Search begun for ex-Northeastern student

Police said yesterday they were looking for a former Northeastern University student who disappeared Feb. 4 after the Super Bowl . Nicholas Sova, 22, of Monroe, Conn., was reported missing on Feb. 8 by family members, police said. Northeastern said its public safety department has been in contact with Sova's parents and is cooperating with police. Sova is no longer a student at the university, Northeastern said. Sova lives in a Mission Hill apartment with four students and was last seen by a roommate. Another roommate, Dan Taylor, said that Sova's cellphone has been out of service or turned off since his disappearance. Sova's computer is missing, and police said yesterday that his bank account had been overdrawn. Sova is white with brown hair, weighs about 200 pounds, and is 6 feet tall. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call Boston police at 617-343-4275.

Two Dorchester youths, one of them a 14-year-old boy, were arrested on armed robbery and assault charges in what police said was the robbery and pistol-whipping of a pizza delivery man on Westview Street Friday night. Police said that 18-year-old Wildin Baez and the 14-year-old were charged with armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon following the attack on a delivery man, who was pistol-whipped, kicked in the face and stomach, and robbed. Responding officers tracked footprints around the back of a residential building on Westview Street and found a trail of pizza crust leading to a third-floor apartment, where they found and arrested the pair, police said.

A 21-year-old woman was in critical condition yesterday after being struck by a sport utility vehicle in the Back Bay, police said. The woman was walking on Commonwealth Avenue at about 2 a.m. when she was hit by the Toyota Rav 4 driven by Robert McGrath, 17, of Brookline, police said. Officer Eddie Crispin, a police spokesman, said that McGrath was arrested on the scene for driving between the hours of 1 and 4 a.m., a violation of state law for drivers under the age of 18, and that he later failed a sobriety test. The victim, whose identity was not released by police, suffered a head injury and was unresponsive when she was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.

A Coast Guard cutter came to the aid of a disabled fishing vessel about 35 miles east of Cape Ann yesterday. The Aaron & Melissa II's three-person crew reported engine failure just before midnight on Friday, officials said. The Coast Guard issued a broadcast requesting nearby mariners to assist the vessel, based in Westbrook, Maine, but there were no boats in the area large enough to tow the 75-foot boat to safety. So instead, the Grand Isle towed the vessel to Gloucester. There were no injuries.

Brown University announced yesterday that it would boost its financial aid budget by 20 percent and spend more of its endowment to sharply reduce students' debt burden. The new measure eliminates loans for students whose family income is less than $100,000, reduces loans for all students who receive financial aid, and no longer requires a parental contribution from most families with an income of up to $60,000. The initiative, part of a national movement among elite colleges and universities to curb student loans and boost financial assistance, applies to all current students who receive financial aid and to students who enter next fall. The university will also eliminate contributions for most families with annual incomes under $60,000. Currently, about 40 percent of Brown's undergraduates receive a total of $57 million in financial aid; that amount will rise next year to $68.5 million. The college will increase endowment spending from 5.5 percent of its value to 5.9 percent. The university also approved a 3.9 percent increase in total undergraduate charges for the next academic year to $47,740.

A man accused in a 1991 rape in Chicopee after his DNA linked him to the crime pleaded guilty and has been given a life sentence. Prosecutors said Antonio Sanchez raped a 17-year-old girl after following her into her house and putting a screwdriver down her throat and into her ear. The 42-year-old was indicted in 2006 after giving a DNA sample because of an unrelated armed robbery conviction. Sanchez asked for mercy from the court Friday, but Hampden Superior Court Judge Judd J. Carhart said he did not deserve mercy. In a victim impact statement, the woman, a married mother of two, said she took self-defense courses, owned dogs, and distanced herself from others because of the rape. She said she was glad that Sanchez has been held accountable. (AP)