Briefly Speaking

Local

A leader in the effort to recall Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez said on Monday he expects the process to begin today with a letter asking for his removal from office.
Albert Molina of the Committee to Recall Mike Hernandez said the letter, along with other official documents, will be filed Wednesday morning before a noon conference that will have the group explaining why it wants his removal.
Hernandez, who left office after his arrest for cocaine possession, admitted to being an alcoholic and cocaine addict for years.
He plans to return to work at City Hall today.
Nation

In Virginia on Monday, FBI agents charged three Ameri-cans with running a 25-year spy ring and selling U.S. intelligence secrets to the former East Germany.
A Pentagon analyst, private detective and labor union official were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage after offering to sell U.S. military secrets to an FBI agent posing as a South African communist.
The trio allegedly gathered classified documents and photographs for the East Germans, which were eventually handed over to the Soviet Union.
They were ordered to be held without bail until a preliminary hearing which will be held on Thursday.
World

Stanley Prusiner, a biologist at the University of California at San Francisco, was notified on Monday that he would be awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine.
Prusiner is being recognized for discovering prions, a new type of disease-causing agent. They have been added to a list that includes bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites.
The Nobel Prize winner said he hopes his research will lead to a drug that could possibly stop dementia-related diseases.
Prusiner also said that he was "deeply touched" by the announcement and credited the work of many other biologists whom he said are smarter than him.