Two more arrested in connection to New York bomb plot (WOW)

New York City

    NEW YORK, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- United States federal authorities arrested two more men on Friday in connection to an alleged bomb plot targeting public transportation in New York City, bringing the total number of suspects held in the case to five.

    Adis Medunjanin, 25, and Zasrein Ahmedzay, 24, were detained early Friday morning by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York as part of an "ongoing investigation," the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) said in a statement.

    Investigators say the two men are connected to a Colorado taxi driver, Najibullah Zazi, who reportedly trained at an al-Qaida terrorist camp and is believed to be the mastermind of a plot to bomb New York. He is currently being held in jail without bail on charges of conspiring with others to use beauty products to make bombs that were planned to go off in New York.

    In Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday afternoon, Ahmedzay pleaded not guilty to lying to federal investigators, according to local media reports. A new indictment charges Ahmedzay, an Afghan-born taxi driver, with a single count of making material false statements.

    Ahmedzay allegedly failed to mention all the places he had visited in Pakistan and Afghanistan while there in late 2008 and early 2009 and lied when he denied having discussions about attending a military camp to receive training.

    Medunjanin, a Bosnian-born building superintendent, will be arraigned on Saturday. The charges against him are still unclear.

    On Thursday, authorities searched Medunjanin's home and took his passport, prompting him to jump in his car and take off through the streets of New York. He then crashed his car on the Whitestone Expressway and had to be taken to a Queens hospital for minor injuries. It wasn't until the early hours of Friday when he was turned over to federal authorities, according to local media reports.

    There was no chase, said the FBI, adding that Medunjanin was under surveillance. 

Get the honest news all about New York City here - FBI arrests two in New York, Adis Medunjanin, Zarein Ahmedzay, in Zazi bomb ...

New York City

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The suspects, Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay, were part of an ongoing FBI task force investigation, Special Agent Richard Kolko said.

FBI agents Thursday night raided the Queens apartment of Medunjanin, who was said to have close ties to Najibullah Zazi, a Colorado airport driver the feds say is the mastermind of an Al Qaeda plot to blow up New York, law enforcement sources said.

Zazi has pleaded not guilty to charges of getting Al Qaeda training to build homemade bombs to attack city targets.

Medunjanin's attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said the FBI seized his client's passport on Thursday. Gottlieb said the search warrant indicated the passport was sought as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

There were no immediate details on the charges against the two men, according to Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. attorney.

Medunjanin was being questioned by counterterrorism agents who were trying to get him to cough up information about Zazi and the Al Qaeda cell - the first uncovered in the U.S. after 9/11.

Zazi, 24, an Afghan national was nabbed after sweeping raids on Queens apartment buildings in September. The raids turned up evidence of bomb-making materials, and Zazi was charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

Medunjanin, 25, who is believed to have accompanied Zazi to an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan in 2008, fled in his car Thursday when he came home and saw agents swarming over his apartment, sources said.

He made it as far as Whitestone, Queens, where he crashed on the Whitestone Expressway about 4 p.m.

The circumstances surrounding the wreck were unclear, but sources insisted Medunjanin did not crash because he was speeding away from agents in pursuit.

Medunjanin, was treated for minor injuries and released from New York Hospital Queens in Flushing.

Medunjanin, a graduate of Flushing High School and Queens College, was grilled by the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force before his arrest, sources said.

Zazi told FBI agents in September that he had received Al Qaeda training in weapons and explosives on a trip to Pakistan in 2008, though he denied any involvement in a current bomb plot.

Medunjanin traveled to the same terror camp with Zazi in 2008, a law enforcement source confirmed.

Sources confirmed that Medunjanin's passport was seized during the search at his apartment, which was one of four apartments raided last September after Zazi and the bomb plot surfaced.

Wonderful New York City news - Two arrested over New York City 'bomb plot'

New York City

Two more men have been arrested in the US in connection with an alleged plot to bomb New York City last year.

The two - named as Adis Medunjanin and Zasrein Ahmedzay - were detained as part of an "ongoing investigation", an FBI spokesman told reporters.

They are said to be associates of an Afghan-born Colorado man, Najibullah Zazi, who is accused of planning an attack on New York commuters.

Mr Zazi and two other men were charged in September. All deny the charges.

Investigators said at the time that the imminent threat of an attack had been disrupted but that they would continue to examine a "wide range of leads".

Mr Medunjanin is described as a Bosnian immigrant and Mr Ahmedzay as a US citizen.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said they had been arrested after Mr Medunjanin was involved in a car accident. Federal agents picked him up after he was taken to hospital.

Mr Medunjanin's lawyer said his client had done nothing wrong. The two men are due to appear in court in Brooklyn later on Friday.

The New York Times newspaper says they are suspected of travelling with Mr Zazi in 2008 to Pakistan, where prosecutors allege Mr Zazi received al-Qaeda training.

Both were questioned by investigators last year, the Associated Press news agency adds.

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Is the Times Square Ball for New Years held on display year round in New York City?

I know that the Times Square Ball is dropped on New Years from the One Times Square building on New Years for the countdown, but is it held on display in Times Square? Like if I went to New York City, could I see the Times Square Ball? Thanks!

Reuters NY Fed sought to limit AIG bank disclosures

New York

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve Bank under Timothy Geithner urged insurer AIG in late 2008 to limit disclosures about its payments to banks after getting a $180 billion government bailout, emails released on Thursday showed.

The email exchanges, between the New York Fed and American International Group Inc lawyers, showed that AIG initially proposed disclosing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in early December 2008 that it would pay counterparties 100 cents on the dollar to liquidate credit default swaps it sold them.

But the decision to pay Goldman Sachs, Societe Generale and other global banking giants in full with taxpayer funds was not disclosed by AIG until March 2009, when it announced a $93 billion payoff that stoked public rage over the bailout.

Adding fuel to the fire, Geithner, who by then had become the U.S. Treasury secretary, was forced to allow AIG to pay $165 million in bonuses to top executives of the division that nearly caused its collapse.

Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican who requested the emails from AIG and made them public, said they show that the New York Fed tried to suppress politically sensitive information about the bailout.

"It appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information to the SEC," he said in a statement. "The American taxpayers, who own approximately 80 percent of AIG, deserve full and complete disclosure under our nation's securities laws, not the withholding of politically inconvenient information."

The emails showed that an explicit reference to counterparties receiving 100 percent of par value and other information on the transaction was crossed-out from a proposed SEC filing that was "marked up" by attorneys working for the New York Fed.

When the regulatory filing, disclosing a deal for the New York Fed's Maiden Lane III fund to take on an additional $16 billion of AIG obligations, was finally made on December 24, 2008, it made no reference to the counterparty payment percentage. But it did note that about $15.9 billion in payments and surrendered collateral would satisfy a $16 billion "par amount" of obligations.

Banks ultimately received $27.1 billion in payments from Maiden Lane III to liquidate the credit default swaps -- part of the overall $93 billion AIG payout that critics have labeled a stealth bailout of the institutions.

GEITHNER "OFFICIALLY RECUSED"

The New York Fed during Geithner's final weeks at the bank also has been chided for not negotiating hard enough for concessions from the banks after a bailout he helped engineer along with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. All but one bank refused to offer any discount on their holdings.

Geithner, who has faced criticism for his handling of the AIG bailout throughout his first year in office, was nominated for Treasury secretary on November 24, 2008, by then president-elect Barack Obama, the day much of the email traffic started. Geithner recently said there was little leverage to negotiate with counterparties and that "selectively defaulting" on the obligations could have had disastrous consequences for a financial system in crisis.

Republican Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri said the emails meant Geithner "has some explaining to do."

"Finding out that the leader now responsible for shepherding our economy through these troubled times encouraged bailout recipients to hide the ball is nothing short of stunning," Blunt said in a statement.

Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said that on the day he was nominated, Geithner was "officially recused" from dealing with matters relating to specific companies, including AIG, because of his nomination.

"Secretary Geithner played no role in these decisions," Reilly said.

SEC REQUESTS COUNTERPARTY DETAILS

The email traffic, which Issa requested from AIG in October, shows that attorneys for the New York Fed requested delays in AIG disclosures to the SEC and sought to delete references to "synthetic" collateralized debt obligations and the list of payments to counterparties.

"We believe that the agreements listed in the index (i.e., the Master Investment and Credit Agreement and the Shortfall Agreement) do not need to be filed," Peter Bazos, a Davis Polk & Wardwell lawyer representing the New York Fed, wrote to AIG attorneys on November 25, 2008. "Please let us know your thoughts in this regard."

Six days after the December 24 filing, the SEC said in a private letter to AIG's then chief executive, Edward Liddy, that the insurer should disclose listings of collateral postings for the swaps and name the bank counterparties that were paid. This led to the March disclosure.

Spokespersons for both AIG and Davis Polk in New York declined to comment on the matter.

Thomas Baxter, the New York Fed's general counsel, said it was appropriate for the bank to weigh in on the disclosures, but the final decision rested with AIG and its lawyers.

"Our focus was on ensuring accuracy and protecting the taxpayers' interests during a time of severe economic distress," he said in a statement. "All information was in fact disclosed that was required to be disclosed by the company, showing that counterparties received par value. There was no effort to mislead the public," Baxter said.

(Editing by Padraic Cassidy and Carol Bishopric)

How did Keri Hilson Get to Vegas if she was just in New York City?

So... I'm watching the New Years thing on ABC and Keri Hilson performed in NYC at 12:00 midnight... now she's in Vegas at 1:00 AM... how does that work?

More unhappy news about New York City here - Family seeks damages over son's US burial

New York City

Relatives of a computer programmer from Doncaster who was buried as an unknown man in a New York cemetery have filed a damages claim against US authorities.

Richard Massey, 27, was reported missing shortly before Christmas 2002.

After his body was found in the Hudson River in 2003 he was buried as an unknown man, his mother Margaret said.

The lawsuit accuses US police and medical examiners of negligence. A New York City Law Department spokeswoman said it would review the matter.

Mr Massey's relatives said they reported Mr Massey missing and gave US police identifying information, including his dental records.

Negligence claim

But after his body was found in the Hudson River in 2003, authorities buried him as an unknown man, where he remained unidentified for more than five years, his mother Margaret said in the lawsuit.

Lawyers representing the Massey family say the truth did not emerge until a family lawyer traced Mr Massey's body to a city mortuary.

The lawsuit has been filed in the state supreme court in Manhattan. It seeks unspecified damages and accuses the city, police and medical examiners of negligence and depriving Mrs Massey of the right to bury her son.

Spokeswoman Connie Pankratz, of the New York City Law Department, which is responsible for the legal affairs of the city, said Mr Massey's death was "tragic".

"We will carefully review the matter," she said.

DNA tests

The medical examiners' office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

James Modzelewski, a lawyer for Mrs Massey, said Mr Massey had been working for an investment firm in New York.

Mr Modzelewski said the computer programmer had gone missing after being released from a hospital in December 2002 after apparently having suffered emotional problems.

He said DNA tests had confirmed Mr Massey's identity.

His body was exhumed and his remains have now been buried in Doncaster.

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Can you bring a camera into the Beacon Theatre in New york?

I am going on friday to see Nick Jonas and the Administration at the Beacon Theatre in New York. I just bought a new camera and was wondering if they allowed cameras into the concerts there.

More published news about NYC in this story - Immigration's New Year

NYC

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The quest for overhauling immigration received two very welcome lifts on New Year’s Day.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, at his inauguration, pledged to help the Obama administration pass immigration reform. Mr. Bloomberg is a force to reckon with, as he proved with his national campaign against illegal guns. On the same day, four young people in Miami, current or former students at Miami Dade College, began their own determined march to Washington in an effort to bring pressure from the grass roots.

Three of the four were brought to this country illegally as children. Like thousands of other young people, they bear no blame for their status, and they are frustrated that their hard work and bright promise lead to a brick wall. Their protest for a chance to become Americans is courageous because it exposes them to possible arrest and deportation. “We are risking our future because our present is unbearable,” one of them, Felipe Matos, told The Times.

The Obama administration has vowed to press ahead with reform this year. Given the hard economic times, the politics may be bleaker even than in 2007 when reform was scuttled in an ugly battle. The need is just as real — for the undocumented and for the country.

America needs to shut the path to illegal entry and employment while opening smoother and more rational routes to legal immigration. Opponents of reform say the downturn is a terrible time to fix the system, but they are wrong. When the recovery comes, the country will need a functioning system more than ever — one that encourages legal entry and bolsters all workers’ rights.

To do this, the country needs to bring its huge undocumented underclass into the light. This means putting 12 million people on a path to being assimilated. It is not a question of adding new people to the work force; they are here, many helping keep the economy afloat while tolerating low pay and abuse from lawbreaking employers who prefer them to American workers.

Representative Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat of Illinois, already has offered a sensible bill that legalizes immigrants who show that they have been employed, pay a $500 fine, learn English and undergo a criminal background check, among other things.

Opponents will try their best to scuttle reform by claiming to be open to compromise while they insist on prohibitive fees, penalties and requirements that turn the path into a fiction — not a wait of months but of decades or never. That is not reform. And it won’t solve the problem.

After years of tightening the screws, the system is hopelessly frozen. Those who want to fix it will have to shut out the choruses of no-amnestys and over-my-dead-bodys, sidestep the false arguments and press into the headwinds while holding firm to the core of the better solution. To legalize the undocumented, collect their unpaid taxes, free them to earn more and spend more, to get the immigrant escalator to the middle class moving again. The country needs it; the economy needs it; the immigrants need and deserve it.

“No city on earth has been more rewarded by immigrant labor, more renewed by immigrant ideas, more revitalized by immigrant culture,” Mr. Bloomberg said of New York City last week. Substitute “country” in that sentence, as in America, and it is every bit as true.

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Do you have to apply to Parsons Paris seperately from Parsons New york?

If I want to apply to both schools the one in paris and new york, do I have to have two different applications? is the criteria different?

NYC in the news: New York Regains Spot at Nation's Top Tourism Destination

NYC

The number of visitors to New York City fell last year for the first time since 2001 when terrorists struck. But tourism declines elsewhere across the U.S. made it the most popular destination in the country for the first time in almost two decades, tourism officials said Monday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg painted the 3.9 percent decline — an estimated 45.3 million visitors — as a victory, saying that amid the recession the city had anticipated losing as much as 10 percent of tourists. The city expects to recoup most of the loss this year and remains on track to hit its longstanding goal of 50 million yearly visitors by 2012, the mayor said.

Other hot spots were hit harder, making New York America's No. 1 destination for the first time since 1990, the mayor said. For nearly two decades that title was held by either Las Vegas or Orlando.

"We have made our city cleaner, safer and more exciting than ever," Bloomberg said at a press conference at a Brooklyn restaurant. "I do think we'll continue to see even more tourists on our streets as the economy improves, and I think that we'll continue to fare better than other cities."

While many travelers stayed home simply because money was tight, the mayor also attributed the decline in international visitors to swine flu fears and concerns over border security measures.

Foreign visitors — traditionally the biggest spenders — fell to 8.6 million in 2009, a drop of almost 10 percent from the year before. That echoed a milder national trend, with international visitors to the U.S. down 7 percent in the first 10 months of the year compared to the same period the year before.

Still, some attractions, including the Statue of Liberty, reported jumps in visitation. And the city's leisure and hospitality industry — which provides one-tenth of the city's private sector jobs — actually grew in 2009.

NYC Distributes 70000 'How-to' Heroin Handouts (I wish I didn't have to read news like this)

NYC

New York City residents struggle to pay some of the highest tax-rates in the nation. Unfortunately, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg does not always utilize common sense in regards to fiscal matters of the municipal budget.

According to the New York Post, "the city spent $32,000 on 70,000 fliers that tell you how to shoot heroin, complete with detailed tips on prepping the dope and injecting it into your arm."

New York's top drug prosecutors and abuse experts are expresing outrage at the city's Health Department handout.

John Gilbride, who heads the Drug enforcement Administration's New York office, said, "it's basically step-by-step instructions on how to inject a poison."

City Council member Peter Vallone Jr. (D.-Queens), responded, "it's sick." Dr. Herbert, Columbia University drug researcher and treatment expert, simply stated: "Foolish."

As reported by the NY Post, "the 16-page pamphlet features seven comics-like illustrations and offers dope fiends such useful advice as 'warm you body (jump up and down) to show your veins,' and 'find the vein before you try to inject.'"

The guidebook even encourages addicts to continue jabbing if their needles don't hit the mark. It says, "if you don't 'register,' pull out and try again."

Experts contend that the brochure sends the wrong message about the dangers of the drug.

Gilbride said, "it concerns me that the city would produce a how-to on using drugs. Heroin is extremely potent. You may only get the chance to use it once. To suggest there is a method of using that alleviates the dangers, that's very disturbing."

Mr. Vallone, who chairs the public safety committee, pledged to depose of the distribution of the pamphlet.

He fumed, "this is a tremendous misuse of city funds, and I'm going to see what I can do to stop. It sends a message to our youth: give it a try."

To read the entire article from the New York Post, link here:

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