New York, Feb 11 : New Yorkers have an option of a highly unusual place they can take their Valentine this year - the Newtown Creek Wastewater Plant.

The Department of Environmental Protection is offering a Valentine's morning tour of the city's Newtown Creek Wastewater treatment plant.

"It's a unique date, and one they'll never forget," the New York Daily News quoted plant superintendent Jim Pynn as saying.

Pynn hosts public tours every month, but in honour of the holiday, visitors will get a special candy treat.

"Couples and singles and children and old folks - whoever shows up is welcome to a Hershey kiss," he said.

New York, Feb 11 - A 22-year-old Uzbek national has pleaded guilty in a federal court to plotting to kill US President Barack Obama.

Ulugbek Kodirov has been held without bail since he was arrested at a motel in Alabama state in July last year after buying a machine gun from an undercover federal agent, RIA Novosti reported Saturday.

After a hearing in an Alabama federal court Friday, his defence lawyers said the man avoided a possible life sentence by pleading guilty and was now facing up to 15 years in jail at the sentencing due in May.

New York, Feb 11 : A 34-year-old Indian woman who threw herself and her 19-month-old daughter into the frigid Hudson River two years ago after a sudden onset of psychosis, can now return to her country and children.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro sanctioned the reunion after noting that Devi Silvia has been in remission from bi-polar disorder and reliably continuing with medication and treatment.

Silvia nearly killed herself and her daughter Jessica in the failed murder-suicide bid in 2010.

New York, Feb 11 - US stocks dropped Friday as Greece's crucial international bailout was put on hold by eurozone finance ministers.

Eurozone finance ministers said Greece had to save an extra $430 million in order to be granted bailout funds, while Greek workers staged a nationwide strike against the new austerity plan, Xinhua reported.

On the economic front, the Commerce Department said that US trade deficit widened to $48.8 billion in December, hitting the highest level since July 2008.

New York, Feb 10 : The value of the social-networking site Facebook shares has crossed 100 billion dollars in a pre-IPO rally.

Some 150,000 Facebook shares sold for 44 dollars a piece in the latest auction on SharesPost, a trading platform for stock in private companies. That's a 10 percent jump from last week, when 100,000 shares went for 40 dollars each.

At 44 dollar a share, Facebook would be worth about 103.5 billion dollars, The New York Post reports.

Before the company filed to go public last week, its shares were selling in the low 30 dollars for much of last year on private exchanges like SharesPost and SecondMarket.

New York, Feb 10 : US stocks traded in a very narrow range around the breakeven line Thursday as investors felt little thrilled after Greek political leaders had agreed on austerity cuts after a dangerous deadlock.

Investors were taking a close watch on Greece as the nation's prime minister went to Brussels to talk with European leaders, hoping to secure the second round of bailout money to avoid a disastrous default, Xinhua reported.

Domestically, Thursday's jobs data came in better than expected, reassuring investors the battered jobs market was steadily picking up.

New York, Feb 9 - The US stocks slipped in midday trading Wednesday as investors' concerns mounted amid prolonged debt talks in Greece.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 30.05 points, or 0.23 percent, to 12,848.15. The Standard & Poor's 500 dipped 1.60 points, or 0.12 percent, to 1,345.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 2.40 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,901.68, Xinhua reported.

Deadlines were pushed back again and again as Greek politicians were negotiating with both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund over more fiscal reforms.

Most investors were still hoping a deal would be reached at the last minute to avoid a disastrous default.

New York, Feb 4 : Republicans are more likely than Democrats to achieve orgasm during sex, a new survey has revealed.

According to the 5,000-subject survey released by Binghamton University and Match. com on Friday, 53 per cent of those identifying themselves as single, conservative Republicans said they reached orgasm almost every time they have sex, compared to just 40 per cent of liberal Democrats.

But the findings also suggest while Republicans do get better sex, they don't get to enjoy it that often, the New York Daily News reported.

Those surveyed said they have their fun less frequently than their Democrat counterparts.

New York, Feb 3 - Human Rights Watch has urged India not to stand by Syria as it comes under increasing attack over violation of human rights.

The UN Security Council is considering a Moroccan draft resolution that includes demands that Syria end all rights abuses while putting down pro-democracy protests.

The draft resolution also warns that the perpetrators of rights violations must be held to account.

A majority of the 15 Council members is considered supportive of these efforts, which are also backed by the Arab League, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

New York, Feb 1 - US prosecutors have expanded their insider-trading case against Goldman Sachs Group's former Indian American director Rajat Gupta, charging him with passing tips to convicted hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam much earlier than alleged before.

In a superseding indictment filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors broadened their description of the insider-trading scheme, saying it began in March
2007 not in 2008 as alleged in October.

New York, Feb 1 : New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has passed an order banning policemen from wearing unauthorised NYPD merchandise.

The interim order, issued January 19 and "effective immediately," prohibits the city's 35,000 cops from wearing hats, T-shirts or anything else sporting the department's insignia that wasn't issued by the NYPD.

New York, Feb. 1 : India has called on the international community to play a constructive role in facilitating political dialogue to end the crisis in violence-hit Syria.

In a statement issued here, India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Hardeep Puri, said: " The international community, including this Council (U. N. Security Council), should play a constructive role in the process of political dialogue among the Syrians."

New York, Feb 1 - Prices of single-family homes in the 20 largest US metropolitan areas fell 1.3 percent in November from the previous month and 3.7 percent compared with November 2010, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard and Poor's.

November was the second straight month to see price declines in 19 of the 20 areas studied.

Only Phoenix, one of the cities hardest hit by the housing bust, defied the trend, posting an increase of 0.6 percent, while home prices in Atlanta plunged 11.8 percent over the 12 months ending in November 2011.

New York, Jan 31 : The Indian government should prosecute security personnel for torture to make it clear that torture will not be tolerated, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

Border Security Force (BSF) troopers were captured in a video posted on YouTube brutally beating a Bangladeshi national caught smuggling cattle in West Bengal.

The video, reportedly filmed by a BSF soldier, showed colleagues from BSF's 105th Battalion stripping the Bangladeshi man, Habibur Rahman, tying him up and beating him while laughing and engaging in verbal abuse.

New York, Jan : A woman in US has been arrested for setting up a fight between her daughter and another teenage girl to settle a beef.

According to police, Sandra Padilla Miranda, 38, of Florida has been accused of child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The arrest affidavit posted on The Smoking Gun. com said that Miranda asked her daughter’s enemy to come to their Orlando-area apartment complex after school so the girls could fight, the New York Daily News reported.

Once the opponent arrived, a large crowd gathered and the two, ages 14 and 17, started throwing punches.