In the news

Linda Phiel said her father, David Kime Jr., “lived by his own rules,” so she arranged for the Pennsylvania World War II veteran’s funeral procession to stop at his favorite Burger King, where each mourner got a sandwich for the road from the staff of restaurant manager Margaret Hess, who said, “It’s nice to know he was a loyal customer up until the end - the very end.”

Saeed Abedini, an American pastor who has been jailed in Iran since September, has been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of attempting to undermine the country’s security by creating a network of Christian churches in private homes, a U.S. State Department spokesman said.

Ariel Sharon, a former Israeli prime minister who has been in a vegetative state since a 2006 stroke, showed “significant brain activity” in a test in which he underwent a brain-imaging scan while being presented with pictures of his family and recordings of his son’s voice, a team of Israeli and U.S. scientists said.

Mark Rodriguez, 31, has been jailed and charged with attempted grand larceny after being accused of faking his own kidnapping to extort a ransom of more than $2,000 from his girlfriend, said police in Plattekill, N.Y.

Diosdado Cabello, the president of Venezuela’s congress, said he hopes to return to Cuba this week to see President Hugo Chavez, who is receiving treatment nearly seven weeks after his latest cancer surgery, and said he has “great optimism” about Chavez’s condition.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York has pledged $350 million for research at Johns Hopkins University, raising his lifetime giving to his alma mater to more than $1 billion.

Muhammad ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, a Qatar poet given a life sentence for a verse that purportedly opposed the Persian Gulf emirate’s ruling system, will see his appeal go before a court next month, defense attorney Najeeb al-Nauimi said after a hearing in the case.

Walter Meyerle, 36, a serial child molester from Falls Township, Pa., who tattooed an underage girl in exchange for sex, has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of 170 counts of molesting 15 boys and girls ages 4 to 17 from 1997 to 2010.

Kathleen Wynne, who was chosen as the first female premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, also will be the first openly homosexual person to hold the post in the country.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/28/2013

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