In the news

Petr Gandalovic, the Czech ambassador to the United States, spoke out after a number of American social-media commenters mistook the Czech Republic for the country of origin of the ethnic Chechen suspects in the Boston bombings, saying “the Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities,” and calling the mix-up “most unfortunate.”

Aisling Brady McCarthy, 34, an Irish nanny accused of killing a Massachusetts baby who died of what prosecutors say was “abusive head trauma” while in her care, pleaded innocent to a murder charge.

William Patzert, a climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Southern California is headed for its fourth-driest year since 1877, adding: “It’s so dry in Los Angeles that crooks are siphoning off radiators instead of gas tanks.”

Sid Kouider and a team of other French neuroscientists published a report in the journal Nature saying a comparison of the brain waves of adults and babies suggests infants have the internal architecture in place to perceive objects in adultlike ways at 5 months.

Andrew Martin, 23, a former nurse at a clinic in Cleveland, who was accused of offering an emergency-room patient $10,000 to kill a woman, pleaded guilty to a charge of using a phone to further the plot.

Sen. B en Cardin, D-Md., the author of sanctions against Russians over human-rights violations, said there would be no need for punishment if Russia would hold people accountable for the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in prison after he was arrested on charges of tax evasion after accusing police officials of stealing $230 million.

Randy Lamar Wilson, 26, an Alabama man who the FBI said wanted to wage violent jihad in Africa, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

Sandra Layne, a 75-year old Detroit-area woman, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for killing her teenage grandson, but blamed the boy’s parents for leaving him with her after his drug use made him unmanageable for an elderly woman.

Sen. Miguel Pereira, a Puerto Rico lawmaker, filed a bill to allow people 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, a proposal that gained the support of marchers in San Juan, but which fellow Sen. Itzamar Pena said will “sicken and destroy Puerto Rican society.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/21/2013

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