National briefs (10/5/12)
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Google and major book publishers have settled a lengthy legal battle over digital copyrights, but a bigger dispute still looms with thousands of authors who allege that Google is illegally profiting from their works.
The truce announced Thursday ends a federal lawsuit filed in 2005 by several members of the Association of American Publishers after Google Inc. began stockpiling its Internet search index with digital duplicates of books scanned from libraries.
Terms of the new settlement weren't divulged, but it won't require court approval because its reach will be limited to the parties signing on.
SAN DIEGO -- Federal authorities have linked a high-ranking Mexican organized crime member to two of the largest drug tunnels ever discovered under the San Diego-Tijuana border, according to a 13-count indictment announced Wednesday that details a far-flung operation that allegedly moved tons of marijuana across the border.
Jose Sanchez-Villalobos, 49, is the highest-ranking member of the Sinaloa drug cartel ever charged in connection with the construction of underground tunnels, according to federal prosecutors in San Diego.
Mr. Sanchez-Villalobos, who was arrested in the Mexican state of Jalisco in January on Mexican money-laundering charges, is in extradition proceedings. The indictment by a federal grand jury in San Diego was handed down in February and unsealed Wednesday.
PHOENIX -- Mexican federal police have arrested two men who may be connected with the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie just north of the Mexico-Arizona border, a Mexican law enforcement official said Thursday.
Agent Ivie and two other agents were fired upon Tuesday in a rugged hilly area about five miles north of the border near Bisbee, Ariz., as they responded to an alarm that was triggered on one of the sensors that the government has installed along the border.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The installation of a new Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco -- a backer of California's same-sex marriage ban -- drew support and concern Thursday as the 56-year-old priest assumed the ceremonial seat at St. Mary's Cathedral.
On Thursday, the induction drew about three dozen gay rights advocates, who protested outside the cathedral opposite a group singing hymns as they celebrated the new archbishop. Salvatore Joseph Cordileone took the seat before a crowd of some 2,000 people and an appointment letter from the pope was read during the three-hour Mass.
The cost of gasoline in California jumped 8 cents overnight Thursday, to $4.32 a gallon, and is poised to soar to the highest point this year in what analysts say is a supply problem fueled by refinery and pipeline outages. ... California's only known wild wolf -- who divides his time between southern Oregon and Northern California counties -- will receive special protection the next time he meanders into the state. California's Fish and Game Commission this week approved a petition asking it to study listing the 21/2-year-old gray wolf under the state's endangered species act. ... The Chicago Teachers Union this week voted 79.1 percent in favor of a new contract. The contract agreement was reached after a seven-day strike last month.
-- Compiled from news services
First Published October 5, 2012 12:00 am
