SUBWAY RIDER, ALLEGEDLY PUSHED, CAN’T SCRAMBLE OFF TRACKS IN TIME – LATIMES.COM


December 4, 2012, 7:19 a.m.

It’s a subway rider’s worst nightmare: being pushed onto the tracks. On Monday, it happened in midtown Manhattan where, according to witnesses, one man shoved another in front of an oncoming train, which crushed the victim to death before horrified onlookers.

Police on Tuesday were still searching for the alleged pusher, who was captured on surveillance video seconds before the attack in a verbal altercation with the victim, who was identified as 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han of Queens, N.Y. The attack occurred about 12:30 p.m.

Witnesses, who included scores of people standing on the platform at the station on West 49th Street and 7th Avenue, said Han tried to scramble back onto the platform after landing on the tracks a few feet below, but he was crushed between the side of the platform and the Q train, which slammed on its brakes but could not stop in time.

One witness facing the oncoming train repeatedly snapped his camera in hopes the flash would warn the conductor early enough to stop. Others on the platform waved their hands and yelled at the conductor as Han stood up from where he had landed, faced the train then began trying to climb off the tracks as the train sped toward him.

“There was a huge gasp from all the spectators,” the man who took pictures of the incident, R. Umar Abbasi, said of the moment when he saw Han pushed, the New York Post reported. “I just started running, running, hoping that the driver could see my flash,” said Abbasi.

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NEW STEVE JOBS FILM TO CLOSE OUT SUNDANCE FESTIVAL

A biographical film called jOBS about Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs and starring Ashton Kutcher will close out the popular Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 17-27 in Park City, Utah, according to a schedule of the event posted late Monday. Kutcher, currently the star of the TV show, “Two and a Half Men,” is playing the lead role in the movie, which was directed by Joshua Michael Stern. “The true story of one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history, jOBS chronicles the defining 30 years of Steve Jobs life,” according to the film festivals web site. Other subjects of separate biopics at the festival include Jack Kerouac, Richard Cheney, Mariel Hemingway, Jeremy Lin and Anita Hill.

more at New Steve Jobs Film To Close Out Sundance Festival | Fox Business.

LED ZEPPELIN GET A WHOLE LOTTA LOVE FROM PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA – NEWS – MUSIC – THE INDEPENDENT

 

 

They may have been sitting down in their tuxes rather than tearing across the stage in their flares, but in the words of Barack Obama: “Guys who are not completely youthful can still rock.”The President aged 51 hailed the remaining members of Led Zeppelin average age 66 for “making us all feel young” as they received a lifetime achievement award in the Kennedy Center Honours.“When Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham burst on to the musical scene in the late 1960s, the world never saw it coming,” Mr Obama said at the awards ceremony on Sunday, at which actors Dustin Hoffman and comedian David Letterman were also honoured.“It’s been said that a generation of young people survived teenage angst with a pair of headphones and a Zeppelin album,” the President added.

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via Led Zeppelin get a whole lotta love from President Barack Obama – News – Music – The Independent.

WALL STREET ISN’T BACKING JACK LEW FOR TREASURY – THE TERM SHEET: FORTUNE’S DEALS BLOG TERM SHEET

Wall Street thinks Obama’s likely Treasury Secretary pick doesn’t know jack about the market.

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FORTUNE — Jack Lew, the frontrunner to be named Treasury Secretary in Obama’s second term, isn’t Wall Street’s first choice for the key economic post. He’s not even its second.

“I’ve talked to a bunch of investors and it’s seen as a net negative going from [Tim] Geithner to Lew,” says Chris Krueger, senior political analyst at Guggenheim Partners. “Who does Wall Street want? Not Jack Lew.”

Lew, 57, spent three years on Wall Street working at Citigroup (C) as the chief operating officer of its alternative asset investment management unit. One of the funds Lew’s group invested in was run by John Paulson, who at the time was betting heavily against the housing markets and banks. But that’s not the part of Lew’s resume that anyone seems to remember. And it’s certainly not the important part.

More… Fiscal Cliff: A modest proposal

EUROPE’S FIRST GAY FRIENDLY MOSQUE OPENS IN PARIS FRANCE


Europe’s first gay friendly mosque has opened in Paris, France. The new mosque opened in a small room inside the house of a Buddhist monk.

The “mosque” has been critised by Muslim leaders in Paris who have said that it is, “against the spirit of Islam”. However the founder of the mosque says he is breaking “prejudices in Islam”.

The mosque will also break with traditional Muslim teaching of women. The founder, French-Algerian gay rights activist and practicing Muslim Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, says he wants to also allow women to lead Friday prayers.

Read More at France 24