LOS ANGELES
Man, 62, sentenced in
plot to bomb mosque
A Jewish Defense League member was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for his role in a plot to bomb a mosque and a Lebanese-American congressman’s office.
During the hearing, Earl Krugel, 62, apologized and said he was a changed man.
But U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew described Krugel’s actions as “promoting hatred in the most vile way” and sentenced him to the maximum under Krugel’s plea agreement. Krugel, a dental assistant, and the late JDL leader Irv Rubin were arrested in 2001.
METTLER, Calif.
Series of earthquakes
rattle L.A. region
A series of earthquakes ranging up to magnitude 4.7 shook an area north of Los Angeles on Thursday. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
The temblors, in the San Joaquin Valley about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles, began with a magnitude-4.0 jolt that was quickly followed by the 4.9 at 1:24 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.
Mom pleads guilty in
daughter’s sex case
A woman pleaded guilty to second-degree rape for providing a hotel room and liquor so her 13-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old friend could have sex with two men they just met.
The woman, whose name was withheld to protect her daughter’s identity, allegedly told investigators it was time for her daughter to “have sex and get it over with.” The age of consent in New York is 17.
The judge said he would sentence the woman to six months in jail if she convinces him during sentencing that she understands the seriousness of the crime. Rape charges against the men are pending.
MEXICO CITY
Weather suspected
in fatal chopper crash
A helicopter crash that killed a Mexican Cabinet minister and his deputy appears to have been caused by bad weather, the president’s office said Thursday.
While one official aboard the craft had received death threats from a drug trafficker, authorities said poor visibility probably was to blame for Wednesday’s crash that killed Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta and Federal Preventive Police Commissioner Tomas Valencia, in addition to five other passengers and two crew members.
“All the elements that we have at hand, all the experts that were consulted, say that there is sufficient evidence to consider that we are dealing with an accident,” said presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar. “But we must wait for the results of the investigation.”
NAIROBI, Kenya
African parks to get anti-poaching funds
The struggling parks where Kenya’s largest elephant and rhino populations live will get trucks, communication equipment and better roads in a $1.25 million anti-poaching program unveiled Thursday.
“The challenges are huge, and they need help,” said Elizabeth Wamba of the U.S.-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, which is funding the program.
The vehicles, communication equipment and road improvements are key elements in anti-poaching operations, as are education programs that also will be funded in the project for the Tsavo region.
TOKYO
Bills OK’d to privatize
Japan’s postal service
Japan’s ruling party approved a package of bills Thursday to privatize the country’s trillion- dollar postal service, the top item in the government’s reform agenda after its decisive election victory last week.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s landslide win in Sept. 11 lower house elections was seen as a firm mandate for the plan to split up Japan Post’s delivery, insurance and savings deposit services and sell them off by 2017.
Opponents argue that the project threatens to reduce delivery services in the countryside and puts citizens’ savings at risk. But Koizumi campaigned on the idea that privatization would improve efficiency, cut the bloated bureaucracy and jump-start the nation’s sluggish economy, the world’s second-largest.
