Nation: General Motors will pay a $35 million fine for failure to report potentially fatal problems with the ignition switches in 2.6 million cars, according to the Department of Transportation. The switches were prone to turning off while the cars were moving, shutting down the engine and deactivating the airbags. GM kept the problem under the seat for 10 years. Thirteen people are believed to have died in accidents linked to the defect.

> A 57-year-old man has been arrested in connection with this week’s Southern California wildfires. The fires just north of San Diego for the most part have burned out or have been contained. A major fire kicked up yesterday on the Camp Pendleton Marine base, burning through several miles of terrain.

World: India’s political opposition leader knocked off the long-dominant Congress Party in a decisive election victory. Narendra Modi will be India’s next prime minister. The Congress party, which is rooted in the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, in 1984 was the last to win a majority in parliament. Modi is somewhat of a lightning rod in India. He’s a Hindu nationalist who was chief minister of Gujarat state in 2002 when 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in rioting.

Anger in Turkey: As dead miners were being buried, Turkish authorities turned water cannon and tear gas on angry protesters outside the mine where 301 workers were killed Tuesday. Relatives of the dead say the mine had ignored safety, resulting in disaster. Rescuers say they believe they have found all the bodies and have called off the search for more.

Ink: The firing of NY Times editor Jill Abramson has set off a debate over women in the workplace and equal pay. Some reports say Abramson was fired after learning she was not paid as much as her predecessors and demanded equality. Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. denies that and says it was a management issue. Another Times executive said Abramson’s total compensation was greater than her immediate predecessor, Bill Keller, and that the question of pay was not a factor in her firing.

Abramson has an abrasive style, not unusual in the news business, but she knocked heads with colleagues and the publisher over some major internal issues. How it added up to her firing has not been explained, but what’s agreed is that rarely has a dismissal been so public, blunt, and brutal.

The Obit Page: Jeb Stuart Magruder, an aide to the President Nixon re-election campaign who became a household name during the Watergate scandal, has died at age 79. Magruder pleaded guilty to conspiracy for helping to organize and cover up the infamous break-in at Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building. In 2003 Magruder admitted that he heard the president tell then Attorney General John Mitchell to go ahead with the break-in.

>Clyde Davis, a forensic anthropologist who believed bones don’t lie, died at age 86 in Norman, Okla. Before DNA, Jones could measure bones and determine, age, sex, identity and cause of death. He solved murders and identified victims of genocide and disaster.

Run for the Daisies: Dream horse California Chrome takes a shot at the second leg of the Triple Crown at the Preakness in Baltimore today. Chrome is the favorite. He had a mild cough after a training run, but his trainer dismissed it as insignificant.

Big: The bones of what is believed to be the biggest creature ever to walk the earth have been dug up in Argentina. Scientists identify it as a titanosaur, a giant herbivore. Measuring from the thighbones, paleontologists estimate the creature’s body was 130 feet with a tail of 65 feet, weighing in at 77 tons. That’s a lot of vegetables.

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