Photograph of Fidel Castro from 2006, proving he was alive after intestinal surgery and wearing an Adidas tracksuit Cuban president Fidel Castro resigned his position after nearly 50 years of rule. The 81-year-old Castro has been battling illness since 2006, notably turning over power to his brother Raul and other ministers temporarily. Though he was still ruling after his 2006 surgery, Castro was little seen. Now it is expected that Castro's resignation positions Raul......

Sure Mongolia is a sparsely populated nation with a GDP just over 25% of what Wall St. alone pays out in bonuses, but this is New York City; and you gotta pay what you owe. So said a U.S. District Court judge Friday, when he ruled that India, Mongolia, and the Phillipines owed New York City tens of millions of dollars in back taxes. Generally consulates, missions, and embassies operate under the convention that they......

Video of "Meat and You: Partners in Freedom" from The Simpsons episode, Lisa the Vegetarian After the Humane Society revealed a tape of mistreatment of cows at the nation's "No. 2 supplier of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program," burgers and other beef products were temporarily yanked off NYC schools' menus. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had put an "administrative hold" on all products from Hallmark Meat Packing Packing in Chino, CA......

In 2001 Manhattan band The Strokes burst onto the scene with their debut LP Is This It. The album cover featured a tightly cropped shot of a nude model wearing (presumably) only a black glove. And now, finally, after all these years, we get to meet that model. In the below video she speaks out about the impromptu cover shot. According to the sometimes accurate Wikipedia, "the album cover [non-US version] has been ranked as......

The U.S. financial markets may have been closed due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance, but stock markets around the world tumbled as worries over the U.S. economy took hold. Johan Stein, who manages about $14 billion at an asset management firm in Stockholm told Bloomberg, "It's the worst I've ever seen. The financial system is in terrible shape, and no one knows where this will end.'' Many investors are doubtful that President......

A speeding U-Haul driver lost control and drove into an Arby's in Fresh Meadows, Queens, killing one customer. Sixty-seven-year-old Caroline Leung and her husband had been eating near a window, and the Daily News reports the crashing van threw her from her seat and she was "pinned against a counter that holds the soda machines." A witness said, "There was blood everywhere on the floor and shattered glass. It was like worse than a......

A grand jury voted to indict former police commissioner Bernard Kerik on federal corruption charges yesterday and, this morning, he surrender to the FBI in White Plains. The indictment was sealed, but the 16 counts include charges of "conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, tax fraud and making false statements." The U.S. Attorney's office, which sought the indictment, and the FBI are giving a press conference now; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York......

The Smart car has arrived in the States, and measuring at 8 feet and 8 inches long and 5 feet wide, the miniscule vehicle got some big attention in the Big Apple this week. The car is around 3 feet shorter than the Mini Cooper, and could probably fit inside most of the gas guzzling SUVs in town. The 1800-pounder will hit the market stateside in early 2008, but will anyone want it? Business Week......

TONY blog has a report on the most endangered sites in the world. The World Monuments Fund released its 2008 list yesterday, which is packed with far off places. The U.S. isn't exempt, of course, with a whopping seven endangered structures: the Salk Institute in California, the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Florida Southern University Historic Campus, historic neighborhoods of New Orleans, Route 66, Main Street Modern, Tutuveni Petroglyph Site in Arizona and our very own New......

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Fire Department, saying that FDNY exams in 1999 and 2002 discriminated against black and Hispanic candidates. Black and HIspanic candidates fail the exam at much higher rates, and currently, the blacks and Hispanics make up only 7.5% of the FDNY's 11,000 firefighters. The NY Times notes that the fire departments of LA and Philadelphia are more than 40% black or Hispanic. The lawsuit claims the......

In the odd case where you murder someone in a small town and need to escape quickly to the anonymity of a large city, you hop a bus to NYC, right? Wrong. Two Ohioans were arrested late last night and this morning in connection with a shooting death in their homestate. A third person is still being searched for. 22-year-old Megan Arensburg and and 17-year old Ashley Baker were arrested and accused for shooting a......

There are some very observant drivers on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and BQE. WCBS 2 reports that a number of drivers called 911 to report that a freighter ship was sinking in the New York Harbor. But it turns out the freighter, Dockwise Swan, is actually supposed to sink a little bit! The ship is a "semi-submersible," and can submerge to allow cargo to be taken on or off using the "float-on/float-off," "roll-on/roll-off," "skid-on/skid-off, or "lift-on/lift-off"......

The U.N. invited Pope Benedict XVI to NYC earlier this year and the pontiff just accepted. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon extended the invite recently and the pope agreed to an as-yet-unscheduled visit. The previous pope, John Paul II, visited New York twice, in 1979 and again in 1995. His first visit was frenetic in a manner that belied the man's later physical frailty: He headed first to the United Nations, where he met......

We love it when an itty-bitty concrete city park gets in the way of larger agendas, only because we hope that it results in the park's users receiving a totally overcompensatory parting prize. In what will be marked as one of the least ironic moves of New York development ever, the city wants to bulldoze the Robert Moses Playground on 42nd St. and 1st Ave. to construct a 35-story tower. So far, the primary interest......

Interesting: The new United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon asked Mayor Bloomberg deploying NYPD officers on U.N. peacekeeping missions. The U.N. tells the AP that one of its priorities is to recruit international police for its peacekeeping missions, and a spokesperson said, "New York City has one of the most diversified police forces around." The city has been unable to recruit enough police officers lately - the NYPD's low starting salary isn't helping - which makes......

There may be March Madness in the air, but East Village Idiot has the cure for New Yorkers who can't get behind the NCAA: March Radness, which take 64 disparate NYC moments/ people/ objects/ stores/ trends/ nonsense and sees who will reign supreme. Some key matchups are:Bloomberg Region - The U.E.S Crowd (seeded 7) vs. The B&T Crowd (10) - Trans Fat (1) vs. Rats at Taco Bell (16) Isiah Region - The Knicks......

A beloved Bronx Zoo grizzly bear died last week at age 13. "Jughead" had been ill for months and had also undergone surgery for abdominal abscesses according to the AP. The Bronx Zoo is planning a necropsy, and the zoo's director said, "Jughead was a wonderful, charismatic animal and he will be missed by all of our staff and visitors." Jughead and three other bears, brother Archie, Betty and Veronica, had been rescued from Montana......

In an effort to keep the United Nations in NYC, Mayor Bloomberg may revive an old plan to create more office space that could benefit both the U.N. and other city developers. The NY Sun reports that the plan would involve building "swing space" for the U.N. during the renovation of the Secretariat building. One possible place for the swing space: Long Island City. Picture it, ferries of U.N. employees across the East River! The......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a "rampaging squirrel" in Brooklyn, found skeletal remains on the Upper West Side, and a "suspicious person" on the GWB. The East 62nd Street lot that the Bartha house sat on before it was blown up by its owner has been sold for "near or above the $8million asking price." Even after all of the lawsuits are settled, that's still a nice chunk of change for his estranged ex-wife......

Last Monday, after months of planning, tugboats attempted to move the USS Intrepid from Pier 86 on Manhattan's West Side to Bayonne, NJ for repairs. Unfortunately, the aircraft carrier's propellers were partially stuck in the mud and couldn't be budged. But now the Navy is coming to the rescue, agreeing to send a salvage team to dredge Intrepid and have it moved within three weeks. Apparently there were appeals from many levels of New York......

Federal prosecutors have indicted a United Nations official with bribery, for accepting bribes in return for very favorable real estate offerings. The U.N. Procurement Chief Sanjaya Bahel allegedly helped Nishan Kohli get contracts, and in return, Kohli offered an apartment at the Dag Hammarskjold Towers. From the NY Post:The indictment alleged Kohli, who has also been charged with bribery, bought the condo in 2003 and rented the $8,600-a-month unit to Bahel and his family for......

Yay! It's Daylight Saving Time, which means at 2AM this morning, it magically went back to being 1AM. Well, it's "Yay!" for the extra hour of sleep you get, but then it's "Argh!" when you think of how dark it'll be at 5-5:30PM. The U.S. Naval Observatory explains why we fall back or spring forward, and reminds us that next year, we'll be falling back during the first Sunday of November. (The date has been......

Yesterday, the countries on the United Nations Security Council had an emegency meeting after North Korea announced it had tested a nuclear device. The U.S. proposed cargo inspections and limited sanctions to North Korea (including luxury items - and Kim Jong Il loves his Henessy), as well as banning any military trade. The North Korea nuclear tests now bring up some new questions about how the administration handled the situation, making international policy even more......

You might envy the charm of brownstone life, but apparently one pitfall is that the some mail carriers don't like to deliver the mail to them. The NY Sun examines the situation after some Brooklyn residents realized their mail wasn't coming. Mail carriers feel stoops are dangerous especially in winter weather, and lately some residents' mail has been "rained upon, blown away, and destroyed." You'd think the mail would have to be delivered at the......

You know it's the fall movie season because it's all about actors and their performances. In the noir-lite period film, Hollywoodland, Oscar-winner Adrien Brody plays a LA two-bit gumshoe hired to investigate the mysterious death of actor George Reeves. What makes this movie worth a viewing is the strong acting by the whole cast. Ben Affleck as Reeves, a TV actor who always wanted to be more than his Superman persona, gives a performance that......

There's a Battle Royale going on in the atmosphere today and we've got ringside seats! Tropical Storm Ernesto is moving up from the south, bringing with it lots of rain and wind. At the same time the Andre the Giant of high pressure systems is moving southeastward from Quebec. Irresistable Ernesto wants to hug the coast as it moves northward, but when it hits immovable Andre, Ernesto is going to be shuffled off to Buffalo.......

Senator Charles Schumer painted a grim picture of what could happen during an emergency at the United Nations' headquarters as he asked that the UN's much-delayed renovation to move ahead. Schumer noted that that if the Secretariat building "were owned by a private company there would be so many violations the government could close it down." The Secretariat has no internal sprinkler system and does not comply with many city fire and safety codes, plus......

The U.S. doesn't like the Hezbollah, and U.S. Attorneys certainly don't like Hezbollah TV, as they charged Staten Island TV salesman Javed Iqbal with providing customers with a Hezbollah TV station in a satellite TV package. The U.S. Treasury called Al Manar a terror organization earlier this year, leading to the feds to bust Iqbal. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Mark Dubowitz tipped the feds about Iqbal's transmissions, and then here's the Post's explanation......

-Mets 10, Cardinals 8: With the Yankees in Seattle, the Mets can enjoy three straight nights of dominance in the 7-10 p.m. viewing window. Thanks to some shoddy pitching -- they gave back six runs of an eight-run lead -- the Mets crept past 10 p.m. Steve Trachsel couldn't thrive with a huge cushion, but the Mets' early damage off Mark Mulder proved too much to overcome. Remember, St. Louis is the National League Central......

After surveying flood damage around the region, Governor George Pataki came to Manhattan with good news: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection office will lease 600,000 square feet in Freedom Tower. At a rate of $40-50 per square foot, this is considerably less than midtown rents which are around $75 per square foot (the agency has a few offices around town), but they won't be able to move in for five or so years.......