Mayor Bloomberg spent yesterday in Paris and paid particular interest to the City of Light's bike-sharing program. The Parisian program started in July and has thousands of bikes secured around the city's streets. People who need a quick ride can rent the bike's by the half hour, with the first 30 minutes free and increasing fares for each additional half hour to discourage lengthy rentals. Bloomberg seemed curious about the program, but acknowledged that there......

The world's sultan of song, Luciano Pavarotti, died at 71 from pancreatic cancer early this morning. He was at his home in Modena, Italy -- where he was born in October of 1935. Last summer he was in New York for surgery and hadn't made any public appearances since then, apparently retreating to Modena afterwards. The AP received the following email statement from his manager: “The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic......

Only 2 weeks after his 89th birthday, Swedish film and theater director Ingmar Bergman passed away at his home on Fårö Island this morning, the Associated Press reports. "Astrid Soderbergh Widding, president of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, confirmed the death, and Swedish journalist Marie Nyreröd said the director died peacefully during his sleep. Bergman never fully recovered after a hip surgery in October last year, Nyreröd told Swedish broadcaster SVT." As the New York Times......

Representatives Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler announced that they are introducing legislation to block a $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The Sun reports the pair stood in front of the Saudi Consulate, questioning the logic of the Bush administration's plan. Nadler said, "The folly of this arms deal is beyond belief. Saudi Arabia is the no. 1 exporter of terrorism in the world today." Supporters of the deal, which includes advanced weaponry, "say......

Of the world’s total population of 6.5 billion, 90% (that's 5.8 billion people) have little or no access to things the rest of us take for granted - with nearly half not having regular access to food, clean water, or shelter. Design for the Other 90% is an exhibit on view at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum through September 23rd, and it focuses on affordable and innovative products not geared towards the 10% getting Crate and......

Yesterday, conservative Nicholas Sarkozy won the French presidential election over the Socialist Party's Segolene Royal (who was attempting to become France's first female president). Besides the violence that erupted, what we found interesting was the fact that voter turnout was 84% in France. Sure, France is a smaller country than the U.S. and there isn't an Electoral College equivalent, but the voter turnout for the Bush-Kerry 2004 election was 60% - and that was 6.4%......

Wired's science blog tells us that "only two dozen people have seen our planet in its entirety from space" (most have been low orbit views where the entire planet isn't visible). The AP asked them all to describe that view for Earth Day. The first full view of Earth was from Apollo 8 in 1968. Astronaut Bill Anders took the photos during that mission that ended up on posters and pins for the first......

Early this morning in Baghdad, Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator whose reign in Iraq led to horrible violence, was hanged for "crimes against humanity", specifically the 1982 killing of 148 men and boys in Dujail. The Daily News compared him to a gangster ("tyrant who ruled Iraq like a Mafia don, slaughtered his fellow citizens and led his country into two disastrous wars with the United States") and the Post noted that his death......

There was a lot up on the auction block this week at Christie's. Yesterday was their Rock & Pop Memorabilia auction. Beatles lyrics penned by Paul McCartney (that's Sir Paul McCartney, to you) went for $197,000. The song? An early version of Maxwell's Silver Hammer from 1968. Jimi Hendrix's 1968 Fender Stratocaster (modified to accommodate his left-handed use) sold for $168,000. Meanwhile, a page of Britney Spears's homework went for $240 (less than an iPod!).......

After a nine month long trial, the Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to death by hanging. Two other defendants, half brother and his former intelligence chief Barzan Hassain and former judge Awad Bandar, were also sentenced to death for the 1982 execution of 148 men and boys in Shiite town Dujail (the town incurred Hussein's wrath when Hussein visited and his assassination was attempted). Although a curfew had been set......

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......

Venezulan President Hugo Chavez followed up his devilish U.N. appearance with a visit to Harlem's Mount Olivet Baptist Church, where his tirade has earned him a nickname from the NY Post: El Loco. (Yeah, it doesn't quite have the ring of "Wacko Jacko.") Though Chavez's main goal was to announce that he would distribute discounted heating oil to the poor, he took the time to continue his jabs at the Commander in Chief :......

President Bush ended many New Yorkers' gridlock nightmares by leaving the city yesterday, but he - and the rest of the U.S. delgation to the United Nations - missed Venezulan President Hugo Chavez's speech. And what a speech it was: Chavez called Bush "the devil," said it smelled of sulfur (since Bush had stood there), and showed said Americans should be reading Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance instead of......

What is a Presidential trip to New York without some protest? During President Bush's United Nations General Assembly address (in which he tried to emphasize that the U.S. wanted a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program), protesters rallied outside to speak out against the war in Iraq. After initially being prohibited from marching by the NYPD - which then allowed the march to take place if only on the sidewalk and on a different......

It's global leader week in the city, and many who work, live and travel through East Midtown know that as intense security and more traffic are evident (plea from the Mayor: "Take mass transit"), especially as the President will address the United Nations today. Yesterday, President George Bush and First Lady Laura attended a conference on global literacy sponsored by the White House at the New York Public Library, but the bigger question was whether......

British intellgience says they have stopped a plot involving bombing flights bound for the U.S. today. British authorities have arrested over twenty people connected to the plot. Apparently the bombs would be carried in "hand luggage," leading airports to cancel flights and start screening passengers by hand. As a result, the Department of Homeland Security has raised the aviation sector's threat level for flights between the US and UK; further, "Due to the nature of......

As we've said before, it can be hard to figure out how to write about the conflict in the Middle East when writing a 'blog about New York'. But then a photograph like this one comes our way. Here's the story behind the chalking, from the Beirut Update, a blog kept by a 30-year-old woman named Zena living in Beirut: so, i have not been able to draw or paint since the attacks started,......

For various reasons we here at Gothamist have been lightly sidestepping around the current crisis in the Middle East. Luckily there has been a fair amount of news here in New York to keep us busy. And anyway, posting about such a volatile subject seems to just be asking for trouble. Well, here we go trouble. If you've already heard about this, forgive us we were distracted by the blackout. This past Tuesday there was......

There is a lot to be said about Warren Buffett's announcement that most of his billions-of-dollars fortune will be given to charities, with particular focus on giving about $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And we hope his actions, as well as those of the Gateses, reverbate through billionaire and millionaire circles, because giving back to the world that made them rich makes sense - tax incentives or no. For instance,......

The U.N. is not going ahead with its plans to build a temporary office tower in Midtown while its headquarters is being renovated. Originally, Mayor Bloomberg had proposed building a new, temporary headquarters for the world body over Robert Moses playground near its current building, however approvals and construction timing seem to be issues. Instead, the U.N. will look to rent space in Midtown (7 World Trade Center had been reviewed, but the U.N. thought......

Thanks to a Brooklyn meat company, one month after Japan re-opened its doors to American beef they've been slammed shut again. Because its workers and inspectors misunderstood regulations Atlantic Veal & Lamb shipped a cut of veal known as hotel rack - a cut Japan sees as a mad-cow risk because it includes spinal cord. "This was not a situation where somebody was trying to hide something. Quite the opposite happened," said Agriculture Secretary......

Oh, Osama. You think you can release a new audiotape proving you're alive - and send our intelligence agencies into overdrive - and threaten to attack to the U.S. again as well as offer us a truce. Those are some mighty mixed signals! To paraphrase Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last night, while it's nice that Bin Laden acknowledges the fact that many Americans are against the war, people are still pissed off at......

The Times has a curious article about the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Lee Yoon-hyung, 26, the youngest daughter of the chairman of the Samsung Group and one of the richest women in South Korea. And what a sad story it is shaping up to be. Initially fed the story by unnamed sources from the beleaguered company, the English and Korean press reported that Lee, an occasional racer like her father, had died in......

New York is a great place to live, but unless you are worth millions, it is hard not to feel poverty stricken nearly all of the time. Take your average NYC teacher, making about $45,000 per year. That's a decent income and nothing to be ashamed of-- but in New York, you'd barely be able to scrape rent and a monthly Metrocard, let alone food, and clothing (not to mention the classroom supplies you're......

Gothamist hasn't really heard that much about protests outside the U.N. during the World Summit, probably because the news has been focused on Hurricane Katrina, Judge Roberts, and the mayoral election hoo-ha. And most of the U.N. news has been that the President wants some help or that traffic is terrible. So we were glad that Newsday had a story and a good gallery of protestor pictures outside the U.N. and the hotels where the......

This morning, many people are thankful that all 309 passengers and crew memebers are safe after their Air France jet skidded off the runway at Pearon International Airport in Toronto. It's unclear what caused the problem, but the jet had circled the airport many times due to poor weather. Media outlets are taking the opportunity to alarm viewers/air travelers into paying more attention to the flight safety videos (Gothamist thinks the Today show clocked a......

When the British authorities released photographs of the suspected bombers from Thursday's incident, one could make out that one of the men was wearing a New York t-shirt. Oh boy. Police later found the shirt "discarded in a street in Brixton." The AP report pointed out that NY was a former terror target, but Gothamist suspects that the t-shirt was simply coincidental, as New York may be the world's second home (even if not in......

The London tube has been evaucated network wide, based on reports of an explosion. According to Londonist, one witness says a man's rucksack exploded and that the bombing was an "attempted suicide bombing...but the bomb didn't work properly." It's been two weeks since the series of bombings in downtown London. Photograph from the AP......

A Bronx man who moved to London has been feared dead ever since Thursday's bomb blasts. Michael Matsushita, who lived with his fiancee, usually took the Picadilly Circus line, but he did not show up at work. The Daily News said that Matsushita left New York because he was depressed over September 11, but the NY Times says a friend told the media that he left NYC in February 2001. Matsushita had moved to Australia......

Londoners returned to work today, as the subway system was back up (with a few stations closed) and buses were running. The death toll is now 50 people, at least, with 700 wounded. Police are investigating the blasts, noting that timers were used to set the bombs off and checking out links to Al Qaeda. There have been many distressing eyewitness accounts of being in the subway stations, in subway cars, on buses, and on......