Times Square

Yotel , a London-based hotel company that refers to its mini-rooms as "cabins," plans to open a 669-room hotel near Times Square in June. Like the rooms, the prices are pretty small too. The Manhattan site will be the company's first in the U.S. and the first located outside an airport. The deal: For those unfamiliar with the concept, Yotels offer basic rooms for travelers happy to trade frills for low prices. But that doesn't mean going without some cool high-tech amenities.

By late Saturday, New York just wasn't itself anymore. All 25,000 garbage cans were turned upside and shoved against buildings. The subways and buses were idle. Theaters, parks and airport departure gates were closed. Even a Starbucks on Madison Avenue didn't open. And if you had a D battery, you could name your price. As Hurricane Irene barreled toward New York, the city was as quiet as a Christmas morning. PHOTOS: In the path of Hurricane Irene Presented with a potential disaster that afforded some prep time, New Yorkers took full advantage of two days of warnings and unprecedented orders.

It's one of the most iconic images to emerge from World War II. Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt's photograph of an anonymous young sailor in a dark-blue uniform dipping a white-uniformed nurse backward while giving her a long kiss in the middle of Times Square on Aug. 14, 1945, symbolized the euphoria surrounding the news that the Japanese had surrendered and the war was finally over. Edith Shain, a retired Los Angeles elementary school teacher who claimed to be the mystery nurse in the photo seen by millions around the world, died of cancer Sunday at her home in Los Angeles, said her son, Michael.

"Justice served. " "We got him!" "I don't believe it. " "I'm glad he's dead. " There were joyful cries of victory. There was skepticism from those who demanded to see a corpse. There were huge crowds waving U.S. flags outside the White House, and people erupting into chants of "USA!" on the dark streets around the former World Trade Center in New York. And there were the bitter words of a mother still mourning the son lost on Sept. 11, 2001. Photos: Osama bin Laden dead There was no shortage of reaction across the nation to the news late Sunday of Osama bin Laden's death, but in the city hit hardest by the attacks, joy at the news was tempered with anguish over the loved ones lost a decade ago, and the time it took to end the reign of the world's most wanted terrorist.

If there is a ground zero in the war to make New York more pedestrian-friendly, it is Times Square. And if there is a weapon of choice, it is a collection of chairs plunked in the middle of what used to be the city's most traffic-choked intersection. David Letterman has scorned them, taxi drivers have cursed them and some of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's critics have called them just plain silly. "It's so patently stupid," City Councilman Tony Avella, who is challenging Bloomberg in the November mayoral election, said of the idea of setting up a pedestrian mall on Broadway.

A cooler holding bottled water and books was left on a Times Square sidewalk, prompting police to clear thousands of people and call in the bomb squad Friday, less than a week after a Pakistani American claiming to have militant links allegedly tried to blow up an SUV a block away. Three blocks were closed to pedestrians and traffic for a little more than an hour, starting about 1:15 p.m., after someone noticed the cooler near 46th Street and Broadway. The area, which last year was turned into a pedestrian mall outfitted with chairs, cafe tables and umbrellas, was crowded with people enjoying lunch outside on the warm afternoon.

Pakistani authorities have released a former Pakistani army major arrested in connection with the failed Times Square bombing in New York, saying they had determined he had no links to prime bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad. Adnan Ahmad was detained in mid-May on suspicion of having links with Shahzad, the Pakistani American accused of rigging a Nissan Pathfinder with explosives that he tried to detonate May 1 in midtown Manhattan. Pakistani law enforcement sources said investigators suspected Ahmad because they believed he and Shahzad had exchanged cellphone calls and had met once in Islamabad.

A Pakistani American charged with plotting to detonate a car bomb in Times Square received explosives training in Pakistan's volatile Waziristan region, a Taliban stronghold, and admitted driving an SUV from his Connecticut home to Manhattan in hopes of blowing it up on a crowded corner, according to a complaint unsealed Tuesday. Additional arrests in the case were reported in Pakistan, which according to the five-count complaint was where Faisal Shahzad, 31, began preparing for the attack as long ago as December.

Investigators have arrested a Pakistani army major linked to the prime suspect in the botched attempt to bomb New York City's Times Square early this month, Pakistani law enforcement sources said Tuesday. The major's involvement with suspect Faisal Shahzad, who was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to fly to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, remains unclear. Law enforcement sources said the major had met Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, in Islamabad, the capital, and was in cellphone contact with him. The major's arrest marks the first time someone in Pakistan's military establishment has been directly linked to the case.

Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, grew up in a Pakistani family whose circle of acquaintances included two future militants — a Taliban leader and one of the participants in the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, a government source said Friday. Officials now believe this family background may help explain why Shahzad, after immigrating to the United States, grew radicalized and allegedly contacted the Pakistani Taliban via the Internet. The group would have welcomed him because as a naturalized U.S. citizen, he could easily travel to and from Pakistan.

Yotel , a London-based hotel company that refers to its mini-rooms as "cabins," plans to open a 669-room hotel near Times Square in June. Like the rooms, the prices are pretty small too. The Manhattan site will be the company's first in the U.S. and the first located outside an airport. The deal: For those unfamiliar with the concept, Yotels offer basic rooms for travelers happy to trade frills for low prices. But that doesn't mean going without some cool high-tech amenities.

Perhaps you've just emerged from a Christmas food coma or have serious time management issues, but now you've arrived at New Year's Eve without plans. We've got you covered. From top-ticket bashes to fun stops with friends, here are a few quick points of navigation before your party ship sails. Pony up: If you love a good train wreck, get over your crowd complex and hit Hollywood. The mess of traffic, mile-long lines and drunken scenes is really what New Year's Eve is all about.

Joe and Sabrina: If you're out there, someone wants you to break up so she can date Joe. And David: Please talk to your mother. The holidays may be the time to spread good cheer, but the hopes posted on a wall in Times Square show that there's plenty more to wish for in 2011 and that people aren't ashamed to publicize their desires, be they world peace, a cure for cancer or someone else's boyfriend. The Wishing Wall, tucked inside a visitor center in the heart of Times Square, has proved such a hit that on a recent Sunday, Carolyn Driscoll scrambled to keep pace with people scrawling their wishes on colorful slips of paper and watching her pin them to the board.

Staying at a plush new hotel is possibly the last thing most Americans are thinking about this holiday season. Dreaming about, maybe, because who can afford it? So here's a morsel of consolation: Although the economy in much of the country continues to stagger, an unprecedented 34 hotels have opened this year in New York, and 28 more are under construction. Occupying new buildings, joining a host of ever-permutating chains and pioneering neighborhoods across the five boroughs, the roster of just-launched properties offers visitors a wide selection in price and style.

Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani immigrant who admitted he'd hoped to kill as many as 40 people by detonating a car bomb in Times Square in May, was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison. U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum handed down the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. Shahzad, 31, appeared proud but defiant in court and unapologetic for trying to kill as many Americans as he could. He wore dark blue prison garb with a white knit cap on his head.

During his sentencing Tuesday to life in prison, Faisal Shahzad ? a Pakistani immigrant who gave up a secure suburban life in America to become a terrorist for Islam ? was unapologetic about his botched attempt to kill dozens of people in Times Square last spring. After a federal judge declared that he would never leave prison, Shahzad smiled faintly, held up an index finger and declared, "Allah Akbar," or God is great. U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum did not bother to review parole possibilities because she said there were none.

A car bomb left in Times Square made of easily purchased items, including alarm clocks and gasoline, could have sent a "significant fireball" hurtling through one of the world's busiest tourist spots, police said Sunday as they searched for a man caught on film who might be linked to the failed attempt. The incident, coming months after a foiled plot by Afghan immigrants to blow up New York subways, underscored the vulnerability of heavily policed Times Square, which since the Sept.

Viewers will have their choice of New Year's Eve television specials on Dec. 31 when both ABC and MTV host countdown celebrations in Times Square with live performances from top musical artists. Mariah Carey is scheduled to close ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2006" with a live performance outside in Times Square, the first singer to do so on the program.

U.S. prosecutors said Wednesday that they are seeking life in prison for a Pakistani-born American citizen who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square and revealed that he had planned a second attack. Faisal Shahzad, 30, pleaded guilty in June to the failed May 1 bombing in busy midtown Manhattan. He was arrested two days later aboard a plane bound for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, minutes before it was to leave New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. Shahzad admitted that he received training in bomb-making from the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, and said the group had funded the failed attack.

Pakistani authorities have charged three men with terrorism-related offenses for allegedly helping failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad prepare for the attempted May 1 attack by arranging meetings with top Pakistani Taliban leaders and sending him money, a senior police official in Islamabad said Wednesday. The three men, Shahid Hussain, Shoaib Mughal and Humbal Akhtar, are relatively young, middle-class Pakistanis who have been close friends with Shahzad for several years, said Deputy Inspector Gen. Bin Yamin.