California

San Ramon (US), Aug 5 (AP/PTI) A former Google engineer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets before joining Uber's effort to build robotic vehicles for its ride-hailing service.

The sentence handed down Tuesday by US District Judge William Alsup came more than four months after former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski reached a plea agreement with the federal prosecutors who brought a criminal case against him last August.

BANNING, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire in mountains east of Los Angeles that has forced thousands of people from their homes was sparked by a malfunctioning diesel vehicle, fire officials said Monday.

The vehicle spewed burning carbon from its exhaust system, igniting several fires Friday on Oak Glen Road in Cherry Valley, and authorities were asking anyone who may have seen such a vehicle at the time to contact investigators, according to a statement from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Eight troops missing after their landing craft sank off the Southern California coast during a training exercise are presumed dead, the Marine Corps announced Sunday.

The Marines said they had called off the search that started late Thursday afternoon when the amphibious assault vehicle sank with 15 Marines and one Navy sailor aboard. Eight Marines were rescued, but one later died and two are in critical condition.

The 26-ton, tank-like craft took on water and quickly sank in hundreds of feet of water — too deep for divers — making it difficult to reach.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A protest in Oakland, California, in support of racial justice and police reform turned violent when a small group of demonstrators wearing helmets and goggles and carrying large signs that doubled as shields set fire to a courthouse, vandalized a police station and shot fireworks at officers, authorities said.

26 July 2020; MEMO: A US citizen was arrested by US police for smuggling a priceless ancient mosaic and grossly underestimating its true value to avoid import duty from Syria, Alaraby English reported.

53-year-old Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi, who is based in Southern California, claimed the ancient mosaic, which is 18 feet in length, was worth the relatively small sum of $2,200, a federal indictment released on Friday claimed.

LOS ANGELES, July 26 (NNN-XINHUA) – Seven people were wounded early Saturday morning, in a shooting in central California, authorities said.

The California Highway Patrol reported first that, its units were on a traffic stop, near the area of 4400 Woodward Avenue, in the city of Manteca, when they heard several gunshots and then saw several people running.

San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement agencies responded to the shooting soon afterwards.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Chinese researcher accused of concealing her ties to the Chinese military on a visa application she submitted so she could work in the U.S. was booked Friday into a Northern California jail and was expected to appear in federal court Monday.

Sacramento County jail records show Juan Tang, 37, was being held on behalf of federal authorities after she was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service. It was unclear if she had an attorney who could comment on her behalf.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As public health officials warned Friday that the coronavirus posed new risks to parts of the Midwest and South, enhanced federal payments that helped avert financial ruin for millions of unemployed Americans were set to expire — leaving threadbare safety nets offered by individual states to catch them.

Since early in the pandemic, the federal government has added $600 to the weekly unemployment checks that states send. That increase ends this week, and with Congress still haggling over next steps, most states will not be able to offer nearly as much.

Los Angeles, Jul 23 (PTI) Iconic pop band ABBA will release five brand new tracks next year followed by a holographic tour.

The group, formed in Sweden in 1972, have sold over 400 million albums in their career with includes all-time hits such as "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen", "Chiquitita" and "Super Trooper" among others.

In 2018, the Swedish quartet, comprising Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, announced they will put out new material after 35 years.

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is launching a legal attack against Google’s YouTube video site for allowing con artists to use him as a pawn in a Bitcoin scam believed to have heisted millions of dollars from people around the world.