Quakes hit California

Quakes hit California

LONE PINE, Calif. — A series of earthquakes with preliminary magnitudes reaching 5.2 have struck in a remote area of eastern California but there have been no reports of injury or damage.

The quakes occurred Friday evening and were centered just southeast of the town of Lone Pine in the arid Owens Valley, below the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, about 180 miles north of Los Angeles.

The U.S. Geological Survey and other institutions reported the 5.2 quake was preceded by quakes of 4.7 and 4.9 between 6:09 and 6:15 p.m.

Inyo County sheriff’s dispatcher Carol Drew says no damage or injuries have been reported, but the department has received several calls about the quakes.

Did Polanski pay up?

LOS ANGELES — Film director Roman Polanski agreed to pay his sexual-assault victim $500,000 to settle a lawsuit 15 years after he fled the United States, according to court documents provided to media outlets Friday.

The deal between Polanski and the victim, Samantha Geimer, was reached in October 1993. The terms of the settlement were confidential, but the amount was disclosed in court documents because of a two-year struggle to get Polanski to pay.

Court records do not indicate whether Polanski, now 76, ever paid. The last court filing in August 1996 shows Polanski owed Geimer $604,416.22, including interest.

Video-prisoner swap

JERUSALEM — In the first video images since he was captured by Palestinian militants in 2006, Israeli Sgt. Gilad Schalit — looking thin but healthy, his hair freshly trimmed — sent love to his family, appealed for his freedom and held up a newspaper to prove the footage was recent.

Israel freed 19 Palestinian women from prison Friday in exchange for the video, raising hopes for the young soldier’s release and taking a step toward defusing a key flashpoint in Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.

In the West Bank, jubilant Palestinians cheered and waved flags as the freed women returned home, some with prison-born babies in tow. And in Gaza, ruled by the Hamas militants holding Schalit, the prime minister called the swap a victory for Palestinians.

2 pulled alive from rubble

PADANG, Indonesia — Rescuers pulled two women alive from their collapsed college, nearly two days after a powerful earthquake devastated western Indonesia, as cries for help from a flattened hotel spurred the frantic search for more survivors Friday.

One of the survivors high-fived her rescuers as they carried her to safety.

The government said nearly 3,000 may still be trapped under the rubble after Wednesday’s 7.6-magnitude quake toppled thousands of buildings on Sumatra island. At least 715 people are already confirmed dead. Paramedics laid out dozens of corpses, and the stench of decomposing bodies filled the air.

German court accepts Demjanjuk indictment

MUNICH — A German court said Friday it has ruled that John Demjanjuk can be tried on charges of being an accessory to the murder of thousands at a Nazi death camp and that the trial likely will start in early November.

The Munich state court said it accepted prosecutors’ indictment against the 89-year-old Thursday, a necessary step in German legal proceedings, and ordered that Demjanjuk remain in custody.

Exact trial dates have not yet been set, but proceedings likely will start “at the beginning of November,” the court said in a statement.

Demjanjuk was charged in July with being an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland where prosecutors allege he served as a guard.

Huntington assumes deposits of failed bank

NEW YORK — Regulators have shut down Warren Bank in Warren, Mich., and a small bank in Minnesota, boosting the number of failed U.S. banks this year to 97 as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Warren Bank, with about $538 million in assets and $501 million in deposits as of July 31. The Huntington National Bank, based in Columbus, Ohio, agreed to assume the deposits and about $83 million of the assets of the failed bank. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

Warren Bank’s six branches will reopen today as offices of Huntington National Bank.

Associated Press