Listeners to WBAI have been enjoying Al Jazeera English since last December, when the progressive radio station started broadcasting in NYC. But until today people getting their news from the channel had to rely on their imaginations to paint images of Arab Spring protests and Israeli-Palestinian skirmishes. (Or visit their website.) Now you can get Al Jazeera on the tee-vee 23 hours a day, on Time Warner Cable (Channel 92) and Verizon FiOS (Channel 466) in New York City. It's the channel's first distribution on any major cable or satellite system in the United States. more ›

The noncommercial Pacifica radio network, which is headquartered in Berkeley, will begin broadcasting Al Jazeera English in five markets, including WBAI in NYC, where listeners can tune in to Al Jazeera broadcasts at 5 a.m., starting, oh, today! (You can stream this morning's broadcast here.) Pacifica station KPFT in Houston also started airing Al Jazeera this morning, and KPFA in Berkeley started yesterday. This is the first time Al Jazeera English has been brought to radio audiences in North America, and Arlene Engelhardt, director of the Pacifica Foundation, says, "It is part of our mission at Pacifica to act as a bridge between cultures and to present stories that are too often overlooked by other media in the United States." more ›

In his first address of the year Osama Bin Laden took credit for the failed Christmas day underwear bombing of Northwest flight 253 over Michigan, and warned that more attacks on our country are imminent. "The United States will not dream of enjoying safety until we live it in reality in Palestine," threatened the 9/11 mastermind, via the Arabic-language news site Al-Jazeera. more ›

Yesterday, the NYPD's counterterrorism head Richard Falkenrath said that the city is still viewed as "a prime target for another terrorist strike." The AP reports that Falkenrath was briefing security executives in prepartion for the UN General Assembly. And what do you know, a Al Jazeera airs a tape of Osama bin Laden and some September 11 hijackers (well, supposedly September 11 hijackers - their faces are masked). While the President sought to point out that Al Qaeda is not as strong as it used to and that it's still important to capture bin Laden, some wonder if the tape was released by new Al Qaeda head Abu Hamza al-Muhajer. As Middle East expert Marwan Shehadeh tells the times, “They released the videotape to prove to the Americans that their strategy in the war against terror has failed.” more ›

-- And here's some video of the manhole explosion which shut down Spring Street around 5pm. more ›