A Nicaraguan diplomat was found dead in his Grand Concourse apartment yesterday morning. César Mercado, 34, had been slashed in the throat and stabbed several times. There have been no arrests. Just about every major city paper and media outlet covered the killing. Here’s the <a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/nyregion/24diplomat.html?ref=nyregion”><em>Times’s</em> coverage</a>, the <a href=”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703384204575510322232468194.html?mod=googlenews_wsj”><em>Wall Street Journal’s</em></a>, the <em><a href=”http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/09/23/2010-09-23_nicaraguan_diplomat_found_dead_throat_slashed_nearly_decapitated_in_bronx_buildi.html”>Daily News'</a></em>, the <em><a href=”http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/diplo_gory_slay_E1h6kUOScnYhRKGFbirv0I”>Post’s</a></em>, and <a href=”http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/125950/diplomat-found-dead-inside-bronx-apartment/”>NY1’s</a>. <br /><br />Yesterday, the federal judge presiding over the trial of four men accused of trying to blow up two Riverdale synagogues, <a href=”http://bronx.ny1.com/content/top_stories/125865/judge-lawyers-have-heated-exchange-in-bronx-bomb-plot-trial”>chided the FBI informant</a> who is the government’s star witness. “I’m tired of you playing games,” she told him, after he refused to give yes or no answers to questions from defense attorneys. <br /><br />An elderly man was <a href=”http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nypd_blotter/nypd_daily_blotter_uMAxgwLbjgeh9yB3BaF2kN”>beaten up and mugged of his cellphone</a> in Parkchester on Tuesday evening. <br /><br />A new student-designed playground has <a href=”http://bronx.ny1.com/content/top_stories/125965/bronx-school-unveils-student-designed-playground”>opened at PS 7 in Kingsbridge</a>. The public can use it after school and on weekends.<br /><br />A teacher at Lehman High School <a href=”http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/24/2010-09-24_poetry_rises_from_streets_of_the_bronx_teachs_slice_of_life_and_death_a_winner.html?r=ny_local%2Fbronx#ixzz10T0t6jko”>has won yet another award</a> for his short film “Poetry Man.”<br /><br />Jennifer Lopez is worth more than $100 million. But the singer and actress <a href=”http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/24/2010-09-24_block_that_jenny_forgot.html?r=news”>hasn’t given her old school in the east Bronx a dime.</a> “Jennifer hasn’t even sent us a CD,” says Claire La Tempa, the principal of Holy Family School.
