Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he will not kick out American diplomats in response to U.S. sanctions, and will instead wait to work with President-elect Donald Trump.

Russian officials responded angrily to Obama administration measures meant to punish its intelligence services for interfering in the U.S. election, with the country’s foreign minister saying it may mirror its Cold War rival tit-for-tat.

Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov told news agency Interfax that he has offered to President Vladimir Putin to kick out 31 employees at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and four from the consulate in St. Petersburg. The proposed move came a day after 35 Russian diplomats were declared “persona non grata” by the U.S. and said to be “intelligence operatives” believed to be connected to the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails released through Wikileaks in July.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

A former Columbia University professor who recentlyleft several suicide notes at his Harlem apartmentwas found dead inside a rental car in upper Manhattan Thursday night, cops said. Bruce Chadwick, 48, was discovered unconscious and unresponsive inside a red Zipcar near W. 123rd St. and Riverside Drive. shortly after 11 p.m., police said. His cause of death was not immediately known but a source told the Daily News the case was being investigated as a suicide.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

A 33-year-old Philadelphia man, known as compassionate and selfless among friends and family, was shot to death by his girlfriend after the couple got into a heated argument while driving on Tuesday afternoon, police said.

Martina Westcott, 27, turned herself in to police Wednesday and was charged with murder after admitting to fatally shooting Terrell Bruce in the head while they were driving around a section of north Philadelphia around 12:30 p.m., a police spokesman told The Philly Inquirer.

The shooting caused Bruce to lose control of the car and crash into another vehicle. Cops arrived within minutes, and initially thought Bruce had died from the collision since Westcott was nowhere to be seen.

But when medics took Bruce out of the car, they discovered a gunshot wound to his right temple. A hunt for Westcott was launched after witnesses told investigators they had seen a woman get out of the car and run away immediately following the crash.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

Cops asked for the public’s help in tracking down three men linked to the murder of a Harlem gang member, officials and sources said. Raheem McWhite, 32, was walking along Lenox Ave. near W. 127th St. with a group of people, three or four abreast, at about 6:45 p.m. on Dec. 14. Suddenly, shots rang out, and McWhite clutched himself, then fell backwards to the ground outside of Yuzu Sushi on Lenox, sources said. He died at Harlem Hospital. McWhite, a Harlem resident who has 20 prior arrests on his record, survived a shooting in 2000, sources said.(nydailynews)…[+]

Debbie Reynolds’ broken heart just couldn’t take it.

The 84-year-old Hollywood icon died from a stroke less than 48 hours after her actress daughter, Carrie Fisher, suffered the same fate — and devastated movie fans immediately wondered whether the celebrity mother’s death was triggered by heartbreak. Science on “broken heart syndrome” — or “takotsubo cardiomyopathy” — is limited, but some studies suggest that passing away shortly after an earth-shattering event, such as a spouse or a close family member dying, is not just plausible, but natural.“A real life broken heart can actually lead to cardiac consequences,” the American Heart Association concluded in a study published this April. “You can experience these things even if you have no history of heart disease.”(nydailynews.com)…[+]

He’s a sitting judge who hasn’t worked in nearly three years — yet still collects a full-time annual salary of $193,000. No-show Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel McCullough disappeared with an unspecified illness in April 2014.

“Don’t tell them anything!” McCullough snapped at a friend who tried to put him on the phone this week with a Daily News reporter. His disabling malady remains shrouded in secrecy — although a source indicated there has been no hint McCullough will ever don his judge’s robes again.McCullough, 65, has instead reaped the benefits of New York’s unlimited sick time policy for its judges across the last 32 months to the lucrative tune of $482,500.

The judge’s attorney, Roger Adler, said his client will visit a doctor Thursday for a follow-up on a surgery done this fall. Adler declined to elaborate on the cause of McCullough’s absences prior to the operation.(nydailynews.com)…[+]