.

A skip loader then carried them to big trash bins. Officials initially estimated there were millions of fish, but Fish and Game roughly estimated about a million.

City officials estimated the cleanup would cost $100,000. Fire Chief Dan Madrigal said the fish would be taken to a landfill specializing in organic materials.

On the water, nature was tackling the problem in other ways.

"The seals are gorging themselves," Hughan said.

Large groups of other fish could be seen nibbling at the floating mats of dead creatures.

"The sea's going to recycle everything. It's the whole circle-of-life thing," Hughan said.

Sardines and other small fish in the hundreds of thousands washed up dead overnight in the harbor area of Redondo Beach, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, puzzling authorities and triggering a cleanup effort. Local television news footage showed the mass of dead fish, said by a police spokesman to be about a foot deep on the surface, choking the waters in and around dozens of private boat slips in the King Harbor Marina.

Mcdonalds has been beat!

There are now more Subway restaurants in the world than McDonald's (MCD) locations.

Subway had 33,749 shops by the end of last year, The Wall Street Journal reports, while McDonald's had 32,737. That makes Subway the largest restaurant chain in the world. The sandwich giant has 600 locations in the Los Angeles area alone.

And so McDonald's loses a title it has held since the early 1970s, when extensive advertising and a massive growth spurt helped it become the largest fast-food chain. But McDonald's appears to be a gracious loser in this case. We "are committed to being better, not just bigger," a spokeswoman told the Journal.

How did Subway do it? By adopting the same strategy that propelled McDonald's decades ago. It spends heavily on advertising to stay in the American diner's consciousness. And it has expanded rapidly through the same franchisee model that McDonald's favors

Rebels advancing toward capital fight Libya forces.

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan warplanes launched airstrikes and forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi engaged in fierce ground battles Sunday with a rebel force advancing west toward the capital Tripoli along the country's Mediterranean coastline.

Government forces attacked rebels in Bin Jawad, a town between rebel-held Ras Lanuf in central Libya and Sirte on the coast, rebel fighters said. The area could prove to be a decisive battleground.

Associated Press reporters witnessed airstrikes on the rebel forces and heavy fighting on the ground. One fighter, returning wounded from Bin Jawad, said the Gadhafi loyalists had attacked with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). Asked what he had seen, he replied: "Death." Distraught, he would not say any more.

Ambulances rushed casualties from Bin Jawad to Ras Lanuf, an oil port 410 miles east of Tripoli. The rebels took Ras Lanuf on Friday.

Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown, is less than 60 miles west of Bin Jawad.

Earlier, thousands of Gadhafi's supporters poured into the streets of Tripoli, waving flags and firing their guns in the air in the Libyan leader's main stronghold. The city woke to the crackle of heavy machine-gun fire that rattled the capital before dawn.

Libyan authorities said the unusually heavy gunfire that began around 5:30 a.m. was celebratory, claiming that government forces had retaken the oil port of Ras Lanouf and the western city of Misrata. But residents in both cities said the opposition remained in control.

Some 2,000 people were in the streets Sunday and hundreds drove past the Bab al-Aziziya military camp where Gadhafi lives, waving flags and cheering. Armed men in plainclothes were standing at the gates, also shooting in the air. It was not known if Gadhafi was in Tripoli.