Jewish activist dies after suicide attempt

Jewish activist diesafter suicide attempt
LOS ANGELES -- Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin, who made a career out of confronting those he considers enemies of Israel and the Jewish people, died in a hospital after attempting to commit suicide in jail last week, authorities said. He was 57.
Rubin had been in a medically induced coma since Nov. 4 but died about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, said Adelaida De La Cerda, a spokeswoman at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. No other details were immediately available.
Federal officials said Rubin slashed his neck with a prison-issued razor blade Nov. 4 and tumbled 18 feet over a railing at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center.
The apparent suicide attempt occurred just hours before Rubin was to make a court appearance on charges he reportedly plotted to bomb a Southern California mosque and the office of Rep. Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif., who is the grandson of Lebanese immigrants. Fellow JDL member Earl Krugel was also arrested in connection with the alleged scheme.
His wife, Shelley, has called for a further investigation in the suicide attempt, believing Rubin would not try to kill himself.
Authorities chargesuspect in rapes
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- A suspect linked to a string of sexual assaults in California and Washington after giving police a DNA sample was charged with 64 felonies.
The charges against Mark Wayne Rathbun, 32, included 28 rape counts in connection with attacks on 14 Southern California women.
The charges arise from assaults dating from January 1997 through last week, and were based on DNA evidence, the circumstances, and incriminating admissions Rathbun reportedly made after his arrest, police said.
Three of the rape charges against Rathbun involve a 77-year-old woman who was attacked in her Long Beach home twice within 17 days in 1999, said Deputy District Attorney Rich Goul. The last victim was a 30-year-old woman who fended off an attempted assault Nov. 7.
Rathbun did not enter a plea at his Los Angeles County Superior Court hearing Wednesday. His arraignment was postponed until Nov. 20 to allow his attorney to review the charges.
Families OK settlementwith U.S. Navy
TOKYO -- The families of 33 people who were aboard a Japanese fishing trawler sunk by a U.S. submarine off Hawaii agreed to a reported $13 million compensation package from the U.S. Navy today.
Lawyers representing the families and the U.S. government signed the deal at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Negotiations between the Navy and two other families are continuing separately.
The U.S. Navy will make a total payment of 1.6 billion yen, or $13 million, according to local media reports. Lawyers' offices and a U.S. Navy spokesman refused to confirm the amount, citing the relatives' privacy.
But families said the reconciliation package did little to ease their pain.
"Even if we were to seek and receive large amounts of compensation, we cannot change the fact that we will never see our precious son again," said parents of victim Takeshi Mizuguchi in a statement released by their lawyer.
Nine men and teenage boys died when the nuclear-powered USS Greeneville surfaced beneath the trawler Ehime Maru on Feb. 9, 2001, sinking it off the coast of Oahu. The fishing vessel was on a training expedition for students and teachers from Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime state in southwestern Japan.
No early marriages
MOSCOW -- Russian lawmakers rejected a bill that would allow marriages from age 14, saying such legislation would foster "decadence."
The upper house of parliament rejected the bill Wednesday by a vote of 134 to 4 with four abstentions. It had been passed last month by the lower house, or State Duma, where supporters said they were trying to bring national legislation into line with the local traditions in Russia's ethnically diverse regions.
"By adopting this law, we would legitimize the decadence of minors and ease their being attracted into the porno business and the sex industry," legislator Valery Manilov was quoted as saying by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily today.
Russia currently allows people to marry from age 18, barring circumstances such as pregnancy that can push the minimum marriageable age to 16.
Associated Press