Times Square Ball drop preps

Workers inflate balloons, that will be distributed to the crowds during New Year's Eve celebrations at Times Square in Manhattan, New York on Monday. The New Year’s Eve Ball drop in Times Square is one of the most popular celebrations in the world where crowd estimates reach around a million people. 

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Disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein commits suicide at Manhattan jail

NEW YORK — Jeffrey Epstein, the financier indicted on sex trafficking charges last month, committed suicide at a Manhattan jail, officials said on Saturday.

Epstein hanged himself and his body was found at roughly 7:30 Saturday morning at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.

Manhattan federal prosecutors last month charged Epstein, 66, with sex trafficking of girls as young as 14, and details of his behavior have been emerging for years.

Epstein, a financier with opulent homes, a private jet and access to elite circles, had been dogged for decades by accusations that he had paid dozens of girls for sexual acts in Florida.

He previously avoided federal criminal charges in 2008 after prosecutors brokered a widely criticized deal that allowed him to plea to state charges of solicitation of prostitution from a minor and serve 13 months in jail. Even while in custody, Epstein was allowed to leave the jail for 12 hours a day, six days a week, to work at his office in Florida.

Last month, a week after being denied bail, Epstein was found unconscious in his cell at the jail in Manhattan with marks on his neck, and prison officials were investigating the incident as a possible suicide attempt.

It was not immediately clear on Saturday whether authorities had put in additional safeguards to watch him after the incident. The federal Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Martin Weinberg, Epstein’s defense lawyer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A cache of previously sealed legal documents, released on Friday by a federal appeals court, provided new, disturbing details about what was going on inside Epstein’s homes and how his associates recruited young women and girls, including from a Florida high school.

The documents — among the most expansive sets of materials publicly disclosed in the 13 years since Epstein was first charged with sex crimes — include depositions, police incident reports, photographs, receipts, flight logs and even a memoir written by a woman who said she was a sex trafficking victim of Epstein and his acquaintances.

The documents were filed as part of a defamation lawsuit in federal court that Virginia Giuffre brought in 2015 against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime companion and confidante. Giuffre and Maxwell settled the lawsuit shortly before the trial was to begin in 2017.

The Miami Herald and other media outlets petitioned the court to have the lawsuit documents unsealed. The request was initially denied, but an appeals court ordered them released last month.

Days after the ruling, on July 3, Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport after his private plane landed on a flight from Paris. Federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy.

Prosecutors said in their indictment that he and his employees engaged in a sex trafficking scheme, bringing girls as young as 14 to both his Upper East Side mansion and his palatial waterfront home in Palm Beach, Florida, between 2002 and 2005.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, he would have faced up to 45 years in prison.

Epstein had sought home detention at his Upper East Side mansion while he awaited trial. His lawyers had proposed allowing Epstein to post a substantial bond and stay in his luxurious seven-story townhouse, watched by 24-hour security guards, at his expense.

But a federal judge denied the request, concluding that Epstein was a flight risk, citing his “vast wealth,” which prosecutors have placed at more than $500 million.

Epstein, a former money manager with Wall Street experience, depicted himself as a wealthy financier with stellar investment savvy.

In addition to his homes in Florida and New York, he also owned a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a massive ranch in New Mexico and a residence in Paris. He had numerous high-end vehicles and access to private planes and helicopters.

Epstein levied his supposed financial prowess to cultivate connections to a dazzling assembly of elected officials, prominent scientists and business elites. His acquaintances, at various moments, included President Donald Trump, Stephen Hawking and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

Even after he served time in a Florida jail and became a registered sex offender, Epstein successfully maintained a reputation as a billionaire investor, philanthropist and sophist.

In the time since Epstein’s arrest, evidence has suggested that the former money manager’s business acumen was more myth than fact. His client list was not as extensive as believed, and the services he offered were less remarkable than once portrayed.

Earlier this week, perhaps Epstein’s most notable client, Leslie H. Wexner, the executive behind Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, accused Epstein of misappropriating “vast sums of money” from him and his family.

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How much to fight a Manhattan photobomber? Try $11 million

NEW YORK — In New York City’s forest of tall buildings, having a view is an inestimable commodity, to be treasured and, when necessary, fought over.

There have been pitched battles over Brooklyn Bridge vistas blocked by waterside apartments, and the shadows cast by billionaires’ apartment towers over Central Park.

But when the residents of a 12-story loft building in Chelsea learned that a proposed tower next door threatened to darken most of their windows and block their Empire State Building views, they tried a less confrontational approach.

They banded together to make the developer an unusual offer: $11 million not to build.

The gambit captured the kind of wealth that now courses through New York City, where residents of a former warehouse building — with full-floor apartments that stretch 5,600 square feet, twice the size of an average new American home — were willing to pay a hefty price just to protect a view.

The owners used a typical developer strategy and turned it on its head: They bought the developer’s air rights — normally used to allow for taller buildings than allowed — at the neighboring property.

But the loft owners have no intention of using those air rights to build; their full intent is to prevent the neighboring developer from building anything taller than the three- and four-story buildings that had been on the site, at Seventh Avenue and West 17th Street.

“Sometimes people have bought a dinky little asset next door,” said Jordan Barowitz, vice president of public affairs at the Durst Organization, a real estate firm. “But I’ve never heard of that much cash being spent for an intangible, for a view.”

The deal, which took place in 2016, has not been previously reported, and some of those involved were reluctant to discuss it.

“It was expensive,” said John R. Muse, 68, a Texas investor and absentee owner whose grown children live in the building, on West 17th Street. “I wouldn’t say prohibitively. But expensive.”

Not everyone paid the same amount, with lower-floor owners paying less and, on the lowest floors, nothing. Muse admitted, with some embarrassment, that he could not recall exactly how much he had paid — perhaps around $1 million for his unit’s share.

A review of records over the past 5 years by The New York Times turned up an instance of a similar deal between a condominium and an adjacent property owner. That one involved neighbors of the Zen Studies Society on East 67th Street.

In that case, residents of the neighboring 6-story apartment building paid $3.25 million to purchase the air rights from the Zen center, ensuring their windows would not be blocked in the future. They worried about future development on the site of the religious institution, which was facing legal trouble.

“It’s typically done by developers,” said one resident of the Upper East Side building, Ryan Freedman, who works in real estate. “This was the opposite of that.”

The L-shaped loft building in Chelsea, a few blocks from the West Village and Google’s New York headquarters, has been home to artists and celebrities drawn to its tall ceilings and sprawling space.

Meryl Streep’s husband, sculptor Don Gummer, once lived in the building, a former warehouse known as the Chelsea Prairie, as did actor Harrison Ford, who owned the penthouse until 2012, when he sold it for roughly $15 million. One unit recently sold for $9.75 million.

“At the price point, it just happened you had some valuable apartments and it was worth a fair amount of money to them,” said Jonathan L. Mechanic, chairman of the real estate at the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, who was not involved in the deal. “If you had $500,000 apartments, it would be much harder to get to $10 million.”

The idea for the deal materialized almost immediately after the developer, Gary Barnett of Extell Development, made clear his intention to erect a 145-foot condominium at Seventh Avenue and 17th Street, replacing a set of short buildings.

“He contacted the building management and said, ‘I’m putting a big building there,’ ” recalled Thomas Levine, 73, a painter who lived on the eighth floor for two decades and sold his apartment last month.

The proposed new building would have been roughly as tall as the L-shaped loft building — and positioned directly to its inside.

The residents moved quickly: Within about a week, a small group sat down with Barnett to offer to buy the air rights. He initially wanted far more than $11 million. Over several meetings, they haggled in Barnett’s offices. He never came to see the views.

Barnett recalled telling the residents that he would be willing to make a deal if they were willing to pay the right price. They were.

“It’s not common,” Barnett said. “Most of the time, they sue you and try and stop you somehow. These people stepped up to the plate and paid market value for the building rights.”

The deal took a few months to work out, but ended with a meeting in the sixth-floor unit to vote on the proposal. All agreed to go forward, even if, for some residents, it was a stretch.

“There were pros and cons about it,” Levine said. “But everybody realized that it was something we had to do. We wanted the light, we wanted the views, we wanted the value.”

Levine said he did not have enough available cash for the transaction, but that a neighbor was able to loan him the money.

“I think it was the most financial pressure on me,” Levine said, standing in the mostly empty corner living space where his studio had been. “But it would have been a disaster. It would have been a lot of dark.”

Now, instead of new condominiums, a short glassy commercial building is nearing completion at the corner, and nothing taller can ever replace it.

Unless, that is, someone some day shows up with an offer too good to turn down.


2019 New York Times News Service

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NY mayor criticized for being on campaign trail during blackout

NEW YORK, United States - New York Mayor and 2020 presidential candidate Bill de Blasio found himself under fire Sunday -- notably from the state's governor -- for being out of town when a major blackout hit the city because he was campaigning in Iowa.

The hours-long blackout on Saturday night, which plunged Times Square into darkness and brought subways to a halt, affected more than 70,000 customers on Manhattan's West Side.

The power returned gradually from around 10:00 pm (0200 GMT Sunday), with full service restored at about midnight. The cause is still under investigation.

De Blasio had planned to spend the night in Iowa, and initially told CNN he needed more information before he could decide whether or not to rush home. That hesitation earned him quick scorn on the internet and beyond.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat like De Blasio, pulled no punches when he himself appeared on CNN.

"Mayors are important and situations like this come up and you have to be on site," Cuomo said late Saturday.

Despite their party affiliation, there is no love lost between the pair, and they are often at odds politically.

Cuomo arrived in the city as the blackout was still ongoing and was giving a press conference as the lights started to come back on.

De Blasio eventually returned home late Saturday and took to the airwaves on Sunday to defend himself.

"The important thing is to have the hand on the wheel and make sure things are moving effectively and communicate to people," he told CNN.

"When you're a mayor, or a governor, you're going to travel for a variety of reasons."

But Cuomo said during his eight years in office, "I can count the number of times I leave the state basically on my fingers."

"I think it's important to be in a place where you can always respond but everybody makes their own political judgment," he added.

tu/sst/wd

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Huge power outage plunges Manhattan into darkness

NEW YORK - A power outage gripped New York's Manhattan on Saturday, sending Broadway theaters plunging into darkness, subways grinding to a halt and flicking off billboards in Times Square.

About 42,000 customers lost electricity in the early evening, according to the Con Edison utility.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter that the outage was caused by a "manhole fire," but later told CNN it was under investigation.

"This appears to be something that just went wrong in the way that they transmit power from one part of the city to another to address demand," de Blasio said.

On social media, dozens of users posted photos of subway stations bathed in darkness.

"While Con Edison works to restore power in Manhattan, we encourage everyone to avoid below-ground subway stations," New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Twitter.

Firefighters said they were responding to numerous requests for help, particularly from people trapped in elevators.

New Yorkers took Saturday's outage in stride, with passersby standing in intersections to direct traffic and a disrupted Carnegie Hall concert continuing in the street.

The cut affected the western chunk of Manhattan, particularly the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood and the Broadway theater district.

It took place on the anniversary of the 1977 "Blackout" power cut that affected virtually the entirety of New York in the midst of an economic crisis.

Looting and vandalism then broke out, affecting more than a thousand businesses.

Twenty-five hours and several hundred arrests later, the lights came back on.

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One dead as helicopter crash-lands on Manhattan building

NEW YORK -- A helicopter crash-landed on top of a high-rise in midtown Manhattan Monday, starting a fire and leaving one person dead as the entire building shook from the impact.

Emergency services fanned out around the 54-story building on Seventh Avenue after what was described as a "hard-landing" by a chopper that took off barely 10 minutes earlier from a heliport in the city.

The New York fire department confirmed 1 fatality -- presumed to be the pilot according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Speaking at the scene, de Blasio said it "could have been a much worse incident."

"There were no other injuries that we know of at this point in time to anyone in the building or on the ground," he said: adding: "Thank god for that."

The pilot was the only person on board the chopper according to US aviation regulators.

"There is no indication at this time that this was an act of terror," said de Blasio. "And there is no ongoing threat to New York city based on all the information we have right now."

Video footage of the aftermath of the crash showed a gray plume of smoke drifting away from the top of the building.

The city fire department said it had extinguished a fire on the building's roof, and was continuing to operate in response to fuel leaking from the helicopter. 

Nathan Hutton, who works in the building on the 29th floor, said he had "felt the whole building shift." 

"We thought it was an earthquake or something like that," he told AFP. "Something small like that. Then two minutes after, the alarms went off and then security came in: 'Everybody just grab your bag and walk out the door now!'" 

He said there was no panic, but going down the stairs "was scary because everybody from all the floors" was descending "all at the same time" -- a process that took half an hour.

"There was no shouting but a little nervousness, with the occasional, 'C'mon, move!" he added. 

TRUMP BRIEFED 

The Federal Aviation Administration tweeted identified the chopper as an Agusta A109E and said the crash occurred about 1:45 pm (1745 GMT).

President Donald Trump said he had been kept informed of the situation.

"I have been briefed on the helicopter crash in New York City. Phenomenal job by our GREAT First Responders who are currently on the scene. THANK YOU for all you do 24/7/365! The Trump Administration stands ready should you need anything at all," Trump tweeted.

The city fire department urged people to avoid the area.

Five people died after a helicopter plunged into Manhattan's east river near the upscale Upper East Side neighborhood in March 2018.

The chopper, which was owned by tourism group Liberty, was carrying six people including the pilot, who managed to free himself. The other five did not.

That crash led US aviation authorities to review regulations for so-called "doors off" flights, which provide passengers with a more direct view of the skyline than flights with the aircraft's doors shut.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tree lighting ushers Christmas in New York

People watch the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, on Wednesday. Countdown continues as the world waits for the most celebrated Holiday of the year.

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Jollibee teases Manhattan branch opening with selfies around New York

MANILA -- Jollibee said it would open a store in Manhattan on Saturday and teased fans with a video of its mascot taking selfies around New York.

The Manhattan store will be launched one week after the Philippines' largest fast food operator opened a store in London, attracting long lines from homesick Filipinos who traveled to the British capital from other parts of Europe.

The Jollibee mascot stopped for selfies in Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park and the Statue of Liberty in the video, which had 88,000 views as of Friday.

Jollibee did not give an exact time for the opening. New York City is 12 hours behind Manila.

Aside from the eponymous burger and fried chicken chain that is loved by Filipinos, Jollibee also has a stake in American burger restaurant Smashburger and is eyeing a Mexican food venture.

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Jollibee to open stores in UK, Macau, Manhattan and New York

MANILA - The Philippines' largest food operator Jollibee Food Corp. (JFC) on Wednesday said it would open its first stores in the United Kingdom, Manhattan (USA), and Macau (China) as part of its overseas expansion plans. 

The first Jollibee store in the UK will open on Oct. 20, the outlet in Macau will open on Sept. 28, while branches in Manhattan and in New York will open in a few months, JFC said in a statement. 

"JFC is bringing the company’s well-loved brand to Filipinos abroad to give them a taste of home," JFC said. 

Aside from serving Filipinos overseas, Jollibee said it has "seen success" in serving locals, especially in Vietnam and Brunei where most of their customers are locals. 

In Singapore, more than half of its customers are locals, JFC said. 

"JFC envisions to continue replicating its success in the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Hong Kong and Singapore in other markets soon," it said. 

The company hopes to be among the world's top 5 largest restaurant companies in terms of market capitalization. To do that, JFC is focusing on the two largest economies, namely China and the US, while sustaining growth in the country. 

JFC recently announced its plans to build a "significant" Mexican food business in the US. It also recently raised its stake in Smashburger to 85 percent for $100 million.

The company in March also opened a Jollibee branch in Milan, Italy its first in Europe.

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1 killed in apartment fire at Trump Tower in New York

NEW YORK - One person was killed and 4 firefighters received minor injuries in an apartment fire on the 50th floor of Trump Tower in New York on Saturday, in a blaze that was quickly extinguished, fire officials said.

The victim, a male resident, died at the hospital and has not yet been identified, they said.

US President Donald Trump, who has an office and a private residence in the midtown Manhattan structure, was not in the building at the time.

"Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!" Trump tweeted.

Fire officials have not yet released a suspected cause of the blaze, adding no member of the Trump family was in the building at the time.

"This was a very difficult fire. As you can imagine, the apartment is quite large, we are 50 stories up. The rest of the building had a considerable amount of smoke," Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said on Twitter.

About 200 fire personnel responded to the incident that the department said was a 4-alarm fire.

Video on social media showed flames outside of a few windows and black smoke billowing up from the high-rise.

In January, 3 people were injured in an early-morning fire at the top of Trump Tower. One firefighter was hospitalized while 2 people received minor injuries that were treated at the scene, the New York Fire Department said.

In addition to the president's 66th-floor penthouse, Trump Tower houses the headquarters of the Trump Organization as well as other residences, offices and stores.

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Blast rocks New York; suspect in custody

NEW YORK  - An explosion rocked New York's Port Authority, one of the city's busiest commuter hubs, on Monday morning and police said one suspect was injured and in custody but that no one else was hurt in the rush-hour incident.

Police confirmed one person was in custody but were not yet identifying the device used. Local news channel WABC cited police sources as saying a possible pipe bomb detonated in a passageway below ground at Port Authority and WPIX cited sources as saying a man with a “possible second device” has been detained in the subway tunnel.

The bus terminal was temporarily closed, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a Twitter statement.

“There was a stampede up the stairs to get out,” said Diego Fernandez, one of the commuters at Port Authority. “Everybody was scared and running and shouting.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and President Donald Trump have been briefed on the incident, according to local media and the White House.

News of the incident jarred financial markets as trading was getting underway for the week. Standard & Poor's 500 index emini futures pared gains, the dollar weakened against the yen and U.S. Treasury securities prices gained on a modest flight-to-safety bid.

The incident occurred less than two months after an Uzbek immigrant killed eight people by speeding a rental truck down a New York City bike path, in an attack for which Islamic State claimed responsibility.

In September 2016, a man injured more than two dozen people when he set off a homemade bomb in New York's Chelsea district.

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Exuberant and defiant, New Yorkers flock to Halloween parade despite attack

NEW YORK - Thousands of merry-makers, many dressed in elaborate Halloween costumes, paraded through lower Manhattan on Tuesday, undeterred by the attack that unfolded just hours earlier when a driver mowed down dozens of people on a bike path a few blocks away.

   
Revelers who joined the 44th annual Village Halloween Parade said they were painfully aware that eight people were killed in what authorities say was an act of terrorism but carried on with the festivities to show fortitude and solidarity with the victims.

"You gotta live your life, you can’t let things like this discourage you,” said 60-year old Michael Spain along the route. “As sobering as they are, you still gotta come out and enjoy stuff like this - or they win."

Thousands of people in costumes took part in the annual celebration along Greenwich Village's Sixth Avenue, typically one of the nation's largest Halloween parades. Hundreds of uniformed police officers maintained a steady presence throughout the mile-long route.

"Out of an abundance of caution, you will see an increase of NYPD personnel throughout NYC, including the Halloween Parade," the New York City Police Department said on Twitter.

Among the participants were a Rio de Janeiro-style group with the drums, witches and ghosts, and a massive Día de los Muertos group with 12-foot-tall skeletons.

"Tonight we're at a Halloween parade to say, you didn't win and you didn't affect us, and we're out and we're celebrating and we're doing what New Yorkers do and we're living our lives because we're not going to allow the terrorists to win. Period," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN.

"And that's why I'm here marching in the parade, not because I have a great costume." said Cuomo, who was dressed in a suit and tie.

Jorge Arias, the owner of a wine shop and an adjacent bar near King Street, said that the crowd was slightly smaller than in past years but not by much.

“By 5 o’clock the street was a bit empty and last year it was already full,” Arias, 42, said in Spanish. "But now the crowds are more normal compared to last year. Maybe a little less, but almost the same.”

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In 2nd day of anti-Trump protests, civil rights a top concern

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - Demonstrators took to the streets across the country for a second day on Thursday to protest the Republican presidential election victory of real estate mogul Donald Trump, voicing fears that his triumph would strike a blow against civil rights.

Beefing up protection for two of Trump's marquee properties that have become protest rallying points, police erected security fences around his newly opened Pennsylvania Avenue hotel in Washington and placed concrete blocks in front of the high-rise Trump Tower in Manhattan.

About 100 protesters marched from the White House, where Trump had his first transition meeting with President Barack Obama on Thursday, to the Trump International Hotel blocks away, chanting "love Trumps hate."

"This generation deserves better than Donald Trump," said Lily Morton, 17, joining classmates from the Georgetown Day School. "The queer people, colored people, women, girls, everyone that is going to be affected by this, we need to protest to help them."

Later in the day in Los Angeles, a small band of anti-Trump protesters marched onto a freeway near downtown, blocking traffic until police cleared them away.

Trump's critics have expressed concern that his often-inflammatory campaign rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims, women and others - combined with support he has drawn from the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists - could spark a wave of intolerance against various minorities.

Anti-Trump rallies were held in more than a dozen major US cities on Wednesday, with thousands turning out for each of the biggest gatherings - in New York, Los Angeles and Oakland, California. In Oakland, unruly protesters smashed windows, set fires and clashed with riot police.

A Trump campaign representative did not respond to requests for comment on the protests. Taking a far more conciliatory tone in his acceptance speech early Wednesday than he had at many of his campaign events, Trump vowed to be a president for all Americans.

Earlier this month, his campaign rejected a Klan newspaper endorsement, saying Trump "denounces hate in any form."

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and a high-profile Trump supporter, called the demonstrators "a bunch of spoiled cry-babies," in an interview with Fox News.

White House spokesman Joshua Earnest said Obama supported demonstrators' right to express themselves peacefully.

'GET IT OUT OF THEIR SYSTEMS'

Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer urged the protesters to give Trump a chance once he is sworn into office in January.

"I hope that people get it out of their systems ... but then they give this man that was just elected very historically and his new vice president an opportunity to govern," Spicer said in an interview on MSNBC.

In San Francisco, more than 1,000 high school students walked out of classes Thursday morning and marched through the city's financial district carrying rainbow flags representing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, Mexican flags and signs decrying Trump.

Several hundred students at Texas State University in San Marcos took to the campus to protest Trump's election, with many saying they fear he will infringe the civil rights of minorities and the LGBT community.

Civil rights groups and police reported an uptick in attacks on members of minority groups, in some cases carried out by people claiming to support Trump. There were also reports of Trump opponents lashing out violently against people carrying signs indicating support for Trump.

Organizers used social media to plan and schedule many of the protests. A Facebook group named "#NotMyPresident," formed by college and high school students, called for an anti-Trump rally on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

Several hundred protesters gathered in New York's Washington Square Park. Three miles (5 km) to the north at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, where the president-elect lives, Alex Conway, 29, stood holding a "not my president" sign.

"This sign is not to say he isn't the president of the United States, but for two days I can use my emotion to be against this outcome and to express that he's not mine," said Conway, who works in the film industry.

More anti-Trump demonstrations were planned for the weekend.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

At least 1 dead after construction crane collapses in Manhattan

A construction crane collapsed in downtown Manhattan on Friday morning, killing at least one person and seriously injuring two others.

A massive construction crane collapsed in downtown Manhattan on Friday morning, killing at least one person and seriously injuring two others, a spokesman for the New York City Fire Department said.

There were preliminary reports of additional injuries by some local media, but Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.

A New York Police Department spokesman said the crane collapse was reported at 8:24 a.m. EST at the intersection of Worth Street and Broadway.

Photographs showed the crane lying on top of several crushed vehicles. It stretched out for more than one city block, according to the New York Department of Transportation.

The two injured persons were transported to a hospital, the fire official said.

Local media reported that several people were trapped inside cars.

The streets around the collapse were shut to vehicular traffic, and a major subway line running the length of Manhattan bypassed a station near the accident.

The fire department said on Twitter that the collapse occurred near 40 Worth St. Pictures released by the department showed the crane flipped upside down.

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Knicks forward Williams reports stolen jewelry

NEW YORK - New York Knicks forward Derrick Williams has reported to New York police that $617,000 in jewelry is missing from his apartment.

Authorities say two women are the subject of a search in the case after surveillance video showed them leaving a club last Saturday and going to Williams' home.

After 90 minutes in Williams' upscale Manhattan apartment, the women departed and Williams later found the jewelry missing, then filed a report with the police.

Among the missing items Williams listed were a $50,000 diamond Rolex watch, three diamond rings worth an estimated $30,000 and three gold chains valued at $35,000.

Williams, 24, was the second pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. He is averaging 7.3 points a game his season for the Knicks, who are 14-16, fourth worst in the Eastern Conference.

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Fil-Am Jedis, Siths join epic lightsaber battle in NY

NEW YORK – It was the biggest gathering of lightsaber-fighting Jedis and Siths in the not so far away galaxy of Manhattan.

The epic lightsaber battle took place at the Washington Square Park as the Force awakened Friday.

Fil-Am Mike Pasigan is one of the founders of the New York Jedis – a community of cosplayers, martial artists, and teachers who train students with practical stage combat techniques using lightsabers.

"We are the longest running one in New York. It's for fun, our instructors do teach based on martial skills. Most of us are martial artists, sword fighters at one point or another or stage combatants," Pasigan said.

Pasigan and his Jedis have performed their lightsaber routines at comic book conventions, Star Wars themed parties and even in indie films.

"You don’t have to know anything if you’re coming in as a student. Our instructors have enough style and experience that they’ll teach you and we have so many different styles that you can pick and choose," he said.

Some students start with inexpensive plastic models and then graduate to custom sabers they would make themselves ranging in price from $100 to $5,000.

Young Padawans can learn the way of the force Thursday nights at the Ripley Grier Studios to become urban Jedis.

Many others came to the epic lightsaber battle just to experience the fun.

"I thought it was really exciting and really interesting," said Star Wars fan Hadi Opena Rushdy. "I thought I’d come, maybe borrow a sword and get a new profile picture para sa Facebook ‘di ba, ang saya."

Read more on Balitang America.

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NBA player Sefolosha acquitted in New York nightclub case

NEW YORK - Atlanta Hawks player Thabo Sefolosha was acquitted by a jury on Friday of all charges related to an April confrontation with New York City police outside a nightclub that left him with a broken leg.

Sefolosha, a 31-year-old Swiss citizen who missed the rest of the National Basketball Association season last spring after suffering the injury, was found not guilty by a six-member jury on charges of obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

The April 8 incident took place at 4 a.m. outside the 1 OAK nightclub in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood where Indiana Pacers forward Chris Copeland and his former fiancée were stabbed.

"It's troubling to me that with so much evidence in my support that this case would even be brought to trial and that I had to defend myself so hard to get justice," Sefolosha said in a statement.

"It was important to me as a man, a father to two young girls and as a role model, to stand up for what I believe in and have my name cleared of any wrongdoing."

Sefolosha and Pero Antic, another member of the Hawks, were taken into custody at the time of the incident for allegedly interfering with the arrest and trying to prevent police from setting up a crime scene.

The case against Antic was dismissed while Sefolosha chose to go to trial, rejecting a plea deal offered by prosecutors. Both had been ordered by police to leave the area outside the club after the stabbing occurred.

Documents in the case showed Antic was attempting to calm an escalating situation between a police officer and Sefolosha, when he grabbed the officer's shoulder but did not cause any injury.

"Thabo is a man of great character and we are proud that he took a principled approach to proving his innocence," Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer said.

"We are extremely happy for him and his family, and we are very pleased with today's verdict in his favor."

The Hawks open their regular season schedule on Oct. 27 against the Detroit Pistons and it was uncertain if Sefolosha, a guard-forward who has played 10 NBA seasons, would be healthy enough to play.

The game is on the same day that the 22-year-old defendant in the stabbing case, Shezoy Bleary, is due back in court to face assault and weapons charges.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why this book is irking Manhattan's super-rich

NEW YORK - It's a mommy memoir causing a rumpus in New York: how pill-popping, wine-quaffing, uber-rich mothers on Manhattan's Upper East Side get year-end bonuses from their husbands and hire tutors for toddlers.

"Primates of Park Avenue" is the latest in a long line of books devoted to the unimaginable wealth of the one percent in a city where some estimate that more than 20 percent of children live in homes without enough to eat.

Author Wednesday Martin seeks to distinguish the book from the jungle of other literature about extravagant excesses by mixing anecdote with anthropology.

The blonde mother of two with a husband in finance peppers her eyebrow-raising assertions with observations made by the English primatologist Jane Goodall in her study of chimpanzees in Tanzania.

She equates her quest to acquire an ultra-exclusive Hermes "Birkin" handbag -- which can sell for $150,000 or more -- to a chimp seeking to show strength in the wild.

Martin details gender segregation at dinner parties, where men and women sit at separate tables, and portrays women as "Manhattan geishas" who sculpt their bodies and beauty to the extreme.

Thin and anxious, mommies self-medicate with wine -- served at playdates, even as early as 11 am -- and prescription drugs.

She feigns horror in discovering her son has the wrong birthday in a culture of "redshirting" -- timing pregnancies so children are born in the autumn, so they are the oldest, and presumably the most intellectually developed, in their age group.

Reviews of the book -- presented as an "anthropological memoir" -- have been decidedly mixed.

"An amusing, perceptive and, at times, thrillingly evil takedown of upper-class culture," wrote The New York Times.

"Sexist and harsh," said Elle magazine.

The New York Post fact fact-checked the book and alleged that it was "full of lies," among others that Martin had lived on the Upper East Side for three years with one child, not six years with two children.

Neither was she pregnant and confined to bed rest, dressed in pearls and a jacket when being interviewed for a condo, as the book said.

Author 'has not lied'

Martin and publishers Simon and Schuster have stood by the book, but say future copies will come with an author's note to explain that some names, characteristics and chronologies had been changed.

Cary Goldstein, executive director of publicity at Simon and Schuster, said that such notes were "totally customary" for memoirs.

"The author has not lied. There isn't a movement or backlash against Wednesday Martin," Goldstein told AFP.

The brouhaha has certainly been good for sales. Released on June 2, it is already number one on Amazon's list of best-selling memoirs.

"The book is doing very well," Goldstein said. The publishers are in the sixth printing run, with 63,000 copies produced.

An essay written by Martin introducing the book is the third most emailed article on The New York Times website in the last 30 days.

"Many people are fascinated and some people may have been appalled by the lifestyles of the very wealthy. People live vicariously or they live in judgment," Goldstein said.

What is clear is that the slim tome about New York's wealthiest zip code has sparked fury, bafflement and confusion from ladies who have flocked to the papers saying she's got it all wrong.

"I think it's an effort to dehumanize these people -- it seems to be a divisive book designed to humiliate a group of people," People magazine quoted an anonymous uptown mom as complaining.

In particular, wealthy women scoff at her much-hyped, passing remark that glam stay-at-home moms get a percentage of their husband's year-end bonus for looking good and taking care of the kids.

"I don't know anybody, and I mean anybody, who has something like that written in their pre-nup. And I know a lot of people," Vanity Fair quoted Upper East Sider Allison Aston as saying.

"It might be happening in extreme cases, but it's certainly not the norm."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Stars, presidents join Letterman for final act

NEW YORK -- Hollywood stars Steve Martin and Tina Fey, comedians Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld and a host of U.S. presidents joined the band Foo Fighters on Wednesday to bid farewell to David Letterman as the veteran "Late Show" host signed off for the last time.

The show as expected featured no sit-down guest interviews, relying heavily on clips of Letterman shows going all the way back to his 1980s morning show on NBC, people who attended said.

It opened with old footage of former President Gerald Ford intoning, out of context: "Our long national nightmare is finally over," referring at the time to the Watergate scandal.

In succession, Presidents George H. and George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and finally Barack Obama all repeated Ford's pronouncement verbatim, in joking reference to Letterman's retirement.

A bevy of top names turned up for one of Letterman's signature bits, the nightly Top 10 list, which was entitled "top 10 things I've always wanted to say to Dave." Barbara Walters, Jim Carrey, Peyton Manning, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Alec Baldwin, Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Bill Murray, Fey and Martin took aim.

"I'm just glad your show has been given to another white guy," was Rock's contribution, making reference to Letterman's successor Stephen Colbert, who takes over in September.

Notably absent was longtime rival and former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, although Letterman quipped in his monologue "I'll be honest with you - it's beginning to look like I'm not going to get 'The Tonight Show.'"

More of his trademark self-deprecation followed when he observed that he had done more than 6,000 shows, then joked that noted physicist Stephen Hawking had calculated "It works out to about eight minutes of laughter."

The 68-year-old host, famed for his quick wit, sarcasm, offbeat humor, often snarky attitude and silly stunts, hosted top stars and presidents in his final weeks, much as he did during 33 years on late night television at NBC and CBS.

For his swansong, Letterman, who started in television as a weatherman in his native Indianapolis, dropped his edginess and instead thanked his staff, his audience and CBS executives, including president and CEO Les Moonves who was on hand.

Letterman even took a moment to introduce his wife Regina and son Harry as the lights briefly came up in the Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan's Times Square district.

The show, which ran long at more than one hour and 15 minutes, ended as Letterman told viewers "thank you and good night," turning the stage over to his favorite band Foo Fighters.

The group performed "Everlong," once said by Letterman to be his favorite, as a montage of clips from his shows played.

"It was a heart-warming and heartfelt goodbye," said Victor King of Los Angeles, who flew in to attend the historic show.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

New York City nail salon workers file lawsuit over wages

NEW YORK - Two New York City manicurists on Thursday filed a proposed class action lawsuit claiming four nail salons routinely violated minimum wage and overtime laws, days after a New York Times investigation revealed rampant wage theft and hazardous conditions in the industry.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says employees at the salons, which have the same owners and are all on Manhattan's Upper East Side, are paid $60 or less for 10-hour shifts and often denied breaks.

The lawsuit said the salons - Nailsway, Naulo Nails, Nailsmetic and Nailscure - violated New York's minimum wage law and a federal law requiring time-and-a-half pay for overtime as well as meal and rest breaks.

One of the owners of the salons, Surya Gurang, did not respond to a request for comment.

The New York Times over the last week has published a series of articles that say nail salon owners routinely exploit employees, particularly immigrants, paying them as little as $30 a day and failing to provide equipment or ventilation to safely deal with toxic chemicals.

Gregory Filosa, the lawyer who filed Thursday's lawsuit, said in an interview that his clients, Blanca Fernandez and Gloria Marca, approached him before the Times articles were published.

The minimum wage claims were filed on behalf of anyone who worked at the salons over the last six years, while the overtime and break claims go back three years. Filosa said the minimum wage class would probably include more than 50 people.

In response to the Times articles, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said this week that he was creating a task force to investigate nail salons and establish new rules to protect manicurists from harmful chemicals.

Cuomo also said regulators would begin an education campaign, notifying workers of their rights in six different languages.

Filosa said the campaign could lead to a rise in lawsuits against nail salons as employees realize their bosses have been violating labor laws.

The case is Fernandez v. Nailsway Inc, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 15-cv-3710.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com