Queens, NY - An American Airlines Boeing 767-300 headed for Europe was diverted to a Canadian airport after a fire was reported in a bathroom. Officials for the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration said Flight 64 landed safely at 7:15 p.m. EDT at an airport in Halifax, Canada, after the pilot declared an emergency due to smoke in the mid-cabin. The plane had departed from John F...

Manhattan, NY - A former official at New York City's Touro College has been convicted on charges of creating and falsifying student transcripts for money. Andrique Baron of Elmont, Long Island, was found guilty today in Manhattan of computer tampering, bribe receiving and falsifying business records. Baron was convicted on most of the 36 charges and faces up to four years in prison when...

Washington - The Supreme Court cleared the way for Chrysler's sale to Fiat, turning down a last-ditch bid by opponents of the deal. The court rejected a plea to block the sale of most of Chrysler's assets to the Italian automaker. Chrysler, Fiat and the Obama administration had warned that the high court's intervention could have scuttled the sale. A federal appeals court in New York had...

New York, NY - Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel today called for the imprisonment of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Wiesel described as "the No. 1 Holocaust denier in the world." Wiesel said that the Iranian president should be arrested immediately and taken to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. "This man," Wiesel said, "wants Iran to become nuclear so that he could...

Albany, NY - Sen. Malcolm Smith's CrackBerry addiction is in part to blame for his loss of the leadership, Tom Golisano said. Asked today about a Buffalo News report that Smith's inability to stop fiddling with his handheld device while sitting with the retired Paychex billionaire had spurred Golisano to support yesterday's Senate coup, Golisano replied: "Of course I was upset, I...

Monsey, NY - Allegations that Monsey voters were enticed to vote in exchange for ice cream machines are being investigated by the Rockland District Attorney's Office. District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said today that his office was investigating the matter after a referral from the state Board of Elections. The investigation stems from a 2005 primary election, during which an advertisement in...

Seattle, WA - Starbucks Corp. accidentally charged as many as one million customers twice for their purchases over a recent two-day period, but the company said it recognized the error and has worked to reimburse all impacted customers. Starbucks spokeswoman Trina Smith said all U.S. and Canadian customers who used a debit or credit card on Friday, May 22, and part of Saturday, May 23, were...

New York, NY - It is now 35 years since the release of "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three," a movie set in the New York City subway that summed up an era of urban malaise, when the transit network was plagued with violent crime and the cars were daubed with graffiti. But although the subway today is in many ways transformed -- and crime is greatly reduced -- not all is quiet beneath the city...

New York - The FBI, New York Police Department and other law enforcement agencies will spend the next three days testing their response to a simulated terror attack on the city. The drill begins Tuesday night and continues through Thursday. It will take place in Queens. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says it will "address the possibility of a nuclear or radioactive device coming into the...

New York - The leader of a coalition that mounted Monday's coup in New York's Senate says he's being denied the keys to the historic chamber. The alliance of Republicans and two dissident Democrats is asking for the resignation of the secretary of the Senate, a position appointed by the Democratic conference that appears to have lost its majority. The secretary holds the chamber's...

Albany - Tom Golisano, who played a key role in yesterday's Senate takeover, is defending both his involement in the coup and his Democratic co-conspirators - Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr. - despite the fact that neither of them has the cleanest record when it comes to ethics and reform. Asked about the fact that Monserrate is facing felony assault charges and Espada has been both...

Baltimore, MD - VIN News has confirmed that Mr. Arthur [Avrohom] Goldstein, a member of the Lubavitcher community of Baltimore, tragically died in an auto accident at 9:00 a.m. yesterday morning. According to a Maryland State Trooper who spoke to VIN News, Mr. Goldstein was on the east-bound interchange ramp between Highway I-70 and I-695 when his vehicle hit a guardrail. Mr. Goldstein was...

New York - The current economic crisis is negatively impacting fire departments in the state of New York, according to a comprehensive national survey of firefighters from nearly 9,500 fire departments or 30 percent of departments in the country, including 828 fire departments in New York. “Supporting Safer Communities: A National Fire Service Survey” found that, specifically in New York...

Manhattan, NY - An elevated railway line which once carried freight over the tough streets of New York's Meatpacking District reopened Monday as the city's newest and trendiest park. Snaking on trestles through the fashionable lower Manhattan neighborhood, the High Line Park combines views of the Hudson River, wild vegetation, and echoes of New York's industrial history. The park follows a...

New York, NY - Paper or plastic? Soon, you may not hear that question anymore. A top U.N. official called for a worldwide ban on single-use "thin" plastic shopping bags, the kind you get at the grocery store. "Single-use plastic bags which choke marine life should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Program, according to McClatchy...