In the news

Sunday, January 20, 2013

— Erika Menendez, who is accused of shoving 46-yearold Indian immigrant Sunando Sen in front of a New York City subway train to his death, told the New York Post at the city jail where she is awaiting trial that she shoved him because she was having a bad day and that she picked her victim because of his ethnicity.

Donald Trump, the real-estate developer, told Shalom TV that he recorded a YouTube endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu for re-election because the Israeli prime minister asked him to.

Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi ballet artistic director who was injured when an attacker threw acid in his face, will need at least one more operation, said Russian officials who added that it’s not yet known whether the sight in his right eye can be saved.

Nicolas Maduro, the 50-year-old Venezuelan vice president, visited an outdoor government-run market, capping a week of appearances that had opponents suggesting he is campaigning for support while ailing President Hugo Chavez remains out of sight in Cuba.

Khalid El Sayed, an associate professor of pharmacy at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, was awarded a $420,500 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study possible cancer-inhibiting qualities of olives.

Peter Gregersen, fellow American Robert Winchester and Lars Klareskog of Sweden have won this year’s Crafoord Prize, a $600,000 award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to honor achievements not always covered by its more famous Nobel Prizes, for the three scientists’ discoveries related to rheumatoid arthritis.

Nicholas Tankersley, 21, a central Indiana jail officer, was charged with sexual battery, official misconduct, theft and battery over allegations of coaxing female inmates at the Morgan County jail into stripping in return for favors.

Mark Yudof, 68, the University of California system president, said he plans to step down as head of one of the nation’s leading systems of higher education, citing a “spate of taxing health issues.”

Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, said it is “reprehensible” for the National Rifle Association to run a recent ad that accused President Barack Obama of being a hypocrite for allowing his daughters to be protected by armed Secret Service agents but not embracing armed guards for schools.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/20/2013