A team of Navy Seals rescued two aid workers who had been held hostage by Somali pirates since October 25 last year. more ›

And now, some heartwarming animal news before your weekend kicks off: this is Saber, a 10-year-old husky who lives with his human family in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. Saber, who suffers from arthritis, bolted out of his house today for reasons unknown and ran onto the ice in the pond behind his house, where he slipped and fell through the ice. But he's okay! more ›

A 15-year-old girl jumped into the Hudson River near the USS Intrepid in Hell's Kitchen on Sunday and was quickly rescued by an unidentified man who leaped in after her—proof, once again, that Good Samaritans do exist in this city. more ›

Every once in a while, an exotic animal gets blown way off course and winds up in New York, where confused locals point quizzically at the nature before them and wonder what the hell to do with it. Fortunately for the pink flamingo that wound up in Westchester, an actual wildlife expert was on hand to save the day. more ›

Since the revolting (PEOPLE SUCK!) yet uplifting (KITTEH SAVED!) story of the kitten rescued from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge broke Wednesday night, the Staten Island Animal Care and Control Center has been flooded with adoption requests. Among those who want to get their hands on that adorable, five-week-old Russian blue kitten are former Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari and TV's Whoopi Goldberg! Hundreds of other insignificant nobodies want the kitten too, but we can all agree that celebrities deserve preferential treatment. more ›

On Saturday afternoon, a worker with the city's Animal Care and Control Center on Staten Island was driving over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge when he saw something fly out the window of a passing vehicle. "At first he thought they were throwing garbage," AC&C spokesman Richard Gentles tells the Daily News. "Then he realized it was a kitten." Gentles believes the driver intended to toss the kitten over the edge of the bridge to its death but missed, and fortunately the AC&C officer came to his rescue. more ›

Successful Jeopardy contestant Brian Levinson and his circus clown friend Eric Broomfield were rescued from their burning Queens apartment by the FDNY early Saturday morning. 33-year-old Levinson, who won $73K in prize money from Jeopardy in 2008 and has appeared on the game show Cash Cab, retained burns to 12% of his body, including his face, head, and arms. Firefighters helped Levinson out of the building, while Broomfield had to be carried out. "I found him in the bathroom," Ladder 163 Captain Jim Hay tells the Daily News, "It was heavy smoke condition. He couldn't get past the fire." more ›

Early Sunday morning NYPD officers bravely rescued two West Point cadets who were stranded in a storm on a cliff on Storm King Mountain upstate. And would you know that the boys were ill prepared for the climb? The cadets were reportedly trying to rappel down a rockface on the eastern side of the mountain but got stranded 500 feet up because they didn't have enough rope. more ›

A 31-year-old Pennsylvania man is currently in stable condition after leaping off a Manhattan-bound Staten Island Ferry yesterday evening. The crew of the Spirit of America rescued the man after he jumped near Liberty Island, and he was transfered to Bellevue Hospital where he was treated for hypothermia and is currently undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. Police confirmed that the man jumped from the ferry, but it's unclear whether it was a suicide attempt. more ›

A group of friends recently found two pigeons stuck in a mound of snow on the sidewalk, and did their best to rescue the one that was still alive (teenagers: they aren't all bad!). Okay, maybe they could have done better, and they didn't really need to make a comment about Chinese people eating the pigeons... but at least they didn't kick it or kill it or try to pour Four Loko on it (these are just some of the things we imagine teenagers do on the regular). Check out their video documentation below. more ›

We received an excited email from a reader stating: "A friendly exotic bird was saved by New Yorkers on the UWS Saturday in freezing temperatures"... with a link to a website retelling this story from the rescuer: "I was on the UWS on Saturday and noticed this bright orange/green/blue bird standing on the sidewalk chirping. It looked pretty out of place..." more ›

Yesterday afternoon an 11-year-old Long Island girl, Sarah Thalhammer, chased after her neighbor's dog—a poodle-Maltese mix named Ace Ventura—who was running across the partially frozen Great South Bay. (There are conflicting reports that she was being pulled by him while walking the dog for her neighbor). She fell through the thin ice at about 30-feet out, and recalls, "I was screaming, the water was up to my neck." more ›

The owner of a poodle who drowned after chasing a bird onto Prospect Park’s iced over lake, is asking city officials what would have happened if her poodle had been a human child. On January 2nd, Viviane Arzoumanian’s 5-year-old poodle drowned after running on to the ice, off leash (which is not allowed at the park unless it's during the designated off-leash hours, and never allowed at the lake). Following the tragedy, Arzoumanian—admitting she was breaking park rules—has some ideas for the park that she believes could result in more effective animal rescues. more ›

A hero dog named Rufus—who saved 50 GIs from a suicide bomber in Afghanistan—was honored right here in New York last night. Five hundred guests were on hand at the Animal Medical Center charity event at the American Museum of Natural History, according to the NY Post, and Rufus was toasted by them all. The Centennial Top Dog Gala honors service dogs that go beyond the call of duty. For Rufus, he attacked a Taliban suicide bomber, causing him to detonate a bomb early. He now lives with his handler Sgt. Chris Duke in Atlanta and hopefully he's microchipped. more ›

The digital countdown clocks in the subway stations served a new purpose yesterday, when 36-year-old Carlos Flores used one to check how much time he had to save a man who had fallen on to the tracks. Happy Monday everyone, we have a new subway hero! According to the Daily News, Flores was waiting for the downtown 6 train at 103rd Street at 8 a.m. yesterday when he saw a man (who allegedly fainted) sprawled over the tracks. He told the paper, "I was thinking, if he gets hit I can't go to work. It's Sunday. I can't miss out. It's a time-and-a-half day." (His job at a NoHo grocery store, where he's a produce clerk, gets him 19 bucks an hour on Sundays.) more ›

The networks have been providing pretty much wall-to-wall coverage of the rescue of the 33 workers trapped in a Chilean mine since August 5, and now the 24th miner has emerged. The Chilean Minister of Health Jaime Manalich said that those rescued so far seem to be in good emotional and mental health. CNN reports that he also "express[ed] surprise at how 'well they are.' He also spoke highly of the rescue capsule and the shaft, noting that the miners were coming out dry and with very little dust on them. 'Things are going fantastically well, better than expected,' he said in a press conference. 'The work at the shaft has been really impeccable.'" more ›

Reports of a woman overboard from the Staten Island Ferry were sent to an NYPD boat patrolling near lower Manhattan around 7:50 last night, beginning a high stakes rescue of a possibly suicidal woman. The woman plunged into the water near the Statue of Liberty, jumping from—of all ships—the Andrew J. Barberi, aka the "Ferry of Doom." more ›

In April, Queens fireman Ralph Longo discovered four baby squirrels while putting out a car fire. One baby died, and the mother couldn't be found, but three of the little ones were rescued and taken in by Ladder 129. Then, at the end of his workday, Longo brought them to an animal rehabber in Manhattan, who happens to keep a blog and documented the experience. more ›

Over the weekend a baby red-tailed hawk fell off of its nest atop an air conditioner and down on to 149th Street and Melrose Avenue in the Bronx—and luckily landed in to the hands of a troupe of bird lovers! According to the NY Post, the friends rescued their new feathered friend on the street, then canoed up the Harlem River in search of licensed falconer Ludger Balan—who happened to be nearby giving a lecture which they were on their way to. more ›

After a woman fell into the Harlem River early Sunday morning, police are continuing their search. The search was suspended yesterday because of strong tides, and now it's feared the young woman has drowned. more ›

Police are looking for a woman who fell into the Harlem River earlier this morning. According to 1010WINS, "Apparently, there were a group of people tail-gate partying in a dark, secluded area off the Harlem River Drive. The woman fell in the river around 2:30 a.m. where a broken part of the 6-foot tall fence was and four other people jumped in to rescue her." Her friends had to be rescued themselves, as the Gothamist Newsmap notes multiple reports of people in the water being retrieved (for instance, at 3:17 a.m., "Reporting 2 Victims Were Extricated And There Are Still 2 Males And 1 Female MISSING"). The NYPD and Coast Guard are still searching. more ›

Firefighters were able to rescue a woman who was stuck in a garbage chute in a SUNY Downstate building on Lenox Road in Brooklyn. A firefighter told WABC 7, "This is a very unusual circumstance. You're not used to finding a person, let alone, a full grown lady, trapped in a compactor chute." more ›

Not only did the woman who fainted into the Union Square L tracks on Monday night survive with an Eighth Avenue-bound L train passing over her, a mysterious Good Samaritan saved her! According to the Daily News, a man jumped into the tracks and attempted to lift Jessica Oshita onto the platform: "But before he could pull off the rescue, he heard the rumbling of the oncoming Manhattan-bound train and was forced to make a split-second switch to Plan B.... As the train approached, the hero placed Oshita's body in the well between the rails and then quickly hoisted himself onto the platform, the sources said." more ›

A 40-year-old woman and a 10-month-old girl were rescued from the Hudson River just before noon. 1010 WINS reports that a stroller was found on the pier at 70th Street—"officials believe the current sent the woman and her daughter up ther river"—and WCBS says, "the woman apparently jumped into the water intentionally" in a murder-suicide attempt. The NYPD's Scuba and FDNY's Marine units rescued the pair, who were taken to New York Hospital in serious condition. more ›

The dad who hopped into the East River Saturday to save his little girl Bridget says he feels "bad and really guilty and horrible" for letting her out of his sight, even though it was only for about ten seconds. David Anderson snapped a picture of his 2-year-old on the gangplank of a ship museum docked at South Street Seaport. After reviewing the shot, he deleted it, then looked up to find his daughter gone. A peek over the railing revealed she was floating in the water 20 feet below. "She was lying there motionless. I thought I might have just lost my little girl. There were 15 people walking up the ramp and I just broke through them like they weren't there," recalls the dad, an unemployed former ski patrol worker. more ›

A California tourist jumped into the East River after his 2-year-old daughter, who’d fallen 20 feet from the gangplank of a ship docked at South Street Seaport. David Anderson “didn’t hesitate” before taking to the water, though he did remember to “pull things out of his pockets” and kick off his shoes. He was able to grab the toddler, aided by an unnamed Frenchman, who helped drag the two to safety, according to the police. more ›

The two men who rescued the seal off Staten Island yesterday, detectives Frank Pellegrino and Matthew Sherman of the harbor unit and scuba team, are talking about their 5 minute encounter with the struggling pup. more ›