– BUFFALO, N.Y. An Indian-American physician at the University at Buffalo is the first in Western New York to carry out a successful heart valve transplant. Dr. Vijay S. Iyer, assistant professor of medicine at the university’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has successfully led a team of highly trained physicians to implant aortic valves in four patients over the last few weeks.

Prosecutors want to raise the level of a charge they are making against a former Rutgers student who is accused of spying on his roommate’s gay sexual encounter and relaying it over the Internet. The roommate later committed suicide. The Star-Ledger reported Feb.

As part of efforts to help women deserted by their non-resident Indian (NRI) husbands, the government has brought out booklets and pamphlets on safeguards, legal remedies and whom to approach for redressal of grievances.

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Education Department is probing complaints that Harvard University and Princeton University discriminate against Asian-Americans in undergraduate admissions. The department’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating a complaint it received in August that Harvard rejected an Asian- American candidate for the current freshman class based on race or national origin, a department spokesman said.

It was history revisited. Way back in 1893, a saffron-clad monk came to the Art Institute of Chicago to address a gathering of thousands of people. Today, that same institute is celebrating his 150th birth anniversary. That man is Swami Vivekananda, who delivered his fiery speech at the World Parliament of Religions to standing ovations. The celebration started Jan.

Neil Mehta of Jericho Senior High School in Jericho, N.Y., is among seven Indian-Americans selected as finalists for the 2012 Intel Science Talent Search.  Mehta’s research – “Co-restoration of Type III Nrg1 Back Signaling through Depolarization: Implications for Schizophrenia,” is one of the 40 projects selected for the finals.  Other Indian-American finalists are Sayoni Saha of Gretchen Whitney High School, Cerritos, Calif.

– EDISON, N.J. When Baninder Mahabir began her teaching career in a public school here about a decade ago, little did she know that she would return in a few years to take over as the school’s principal. Mahabir, who began in her new post at the James Madison Primary School here Jan. 2, is the first Asian principal in the township, she told Desi Talk. And, at 33, she is also one of the youngest principals in the state.