In brief: Breakthrough to miners likely

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – Drillers neared the lower reaches of a gold and copper mine where 33 men have been trapped for more than two months, preparing for a breakthrough today that would unleash a national outpouring of joy.

Engineers had just the last 128 feet of rock to carve through, and were working carefully to keep the T130 drill from jamming or punching through with too much force, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said Friday, estimating the job would be completed by midday today.

“We are very close,” Golborne said. “We have to be very careful and do it in a controlled way.”

SONOMA, Calif. – A 27-year-old Redwood City man who admitted to looting the home of four family members days after they were killed in a car crash has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports that Michael Gutierrez was sentenced Thursday for the burglary of the Sonoma home of John and Susan Maloney in November.

The burglary took place three days after the couple and their two young children were killed in the crash. Gutierrez pleaded no contest in July to burglarizing the home.

Man with al-Qaida link deported

MINNEAPOLIS – A Somali-born Canadian citizen who admitted he attended al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and lectures by Osama bin Laden was released from federal prison Friday after nearly seven years in custody and deported to Canada.

Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, 37, was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Ind., and taken to the U.S.-Canadian border, according to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. prosecutors say Warsame is a jihadist who received military training in al-Qaida camps and went to the Taliban’s front line. Warsame’s attorneys depicted him as a bumbling idealist who was seeking a utopian society.

He pleaded guilty in May 2009 to conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. He was sentenced in July 2009 to seven years and eight months in prison, but was given credit for time served and good behavior.