LONG BEACH, California (AP) – A California man convicted of attacking six women has been sentenced to 11 life terms, plus 433 years in prison.

Forty-five-year-old Charles Juan Proctor was also ordered to pay $58,000 in medical expenses for two women whose necks were slit, and $10,000 to the state victims’ restitution fund. Proctor was convicted Aug. 13 of 22 counts of attempted murder, mayhem, robbery and other charges.

Prosecutors say all the attacks occurred within three months in early 2008, and most of his victims were either Long Beach-area shop owners or their employees.

Farm produces massive emerald
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) – An emerald so large it’s being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm.

The nearly 65-carat emerald its finders are marketing by the name Carolina Emperor was pulled from a farm once so well known among treasure hunters that the owners charged $3 a day to shovel for small samples of the green stones.

After the gem was cut and re-cut, the finished product was about one-fifth the weight of the original find, making it slightly larger than a US quarter and about as heavy as a AA battery.

The emerald compares in size and quality to one surrounded by diamonds in a brooch once owned by Catherine the Great, who was empress in the 18th century, that Christie’s auction house in New York sold in April for $1.65 million.

Obama visits injured troops
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama met privately Monday with more than two dozen wounded US soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The President’s unannounced visit came a day before the United States marks a formal end to its combat operations in Iraq.

The President will travel to Fort Bliss, Texas, on Tuesday to thank soldiers for their service in Iraq and then return to Washington to address the nation from the Oval Office.