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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Police: Jewish center attack not terrorism

From Wire Reports

NEW YORK – A man with a history of mental illness slipped into the headquarters of a major Jewish organization in Brooklyn in the middle of the night and stabbed an Israeli student in the head as he was studying in the library.

Then, as the screaming, bloody victim was taken away, the attacker lunged at police with his knife and was shot and killed, authorities said.

Calvin Peters, 49, could be seen on amateur video waving the knife inside the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights about 1:40 a.m. Tuesday after the attack on Levi Rosenblat, 22. Rosenblat, wounded in the side of the head, was listed in stable condition. Police said the stabbing was not believed to be connected to terrorism.

Companies admit defrauding U.S. military

PHILADELPHIA – Two foreign companies have pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy for overcharging the U.S. military in connection with a contract to provide food and water to troops in Afghanistan.

Supreme Group B.V., a privately held Dutch corporation, and its subsidiaries, Supreme Foodservice GmbH of Switzerland and Supreme Foodservice FZE of United Arab Emirates, agreed to pay $288 million in fines and restitution, plus $101 million to resolve a whistleblower suit.

The privately held firms fraudulently inflated the price of fresh fruits and vegetables, bottled water and other products as part of a contract with the Defense Supply Center of Philadelphia, now called the Defense Logistics Agency, according to court documents.

The government was overcharged by $48 million between 2005 and 2009, the documents said.

Former Miss America, actress Mobley dies

LOS ANGELES – A former Miss America who went on to appear in movies with Elvis Presley and make documentary films around the world has died.

A spokesman for the University of Mississippi confirmed Mary Ann Mobley Collins, 75, died Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California.

She graduated from Ole Miss in 1958, the same year she won the Miss America crown.

She became an actress a few years later, with credits including “Perry Mason,” and films such as “Girl Happy” with Presley and “Three on a Couch” with Jerry Lewis. It was on that film she met her husband, Gary Collins, who died in 2012.

Asteroid no threat to Earth, NASA says

WASHINGTON – NASA said a newly spotted 1,300-foot wide asteroid is not a threat to hit Earth, despite recent media reports.

NASA’s Near Earth Object program manager Donald Yeomans said the asteroid, discovered in October by Russian scientists, won’t even get that close to Earth in the next 150 years. And it isn’t a threat to any other planet.

Calculations by NASA and Harvard say the closest asteroid 2014 UR116 will get to Earth is about 2.7 million miles in April 2047. Yeomans said that is so far away it doesn’t make NASA’s list of risky near-Earth objects.

Yeomans said in-depth analysis confirmed that the space rock would not come near Earth soon.