A one-legged woman wearing only black panties was discovered yesterday afternoon on the tracks of the N train in Besnonhurst. "I heard one of the workers screaming on the radio, 'A woman's body on the tracks!'" said Matt Bencivenga, a dispatcher for a car service company nearby. "She was all mangled." According to the News, her prosthetic leg was found nearby around 3:40 p.m., 100 feet from the Kings Highway station. Authorities think impact of the train knocked it off, and also severed her hand; investigators suspect the cause of the death may be a suicide. more ›

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Stand clear of the platform edge and then some: A 14-year-old boy fell into the tracks at the Kings Highway subway station when the platform partially collapsed. Avi Katz was able to get away before the approaching Q train made it into the station. more ›

Yesterday the NY Post warned non-recyclers that they'd have to don a "scarlet litter" if they didn't clean up their acts. We hoped this "scarlet litter" would be a hat hand-crafted by a Freegan and worn atop the heads of the environmentally-challenged, but instead it's something much more sensible: a clear bag for all of your garbage that leaves little to the imagination. New York, we don't really want to see your trash, so please try to figure out this whole recycling thing, m'kay?

If warnings and summonses do not induce residents to separate their recyclables from the rest of the trash, the city will force them to put all their garbage into clear plastic bags and endure routine inspections. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing patient at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, a car vs. overpass on Kings Highway in Brooklyn, and a truck explosion on 64th Rd. and 108th St. in Queens.
• A sharp-sighted deckhand on a Staten Island Ferry spotted a pistol sticking out of the pocket of a dim-witted passenger snoozing on a Sunday morning ferry. The passenger, who was arrested, had a long record of criminal weapons possessions.
• The wife of the slain orthodontist Daniel Malakov previously met with a political consultant to plan a custody protest with her daughter in front of the White House. She gave up her plan when advised that "nobody would care."
• Lindsay Lohan is reportedly looking to rejuvenate her image by appearing as the assistant manager at a fast-food restaurant on the television series "Ugly Betty."
• Strip-club Scores is sponsoring a food drive with collected food dedicated to City Harvest called "Cans for Cans." Club customers will gain free admission with a printed-out copy of the promotion from the business' web site and a donated can of food.
• A very interesting look at how pidgin Gaelic by Irish newcomers to NYC shaped modern American slang.
• Community Board 10 will be holding a public hearing on the proposed rezoning of 125th St. on November 14th.
• Bomb scare at Laguardia airport.

Hollaback! A man was arrested for menacing, stalking and exposing himself to a woman on the B and Q trains on Monday. The Post reports that the police caught 24-year-old Jay Arungah after the victim showed them a camera phone picture of a naked Arungah. more ›

Yesterday the Department of Transportation installed the first countdown pedestrian signal at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Kings Highway. Here's how the city explains the timer:

The pedestrian countdown signals are the same size as the existing pedestrian signal head, but feature a dual display - the traditional "Walking Man" and "Hand" display, and a pedestrian interval countdown display. The countdown feature is programmed to start at the beginning of the "flashing hand" cycle and end when the flashing hand becomes steady. At the five test intersections pedestrians will be given a minimum 15-second countdown before the light changes.

-Hylan Boulevard Looking at the MTA's site, it's pretty cool that the MTA is taking other bus systems around the world into consideration - and we love any plan that wants better bus boarding! more ›

If there was ever a story that could remind people that soliciting hookers is not a good idea, it would have to be this one: Mushtaq Azmat was shot in the head when the pimp of the prostitute he was, uh, spending time with, tried to rob him. But in the course of those heated moments, the pimp was caught in the gunfire of his associates and died from a chest wound. The NY Post describes how the victim and a friend met the hookers:

Azmat Mushtaq, 19, and Muhammad Usman, 20, met the women Monday night at a Midtown gyro stand and paired off to have sex in Mushtaq's white Infiniti, police sources said. more ›

Somehow, a subway conductor was injured last night. Another MTA employee saw a conductor on a southbound Q train in Brooklyn slumped over his cab's window. The conductor's skull and left arm was injured, and lost his right eye. The MTA says that the conductor lost contact with the train operator after announcing the Kings Highway stop at 9:30PM, and was only discovered at Avenue U. The current theory is that the conductor could have been injured if he didn't pull his head inside in time and was hit by something, although the conductor could have been assaulted by someone on the platform. more ›