A Manhattan landlord backed off his plan Wednesday to evict a 94-year-old widower from the rent-regulated apartment the tenant has lived in since 1950.

Pine Management — which is under investigation by the state attorney general over accusations of harassment of tenants — had moved to evict Maxwell Levy in August.

On Wednesday, after the Daily News wrote about the case, co-owner Daniel Rohlman issued a statement insisting the company never intended to evict him. Instead, Rohlman now claimed Pine Management was simply using the eviction notice to get Levy to clean up his apartment. Pine Management accused Levy of being a hoarder, though months ago he arranged to throw out dozens of boxes in his apartment.(nydailynews)…[+]

Barbados -A rural school in Jamaica, built 80 years ago, will receive its first upgrade thanks to a grant of USD430,113 from the Caribbean Development Bank through its Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF). Ground was broken on December 20, to begin rehabilitation work on the Browns Hall Primary School in St. Catherine.

Browns Hall Primary was constructed in 1936, and because there have been no significant upgrades since its construction, the facility has been rendered unsuitable to deliver quality education due to the age and configurations of the existing buildings.  The school currently has a population of 310 students and 13 teachers.

The sub-project is estimated to cost a total of USD 452,750, to which the Government of Jamaica will contribute USD22,637. It will improve the quality of the existing infrastructure and provide additional facilities, thereby creating additional space and improved security.    Works will include:

• Rehabilitation of the three existing classroom blocks to facilitate 12 classrooms
• Rehabilitation of the administrative area to house the principal’s office, staff room, guidance counselling room, sick bay and washroom facilities;
• Construction of a new block containing a kitchen, washroom, and tuck shop;
• Installation of 304 m of new perimeter fencing;
• Construction of a new multi-purpose court; and
• Construction of driveway and parking area.(CDB)…[+]

Detectives have busted a 52-year-old Bronx man for a shooting over a parking spot outside the Hells Angels’ East Village clubhouse earlier this month, police said Tuesday. Cops say Anthony Iovenitti shot David Martinez, 25, during a brawl outside the E. 3rd St. club house early Dec. 11.The 1:20 a.m. fracas started after Martinez and four friends pulled up in a black Mercedes-Benz, and Martinez moved an orange cone placed in front of the clubhouse, sources said.

Martinez’s friend was driving, and he wanted to pass a livery cab on the street. Cop sources said a club member came outside to confront Martinez, and threw the first punch.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

Husband and wife Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman have been held hostage by Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan since 2012 — and a recently released video clip confirms that Coleman has given birth to two boys while trapped in what she describes as a “Kafkaesque nightmare.” Boyle, who’s Canadian, and Coleman, a U.S. citizen, were abducted by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network while backpacking through Afghanistan.

The couple can be seen in the three-minute clip, posted on YouTube Monday, together with two young boys, whom they refer to as their “children.”

In the video, believed to be recorded by the couple’s captors, Coleman pleads for an end to her family’s “nightmare” before criticizing both the American and Canadian governments for failing to negotiate their release.(nydailynews.com)…[+]

Barbados–  The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved a USD5.79 million Street Lighting Retrofitting Project for St. Kitts and Nevis. The intervention is expected to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from street lighting by 53 percent per year, and reduce the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis’ street and flood lighting electricity bill by 44 percent, by 2019.

The intervention will replace and retrofit approximately 10,650 high pressure sodium and mercury vapour street lamps with high efficiency light-emitting diode (LED) lamps across the dual-island nation. The Project aims to install 5,550 LED lamps in St. Kitts and 5,100 in Nevis by December 31, 2018.

In addition to financing from CDB, the initiative will be supported by a contribution of USD617,000 from the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, the St. Kitts Electricity Company Limited and Nevis Electricity Company Limited. In addition to reducing energy consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases, the project aims to reduce the country’s oil imports by 305,000 imperial gallons.(CDB)…[+]