MANHATTAN

U.N. LOAN OFFER IS SWEETENED

After a $1.2 billion loan offer to the United Nations for the renovation of its headquarters met with months of indecision and complaint, America has responded by sweetening the deal. On Friday, as expected, America’s permanent mission to the United Nations extended the loan offer, which was to expire on September 30, for another year. It also lowered the interest rate on the 30-year loan from 5.54% to 5.35%.The initial proposition had irked the United Nations and representatives of many of its member states, who had expected America, as host country, to provide the $1.2 billion free of interest.

According to a statement released by the mission on Friday, America’s representative to the U.N.’s Fifth Committee, Khushali Shah, said: “I am pleased to report that the U.S. Government will continue to be able to offer a loan once the current offer expires, and due to a better forecast for the U.S. economy, the maximum interest rate for the loan, if accepted after October 1, would be 5.35%.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

POLICE BLOTTER

SHOOTING NEXT DOOR TO MURDER INK

A man shot his female companion in the Upper West Side nail salon where she works, and then shot himself, police said. Neither was considered likely to die. At 1:23 p.m. yesterday, the man walked into Angela’s Nail Salon at 2488 Broadway, close to 92nd Street, and got into an argument with his girlfriend, police said. He allegedly shot her one time in the lower back. The man then turned the gun on himself, firing one round. The victim and the suspect were taken to St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, police said. Charges were pending.

One employee at Murder Ink/Ivy’s Books, at 2486 Broadway, next door to the salon, expressed her disbelief. “I didn’t realize it was gunshots,” the woman, who requested anonymity, said. “I thought, ‘Why are they shooting firecrackers off in the back?'” She said she still did not know what was going on even when people came running into the mystery bookstore telling them to call the police.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CHELSEA CLUB EMPLOYEES TIED UP IN ROBBERY

A nightclub manager was threatened and three of the club’s employees were tied up by two male suspects wielding tasers and a handgun, law enforcement officials said. On Tuesday at 9:50 a.m., the two suspects, wearing cotton gloves, entered Splash, at 50 W. 17th St., and asked for the manager by name, the authorities said. The suspects pulled out two tasers and one handgun and allegedly tied up three employees then demanded that the manager open the safe. At first the manager claimed not to know the combination, but relented when the suspects threatened to kill the manager and the employees. The suspects fled with $30,000.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

AUXILIARY OFFICER ARRESTED

An auxiliary police officer who volunteers in an Astoria precinct near his home was arrested Saturday in the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan on charges of trademark counterfeiting, possession of a forged instrument, and criminal possession of a weapon, police officials said.

At 4:10 p.m., police officers said they saw the off-duty auxiliary officer, Ilias Lampropoulos, 23, sitting in the driver’s seat of an illegally parked vehicle. Mr. Lampropoulos had a forged New York City auxiliary police parking permit displayed in the windshield, and was loading a crossbow pistol. Auxiliary parking plaques are discretionary and he was not issued one, police said. When the officers arrested Mr. Lampropoulos, they allegedly saw several boxes of imitation Lacoste shirts. Mr. Lampropoulos allegedly told the officers that he had been selling them for $20 a pop and that he was an auxiliary officer in the 114th Precinct.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

FOUR BURGLARIES IN ONE BUILDING

Four people in one Upper East Side building were the victims of burglary, police said. In all the cases at 155 E. 92nd St., there were no signs of forced entry, authorities said. On September 1, one victim returned home to find her flat-screen TV and a gold chain and charm missing, the authorities said. The woman’s roommate returned an hour later and found her laptop and suitcase gone. Another woman returned to her apartment and noticed that two laptops, her iPod, software, and $50 in coins were missing. In the fourth case, a woman returned from vacation and found her laptop had been stolen.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun