Pfizer Inc. will pay $2.3 billion to settle a U.S. investigation into illegal marketing of medicines, the largest agreement in such a case, and a subsidiary will plead guilty to a criminal charge.

The amount, which Pfizer disclosed in January, includes $1.3 billion to close the criminal part of the investigation, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Pharmacia & Upjohn Co., acquired by Pfizer in 2003, will plead guilty to a count of felony misbranding of a pharmaceutical, according to a Justice Department summary of the agreement.

The criminal case stems from promotion of Bextra, a painkiller that Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, acquired through Upjohn and withdrew in 2005 because of its connection with a rare skin condition. Investigators also looked at practices, including kickbacks to doctors in the sale of nine other drugs, among them the impotence drug Viagra and cholesterol treatment Lipitor, the company and government officials said.

A white supremacist charged with killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum appeared in court Wednesday in a wheelchair, the first time he has been seen publicly since the June shooting.

James von Brunn, 89, had been hospitalized since the June 10 shooting after reportedly being shot in the face by other guards. He was finally well enough to be in U.S. District Court in Washington after several delays, though he appeared to be wearing medical bracelets on his right wrist.

His attorney said in court that von Brunn's injuries make it difficult for him to hear and talk and that he cannot walk. However, he had no bandages on his face and no visible wounds.

A judge ordered he stay in jail while he waits for a trial.

During the 30-minute hearing, von Brunn's attorney asked that his client be evaluated to determine whether he's competent to stand trial. Von Brunn objected, at first shaking his head and then calling out "your honor." His attorney and the judge tried to stop him.

A U.S. appeals court upheld an Internet gambling ban Tuesday, rejecting a challenge from an association of off-shore bookies that the federal prohibition was too vague and violated privacy rights.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia rejected arguments from Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association in New Jersey, which had filed the lawsuit hoping to legalize online betting in that state.

Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006 to ban online gambling that would be illegal in the state where the individual or gambling business conducts the transaction. The law does not target the bet itself but criminalizes bank or credit card transactions linked to the bet.

The group, comprised of mostly offshore betting operators, had attacked the law as unconstitutionally vague. Their lawyers questioned how the location of an online bet would be determined if the gambler is in Delaware, for instance, and the operation is in Costa Rica.

At least one of the three judges who heard arguments last month seemed to question that logic.

"No matter how metaphysical you want to get, I'm not in Costa Rica, I'm in Delaware," 3rd Circuit Judge Kent Jordan said.

The court also rejected arguments that the law invades a gambler's right to privacy in the home.

The Justice Department, which successfully defended the law, had no immediate comment, a spokesman said.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has hired fewer law clerks than usual, generating speculation that the leader of the court's liberals will retire next year.

If Stevens does step down, he would give President Barack Obama his second high court opening in two years. Obama chose Justice Sonia Sotomayor for the court when Justice David Souter announced his retirement in May.

Souter's failure to hire clerks was the first signal that he was contemplating leaving the court.

Stevens, 89, joined the court in 1975 and is the second-oldest justice in the court's history, after Oliver Wendell Holmes. He is the seventh-longest-serving justice, with more than 33 years and eight months on the court.

In response to a question from The Associated Press, Stevens confirmed through a court spokeswoman Tuesday that he has hired only one clerk for the term that begins in October 2010. He is among several justices who typically have hired all four clerks for the following year by now. Information about this advance hiring is not released by the court but is regularly published by some legal blogs.

Stevens did not say whether he plans to hire his full allotment of clerks or whether he will leave the court at the conclusion of the term that begins next month. Retired justices are allowed to hire one clerk.

Federal prosecutors have asked an appeals court to stay its decision that government agents illegally seized the drug testing records and samples of more than 100 baseball players.

The move could keep baseball's infamous drug list from being destroyed for at least a few months.

In a filing late Monday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco said the Solicitor General, in consultation with the criminal division of the Justice Department and the U.S. attorney's office, was considering whether to ask the Supreme Court to review the decision.

The deadline for a filing with the Supreme Court is Nov. 24.

"There is good cause for a stay," the government wrote in a motion filed by Joseph P. Russoniello, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, and signed by Barbara J. Valliere, chief of his appellate section.

Police resumed their search Monday for possible links to unsolved crimes at the home of the Northern California sex offender charged with kidnapping a little girl and hiding her in his backyard for 18 years.

Three agencies in the San Francisco Bay area were looking through Phillip Garrido's property in Antioch for the fourth day, seeking evidence that might help solve cold cases.

Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were charged last week in the abduction, rape and imprisonment of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was taken outside her home in South Lake Tahoe. They have pleaded not guilty to 29 counts.

Antioch and Contra Costa County authorities have not provided many details about what they are seeking at the property.

Police in the nearby city of Pittsburg, however, have said they are investigating whether Garrido, 58, was involved in the murders of prostitutes in the 1990s.

Over the weekend, authorities also roped off a next door neighbor's backyard where Garrido once lived in a shed. Neighbors say he once worked as the property caretaker and helped out an elderly man who lived there several years ago.