CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN JOSE : U.S. Capitol Suicide Victim Is Identified

A Vietnamese-born newspaper publisher had threatened so many times to burn himself to death in front of the U.S. Capitol that friends no longer believed he would do it. Nguyen Kim Bang set himself ablaze Monday near the Capitol’s West Front, apparently in part to protest communist rule in his homeland. His body was identified Tuesday. Dozens of bystanders watched as Bang doused his body with a flammable liquid and ignited himself. Friends and colleagues described Bang, 56, as a workaholic who never recovered from the trauma of leaving Vietnam after the communist victory in 1975.