MANHATTAN

WOMAN STABBED TO DEATH, HUSBAND ATTEMPTS SUICIDE

An Upper East Side businessman who was going through a divorce stabbed his wife to death and then turned a knife on himself inside their townhouse last night, police said.

At about 10:30 p.m., detectives from the 19th Precinct received a 911 call, with the caller complaining about a domestic dispute inside the three-story townhouse at 422 E. 84th St. That is where police found the businessman, Ben Odierno, 71, with a stab wound to his chest, and his wife, Christine Odierno, 57, suffering from multiple stab wounds to her chest and stomach.

Police said that it appeared that during an argument, Mr. Odierno stabbed his wife numerous times and, after seeing that she had died from her wounds, attempted to commit suicide by plunging the knife into his stomach.

The couple was rushed to New York Hospital where Christine Odierno was pronounced dead. The medical examiner will conduct an autopsy today and rule on the cause of death. Mr. Odierno, who according to city records controls a number of real estate holdings and other business ventures, was undergoing surgery for treatment of his stomach wound early this morning and was listed in serious condition.

According to police records, there have been five domestic disturbance incidents reported in recent years at 422 E. 84th St., a townhouse Mr. Odierno purchased for $100,000 more than 35 years ago, property records show.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

LONG ISLAND

REP. KING ATTENDS POPE BENEDICT’S INAUGURAL MASS

Long Island Rep. Peter King attended Pope Benedict XVI’s installation Mass yesterday, saying afterward that the Catholic Church has an important role in resolving conflicts around the world.

The Catholic congressman led a 21-member delegation of lawmakers to the Mass at the Vatican, where the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that, as pope, he and the church would listen to the will of God in guiding the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics.

“Pope John Paul II proved the Catholic Church has a real role to play in the world, and we see that especially now, at a time when there is unfortunately a religious dimension to some of the struggles,” Mr. King said, speaking by phone afterward. The Vatican estimated some 350,000 people were in and around St. Peter’s Square. Another 50,000 watched the Mass on public television screens set up nearby.

“On a personal level, it’s just incredibly moving to be here,” Mr. King said.

Mr. King, the only New Yorker in the congressional group, joked that the ceremony had already brought out a strong sense of bipartisanship among his group.

“It’s the new pope’s first miracle,” Mr. King said.

– Associated Press

WESTCHESTER

TWO DIE IN SMALL-PLANE CRASH

NORTH CASTLE, N.Y. – A flight instructor and his student were killed Saturday when their small plane crashed in a wooded area near Westchester County Airport, authorities said.

The victims were identified as Isaac Negron, of Hamden, Conn., and Lev Naumov, of Yonkers, according to a spokeswoman for Westchester County, Adele Dowling. Negron, whose age was not immediately available, was teaching Naumov, who was 23, she said. The Cessna 172 was about a quarter of a mile from a runway at the airport when radar and radio communications were lost, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, Holly Baker,

Local fire officials found the wreckage off Route 120 in the town of North Castle just after 4 p.m., according to Anthony Sutton, commissioner of Westchester County’s Department of Emergency Services. Negron and Naumov were the only people aboard.

The plane took off from Westchester, flew to Albany and had been returning to Westchester when it crashed, authorities said. The victims apparently had been practicing instrument landing approaches, Ms. Baker said. Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board would be investigating the cause of the crash, she said.

– Associated Press