A southern Philippine town plans to hold funeral rites for the world's largest saltwater crocodile and then preserve its remains in a museum to keep tourists coming and prevent their community from slipping back into obscurity, the town's mayor said Monday.

The 1-ton crocodile was declared dead Sunday a few hours after flipping over with a bloated stomach in a pond in an eco-tourism park in Bunawan town, which had started to draw tourists, revenue and development because of the immense reptile, Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said.

"The whole town, in fact the whole province, is mourning," Elorde said from Bunawan in Agusan del Sur province. "My phones kept ringing because people wanted to say how affected they are."

Guinness World Records had proclaimed it the largest saltwater crocodile in captivity last year, measuring the giant at 6.17 meters (20.24 feet). The reptile took the top spot from an Australian crocodile that measured more than 5 meters (17 feet) and weighed nearly a ton.

The crocodile was named Lolong, after a government environmental officer who died from a heart attack after traveling to Bunawan to help capture the beast. The crocodile, estimated to be more than 50 years old, was blamed for a few brutal deaths of villagers before Bunawan folk came to love it.

The giant reptile has come to symbolize the rich bio-diversity of Agusan marsh, where it was captured. The vast complex of swamp forests, shallow lakes, lily-covered ponds and wetlands is home to wild ducks, herons, egrets and threatened species like the Philippine Hawk Eagle.

Wildlife experts were to perform an autopsy as early as Monday to determine the cause of its death, Elorde said.

Bunawan villagers planned to perform a tribal ritual, which involves butchering chicken and pigs as funeral offerings to thank forest spirits for the fame and other blessings the crocodile has brought, Elordie said. A group of Christians would separately offer prayers before the autopsy.

The rites would be held at the eco-tourism park, where the reptile had emerged as a star attraction, drawing foreign tourists, scientists and wildlife reporting outfits like the National Geographic to Bunawan, a far-flung town of 37,000 people about 515 miles (830 kilometers) southeast of Manila.

The crocodile's capture in September 2011 sparked celebrations in Bunawan, but it also raised concerns that more giant crocodiles might lurk in a marshland and creek where villagers fish. The crocodile was captured with steel cable traps during a hunt prompted by the death of a child in 2009 and the later disappearance of a fisherman. Water buffalos have also been attacked by crocodiles in the area.

About 100 people led by Elorde pulled the crocodile from a creek using a rope and then hoisted it by crane onto a truck.

The manhunt for Christopher Dorner led LAPD SWAT officers to a Northridge Lowe's home improvement store after people reported seeing someone who resembled the fugitive former police officer there.

LAPD swarmed the store off Nordhoff Street about 5 p.m. Customers were escorted out of the store as police looked for any signs of Dorner.

LAPD stressed that it was an unconfirmed sighting.

There have been several reports similar to this one in recent days that didn't pan out.

The search came several hours after the LAPD issued a tactical alert as it handled the Dorner manhunt as well as security for the Grammys.

The LAPD did not detail its Grammy security arrangements, but the department regularly sends a large contingent of officers to awards shows.

This year, the Grammys occurred on the fifth day of a manhunt for Dorner, who is suspected of killing an Irvine couple and a Riverside police officer.

The tactical alert came the same day that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a $1-million reward for information leading to Dorner's capture.

“We will not tolerate anyone undermining the security of this community,” Villaraigosa said at a news conference at LAPD headquarters downtown. “We will not tolerate this reign of terror.”

Dorner allegedly carried out the slayings as part of a vengeful campaign sparked by his 2009 dismissal from the Los Angeles Police Department, authorities said.

Sunday's tactical alert was declared shortly after 2 p.m. In a tactical alert, officers can be held over on their shifts and do not respond to low-priority radio calls.

Officials hope the huge reward will give police the break they've been waiting for.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said the reward was "the largest local reward ever offered to our knowledge." The reason for such a significant reward, Beck said, was "not about capturing a fleeing suspect, but about preventing another crime, likely another murder."


"This is an act of domestic terrorism," Beck said of those killed and allegedly targeted by Dorner. "He has targeted those we entrust to protect the public."

A massive manhunt for Dorner began last week after the 33-year-old former officer and Navy veteran allegedly began a deadly campaign that has left an Irvine couple and a Riverside police officer dead.

The city of Los Angeles, law enforcement organizations, private groups and anonymous donors have all contributed to the reward fund, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.


Los Angeles County Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Mark Ridley-Thomas are expected to ask the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to contribute $100,000 to the fund, according to Tony Bell, an Antonovich spokesman.

In addition to Los Angeles officials, representatives from the Riverside and Irvine police departments and the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service attended the news conference.

The frustrating search for Dorner has gone from Riverside to Corona to Big Bear to Point Loma in San Diego. There have been numerous false starts, but officials say the heightened publicity has not brought them closer to making an arrest.

The smell of bacon was in the air Saturday as thousands converged on Iowa's capital city for an increasingly popular festival celebrating all things connected with the meat.

Some people wore Viking hats and others walked around with makeshift snouts for the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. The annual event featured more than 10,000 pounds of bacon served in unusual ways, such as chocolate-dipped bacon and bacon-flavored cupcakes and gelato.

"I love bacon more than I love my job," said Katie Nordquist, who was dressed in a tuxedo T-shirt that looked like bacon Saturday for her first time at the festival.

And there was a lot of bacon to choose from. The smell of unique concoctions like bacon gumbo and chocolate bacon bourbon tarts wafted through one of two buildings at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. The other building had an Iceland theme, with a Viking boat and Icelandic dishes with bacon, to honor a group of delegates visiting from the country.

Urbandale resident Mike Vogel showed up for a fourth year wearing a head-to-toe bacon costume. He said a widespread love for bacon is the reason about 8,000 tickets to the event sold out in just over three minutes.

"I think it's the right time of year when everybody's been cooped up," said the 39-year-old videographer. "It's a good time to get out, have some fun, try some new stuff, have a few beers and enjoy yourselves with everybody else."

Other events scheduled included lectures about bacon and an eating competition. The festival was preceded earlier in the week with a bacon queen pageant and a pig pardon by Gov. Terry Branstad.

Jessica Dunker, president and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association, said bacon used to be just a breakfast food. Now chefs from across the state and country use it in everything from vegetable dishes to desserts.

"It's come a long way and you can find it in almost any kind of food or beverage offering," she said.

Festival co-founder Brooks Reynolds, who officially started the event just a few years ago, said it's become the largest bacon showcase in the world. He called the event a "bacon fellowship."

Los Angeles police said Saturday that they would reopen an investigation into the firing of Christopher Jordan Dorner, a former cop accused of killing three people as part of a revenge plot targeting law enforcement officers.

Dorner wrote a manifesto declaring war on police in retaliation for being fired from his job as an LAPD officer and losing an appeal to be reinstated. He promised to bring "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" to officers and their families, calling it the "last resort" to clear his name and strike back at a department that he says mistreated him.

"I do this not to appease a murderer. I do it to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all the things we do," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said in a statement.

He said police would also look into any allegations made in the manifesto.

Beck addressed what he described as the "ghosts of the LAPD's past," and said that one of his biggest worries was that those ghosts would be "resurrected by Dorner's allegations of racism."

"As hard as it has been to change the culture of the Los Angeles Police Department, it has been even more difficult to win and maintain the support of the public. As much as I value our successes in reducing crime, I value even more our gains in public confidence," he said.

The development came as police continued their search for Dorner, 33, in snowbound mountains. Bundled up in winter gear, teams returned to the pine forests and trails surrounding Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Poor Taylor Swift can't seem to catch a break. On the heels of her breakup from British boy wonder Harry Styles of One Direction, rumors of an alleged sex tape recently surfaced and drove the Internet wild.

But wait just a minute before you Google "Taylor Swift sex tape" (seriously, dude). The whole thing turned out to be a phishing scam banking on Haylor's likability, reports Yahoo.

A Facebook message that read "The famous singer Taylor Swift had her iPhone hacked Monday and a sex tape between her and former boyfriend Harry Styles has been leaked on the Internet. Taylor's publicists are trying to take down all of the websites hosting it, but we found a working one! Watch the video before it's taken down!" led the many clickers to a form where they had to fill out their personal details. We're hoping no one in their right mind went through with it, but hey, sex sells.

And since it does, the tabloids are now competing to run the most intimate detail about Taylor Swift's love life. Star magazine wrote that "all she wants to do is kiss for hours, which is probably why none of the guys she dates stick around," according to Hollywood Life. OK! magazine printed that "lyrics have been written [about Harry]," insinuating that Taylor is already recording heartbreak songs about her last beau.

Another report says Styles, who just turned 19 in the company of a stripper, doesn't care about Swift's songs and doesn't care if she writes one about him like she did about John Mayer or Jake Gyllenhaal. Yet a different report says the two love birds will reunite after they both perform at the BRIT Awards Feb. 20.

It's been four years since Chris Brown and Rihanna failed to show up at the 2009 Grammys, following a domestic violence incident that Brown later pleaded guilty to. But the pair -- who have since reconciled and released a bluntly-titled duet together, "Nobodies Business" -- aren't letting that stop them from potentially alienating everyone and attending the 2013 Grammy Awards show together Sunday night.

A source told the website Hollywood Life that Rihanna was "looking forward to the Grammys and [she] will be with Chris the whole night, so you know that's going to be extra f*cking special. He already told her he would go with her, so it's a wrap."

And in a revealing interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Rihanna confirmed that she had taken her ex-boyfriend back into her life, saying that she was happier with him than without. "I decided it was more important for me to be happy," she said. "I wasn't going to let anybody's opinion get in the way of that. Even if it's a mistake, it's my mistake. After being tormented for so many years, being angry and dark, I'd rather just live my truth and take the backlash. I can handle it."

While we'll have to wait and see if Rihanna, 24, and Brown, 23, do actually show up on the red carpet together for the first time since the 2009 assault, we do know that the "Diamonds" singer has already been standing by her man's side in court. Rihanna accompanied Brown to court Thursday, where he faced allegations that he failed to complete community service stemming from his plea bargain, and blew him a kiss from the front row.