U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf said he would resign today. Musharraf has been under pressure to leave office, due to the ruling party's attempt to impeach him, and told the country, "I don't want the people of Pakistan to slide deeper and deeper into uncertainty....I am not asking for anything. I will let the people of Pakistan decide my future." Musharraf rose to power in a "bloodless coup" in 1999, but, per CNN, "his power......

A U.S. District Court Judge sentenced one-time Credit Suisse investment banker Hafiz Muhammad Zubair Naseem to ten years in prison for insider trading, stating that some Wall Street professionals were not getting the picture of the seriousness of the crime. While working at Credit Suisse's Global Energy Group in Manhattan, Naseem fed insider information to a partner in Pakistan, who used the tips to illegally amass almost $8 million in profits. Naseem, who was only......

The Pentagon has charged six men accused of planning the September 11, 2001 attacks and will seek the death penalty (the Pentagon's terse press release was titled "Defense Department Seeks Death Penalty for Six Guantanamo Bay Detainees"). These would be "the first trials under the terrorism-era military tribunal system." The defendants will see the evidence and will have similar rights as U.S. soldiers accused of crimes. As for whether evidence and confessions gained through methods,......

You can see what are the most recommended and most commented posts on the Gothamist Favorites site, but here are the top three for both: Most Recommended 1. Bad Ad Ideas: Pakistan Airlines, 1979: An old ad showing the shadow of an airplane against the World Trade Center brought up some spooky associations as well as questions about whether the ad was real. 2. Breaking: Shots Fired at Police by Man Barricaded in Park Slope......

This ad for Pakistan Airlines is real. And in the history of advertising, it really takes the creepy cake. Even worse than babies endorsing cigarettes! Seriously, if Nostradamus ran an ad firm to warn the world about blowback, this would have been in his portfolio. It appeared in the March 19th, 1979 issue of Le Point (and surely countless other publications). Yes, the shadow is in pretty much in the same place as where......

As violence continues in Pakistan in the wake of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, New York City's Pakistani population was shocked by the news, watching news coverage and holding vigils. One woman said to the Daily News, "For us, this is like losing [President John] Kennedy. She wanted peace. She wanted democracy. And she lost her life for these things." And a man told the NY Times, “I think there will be......

Earlier today, former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed during a rally. The Western-educated (Harvard, Oxford) Bhutto had been living in Dubai and London for eight years, but returned in October to prepare for Pakistan's national elections (to be held next month) with hopes of returning to power. However, her return parade was bombed, killing 134 people and injuring more than 400. [Her obituary in the NY Times.] U.S. politicians weighed in on......

Prestige filmmakers take note: If you want the Times critics to really love you, what you need to do is put the fear in them. At least it worked for Tim Burton; his adaptation of Steven Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd gave reviewer A.O. Scott nightmares. And for that, Scott deems the film “close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme – I am tempted to say evil – genius.” (Current Rotten Tomato rating: 88% fresh.) One......

SPA: FreeNYC tells us that "in honor of their 20th Anniversary, Nina's European Day Spa is offering up some free and discounted treatments!" Get there before 7pm and you'll get a free eyebrow threading or waxing, free mini microdermabrasion, and free hand treatments. Free: it's a beautiful price. 12 to 7pm // Nina's European Day Spa [5 W 35th St] // Free PERFORMANCE ART: Remember how in 2005, during a visit by England’s cricket team......

Volatile Dutch actor Youssef Sjoerd Idilbi did two things that are almost unheard of during a Sunday performance of the play Is.Man at St. Ann’s Warehouse. The first warms our heart: He stopped his performance to confront an audience member about a ringing cell phone. His second move brazenly defied the theatrical tradition of ‘the show must go on’. Technical problems with the sound board had caused the cancellation of the previous night's performance; when......

EVENTS: Both Open House NY and The New Yorker Festival are upon us. You can check out more of OHNY's event here, and The New Yorker Festival here. Some picks: The New Yorker Festival hosts a conversation with Errol Morris tonight. He'll be talking with staff writer Philip Gourevitch about Abu Ghraib, with clips shown from Standard Operating Procedure -- his new film is a study of the prison-abuse scandal. Friday // 8pm // Directors......

A jury felt a father went too far in trying to find out where his daughter was. Fifty-three-year-old Javed Khalid and three other Pakistani natives were found guilty yesterday in a Brooklyn courtroom of charges that Khalid led the torture the uncle of his daughter's new husband. Kahlid's daughter Maryam ran off at the age of 16 and got married to her 19-year-old classmate Usaman Rana in 2006. Unable to ascertain her whereabouts and enraged......

New York Asian Film Festival IFC Center and Asia Society Grady Hendrix and the Subway Cinema crew know a thing or two about Asian cinema. Actually, that's a serious understatement. Every year these film fanatics cull the international market in search of Far East movie gems, often films without U.S. distribution, to show to an eager and enthusiastic New York audience. This year the fest moves to the IFC Center in the West Village and......

A Mighty Heart (directed by Michael Winterbottom) If you ever turn on the TV, your computer or glance at a newspaper, you're probably aware that mother/humanitarian/human clothes hanger Angelina Jolie has a new movie coming out this weekend. You've also probably gathered that it's produced by her hunky paramour and co-parent Brad Pitt and that it highlights Angie's "good person-ness" by having her depict the tragic life of journalist Mariane Pearl shortly after the kidnapping......

Ladies looking to ho it up this summer may want to pay heed to a City Health Department warning about certain brands of eye makeup which contain harmful levels of lead. The kohl, kajal, and surma types of makeup have large amounts of the element and have been linked to at least five cases of lead poisoning in pregnant women and children who've inadvertently ingested the sfuff. Children are at particular risk because, well, they......

Surprise, surprise. It turns out the number of American taxi drivers in New York City may be larger than you think. In records obtained from the Taxi & Limousine Commission, The Sun finds that the United States is the 5th most common country of origin for cab drivers. The most common country of origin is Bangladesh, followed by Pakistan, India, and Haiti. All told, there are about 2,300 American drivers, more than 1,300 of......

Yesterday, Shahawar Matin Siraj, who had been convicted of plotting to bomb the West 34th Street subway station at Herald Square, was sentenced to 30 years in jail. Siraj, in jail since his arrest in August 2004, had claimed he was entrapped by authorities, since a police informer had secretly taped their conversations where Siraj discussed his plans. After receiving his sentence, the 24 year old he said, "Your honor I want to apologize about......

A look at some noteworthy programs this week: NFL Football: AFC Wild Card – New York Jets at New England Patriots/NFC Wild Card: New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday, 1:00 p.m. WCBS 2 /Sunday, 4:00 p.m. WNYW 5 ) No matter what your New York (ok, technically New Jersey) football persuasion there is a game for you today. At 1:00 CBS served up the Jets playoff game against the Pats and Fox has the......

Some of Gothamist's favorite stories in the city were about the animals of New York City. Here's how animals ruled the Big Apple in 2006: - A whippet went missing at JFK Airport after appearing at the Westminster Dog Show; a loyal group people have still been looking for Vivi since February. - A star was born when Fred the cat helped nabbed a bogus vet. He was made a (honorary) detective by Brooklyn......

Tomorrow is the annual Corduroy Appreciation Club meeting on the auspicious day, November 11, also known as the day that most resembles corduroy (11/11). We spoke to founder and president Miles Rohan about corduroyizing New Yorkers and the world at large. First things first, how can corduroy unite us? People, I think, are actually seeking unification in one form or another. You can look to the success of sites like Friendster and MySpace as evidence.......

Hoorah! Leo, the snow leopard found abandoned in Pakistan, is now officially in the public eye at the Bronx Zoo. Last month, the State Department touted a very special arrangement with the Pakistani government, which allowed the 14 month old snow leopard to be sent to the Bronx Zoo temporarily, because Pakistan does not have snow leopard facilities. (Leo could not be relased into the wild because he never learned survival skills - he......

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......

But not in someone's apartment - to the Bronx Zoo! An endangered snow leopard cub that was found in Pakistan will join the Bronx Zoo's snow leopard habitat this year. From the State Department:Originally from the Naltar Valley high in the Karakorum Mountains of northern Pakistan, the snow leopard cub, now approximately 13 months old and 60 pounds, was turned over to Government of Pakistan authorities in July 2005 by the local goat herder......

English film director Michael Winterbottom and the three subjects of his most recent film, The Road to Guantanamo, were on hand last night for a post-screening discussion about conditions inside the Cuban base sponsored by the ACLU. Hosted by the IFC Center as a part of their ongoing Q&A series, the panel led by ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero brought home the responsibility of all people who care about human rights to speak out against......

The co-owner of a fried chicken restaurant was killed in a gruesome fashion: Lye was doused over his face as he was getting ready to open the store. Rehmatullah Azezollah died shortly after the attack, and his partner in a Lincoln Fried Chicken, Abdul Krin, described, "His eye all burned, his eye white, his mouth dry, his skin black" - his face basically melted, along with his clothes. Krin also said that Azezollah did not......

Well try moving to Oslo, baby, and see how that grabs you! You'll be wishing for one of those overpriced $6 beers in Williamsburg when you are paying $9.40 for some Carlsburg lager at a bar swathed in the perpetual darkness of a Norwegian winter! Check out this CNN Money article for the full list of the world's most expensive cities-- New York doesn't even make the top ten (we're 27th!) We used their data......

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......

Did you know that New York has one of the top floorball teams in the world? Okay, maybe not-- let's start with an easier question: did you know that floorball exists? It does-- as this very informative website for NYC Floorball explains: Floorball is one of the fastest growing sports in North America. It started as a recreational alternative to ice hockey and floor hockey in Sweden during the 1970s. It is played with......

In this heartily American week some of the most appealing things to see are foreign, at least in part. For a more delicate food-related experience than Thanksgiving usually turns turn out to be, consider Lao She’s Teahouse, set in a Beijing establishment over the course of some fifty years that encompass three important moments in modern Chinese history, beginning in 1898. Sixty-plus characters that embody the vast changes in China come to life via the......

Now, there are always stories of airport baggage handlers and screeners stealing things from baggage. But this latest story to come out of JFK Airport, where a federal baggage screener was found to have taken $80,000 in cash from a man's luggage is very striking. First of all, who the hell checks in $80,000 cash? It's totally carry-on! Apparently the passenger, a gift shop owner on his way to Pakistan, noticed that eight hundred $100......