New York’s Grand Central – and nine other beautiful train stations | Jason Farago

Jason Farago: The notoriously ugly Penn station has a chance to be reborn, but here are 10 termini which need no beautification at all

Jason Farago

Another World 20th Anniversary Edition Is Out Of This World

Another World or Out Of This World as it is sometimes referred to is currently available on Steam in a 20th anniversary edition. The action/ platform game made its debut in 1991 and has since been ported to several different platforms. Recently Another World was selected as one of the few games chosen to be part of New York‘s Museum Of Modern Art.

Another World has been catapulted to “cult” status by critics and game lovers and is widely recognized as one of the most original and innovative games of its generation. Presented with high-definition graphics, and newly remastered sound, Another World is sure to capture the attention of new and old fans alike.

Another World 20th Anniversary Edition offers 3 difficulty modes; its original mode, an easy mode, and for skilled gamers, a mode that is more difficult than the game’s original hardcore mode. The 20th Anniversary edition also comes with the Development Journal and a making of video.

Grab a copy now on Steam for $9.99. Out Of This World The 20th Anniversary Edition is available on PC and Mac and was developed by Eric Chahi, DotEmu. Focus Home Entertainment is publishing the game.

White House brushes off Republican outrage over Bin Laden son-in-law trial

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell adamant that al-Qaida suspect Suleiman Abu Ghaith be interrogated at Gu ntanamo

The White House clashed with Republicans on Friday over the decision to prosecute Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law in a civil court in New York rather than holding him at Guant namo.

The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, accused Barack Obama of putting his desire to close Guant namo ahead of the country’s security needs. The decision denied the intelligence community the opportunity to interrogate Suleiman Abu Ghaith to obtain information about possible harm to the US, McConnell claimed.

But the White House spokesman Josh Earnest brushed aside McConnell’s claim. “With all due respect, that’s not the assessment of the intelligence community,” Earnest said.

The row came as Abu Ghaith appeared in a US federal court on Friday to plead not guilty to a charge of conspiring to kill Americans. During a 15-minute arraignment hearing at the southern district court in lower Manhattan, close to where the September 11 attacks took place in 2001, Abu Ghaith spoke only to confirm that he understood his rights.

In a statement on Friday, McConnell said: “The decision of the president to import Suleiman Abu Ghaith into the United States solely for civilian prosecution makes little sense, and reveals, yet again, a stubborn refusal to avoid holding additional terrorists at the secure facility at Guant namo Bay despite the circumstances.

“At Guant namo, he could be held as a detainee and fulsomely and continuously interrogated without having to overcome the objections of his civilian lawyers.”

McConnell added: “From public reports it is clear that Abu Ghaith possesses valuable knowledge of al-Qaida’s activities within Iran. Abu Ghaith has sworn to kill Americans, and he likely possesses information that could prevent harm to America and its allies. He is an enemy combatant and should be held in military custody.”

Other Republicans, including senators Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, expressed similar sentiments to McConnell. Graham and Ayotte put out a joint statement on Thursday saying they were disturbed by the decision to try him in New York rather than Guant namo and claimed it made the country less safe.

Asked about McConnell’s statement, Earnest, the White House deputy press secretary, said the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security agreed that Abu Ghaith be tried in a civilian court.

These courts “have shown that there are, in many ways, a more efficient way for us to deliver justice to those who seek to harm the United States of America. That is the consensus view of the president’s national security team and of agencies all across the federal government,” he said.

Earnest, speaking at the White House daily briefing, added: “The crimes he has committed are terrible. From at least May 2001 up to and around 2002 Abu Ghaith served alongside Osama bin Laden … This is somebody who is going to be held accountable for his crimes and it will be done in accordance with the laws and values of this country.”

The White House-Republican clash echoes one in 2009 over the Obama administration’s decision to try the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York. The administration, faced with an outcry and warnings that it would pose a security threat to the city, backed off and opted instead for Guant namo.

Obama, unable to fulfill a 2008 election pledge to close Guant namo within a year of becoming president, has gradually been reducing the number of prisoners held at the Cuban detention centre.

In court on Friday, US district judge Lewis Kaplan said that Abu Ghaith faces accusations that “in or about May 2001 to 2002 you conspired with others to kill US nationals”.

Ghaith is accused of being summoned by Bin Laden on the evening of 9/11 and asked to assist in the al-Qaida chief’s campaign.

The following morning, Abu Ghaith, along with Bin Laden and then al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a video in which he warned the US that “a great army is gathering against you” and calling on “the nation of Islam” to fight “the Jews, the Christians and the Americans”.

He later gave a speech in which he warned Muslims “not to board any aircraft and not to live in high rises”. Friday’s court session took place on the ninth floor of a building just a few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, where nearly 3,000 people died in the worst terrorist atrocity to have been carried out on US soil.

US north-east hit by power cuts as snow blankets New England

Falls of more than 2ft close roads, railways and a nuclear power station as five state governors declare emergency

The north-east of the United States was smothered by snow on Saturday with falls of up to three feet (more than half a metre) causing blackouts and the closure of a nuclear power station.

Hundreds of thousands of people lost power – more than 200,000 in Massachusetts, more than 100,000 in Rhode Island, and 30,000 in Connecticut, according to power companies.

More than 2ft (60cm) of snow fell on central Connecticut and parts of Rhode Island, New Hampshire and south-east Massachusetts, with Boston due to get up to 3ft (90cm). New York City was due to get about 1ft (30cm) with more expected elsewhere in the state, while heavy snowfall was also predicted in Connecticut and Maine.

Winds reached 35 to 40 miles per hour by Friday afternoon and forecasters expected gusts up to 60mph.

The storm prompted the governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Maine to declare states of emergency in the face of the fearsome snowstorm. The Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick, took the rare step of announcing a ban on most car travel starting on Friday afternoon, while the Connecticut governor, Dannel Malloy, closed the state’s main roads to all but emergency vehicles.

Blizzard warnings were in place from New Jersey to southern Maine, including New York City and Boston. Commuters were repeatedly warned not to travel on Friday evening or Saturday, with the National Weather Service warning that visibility could be “near zero in white-out conditions”.

The National Weather Service said Boston could receive three feet (90cm) of snow, which would rank as the city’s largest ever snowfall. The previous high of 27.6 inches was recorded in 2003. Cities from Hartford, Connecticut, to Portland, Maine, were expected to see at least a foot of snow, the NWS said, while New York City was predicted to see 12.1 inches.

By Friday night some commuter trains between New York City and Westchester County, Long Island and Connecticut had already been suspended. Amtrak suspended rail services between New York, Boston and points north on Friday afternoon.

About 3,500 flights were cancelled on Friday and hundreds more on Saturday. Most airlines had cancelled flights in and out of New York City and Boston as well as smaller airports in the region before the storm. The flight tracking website Flight Aware said over 3,100 flights had been cancelled on Friday and a further 1,000 on Saturday. Passengers were advised to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.

The Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, lost power and automatically shut down on Friday. An official at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said: “There was no impact on plant workers or the public.”

In many cases, authorities ordered non-essential government workers to stay at home, urged private employers to do the same, told people to prepare for power cuts and encouraged them to check on elderly or disabled neighbours.

“People need to take this storm seriously,” said Malloy. “Please stay home once the weather gets bad except in the case of real emergency.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was monitoring the storm and would hold “regular operational briefings” with state agencies in affected areas on Friday and Saturday.

The storm wasn’t bad news for everyone. The New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, suggested that people relax at home by cooking or watching a film. Bloomberg said he planned to catch up on his sleep.

As she stocked up at a Brooklyn grocery store, 28-year-old Jackie Chevallier said that after two years without much snow, she was looking forward to waking up to a sea of white.

“I’d like to go sledding,” she said.

The storm also posed a risk of flooding at high tide to areas still recovering from last October’s hurricane.

“Many of the same communities that were inundated by Hurricane Sandy’s tidal surge just about 100 days ago are likely to see some moderate coastal flooding this evening,” said Bloomberg.

Ed Koch dies at 88: former mayor ‘gave New York its swagger back’

Over three terms, charismatic leader saw city through near-bankruptcy but also presided over a spike in violent crime

Ed Koch, a former New York mayor admired for his fiscal discipline and beloved for his big mouth, died Friday morning of congestive heart failure, a spokesman said. He was 88.

“New York City has lost an irrepressible icon and our most charismatic cheerleader,” the current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said in a statement. “Ed Koch was a great mayor, a great man, and a great friend.”

Koch was admitted to a city hospital Monday with shortness of breath and was moved to intensive care Thursday. He had battled heart disease since leaving office in January 1990.

“I’m not the type to get ulcers. I give them,” he wrote in Mayor, his autobiography, in a passage quoted by the Associated Press.

Koch won office in 1977 as the city struggled to recover from a bankruptcy bailout, a power blackout and a looting crisis. Through three terms, Koch cut city programs while improving popular services such as the subway. His sure leadership inside City Hall was sometimes invisible in the streets, however, as crime spiked with the crack cocaine epidemic and homelessness and the Aids crisis spread.

Koch bustled through each crossroads by force of personality. “I met him right after elected mayor,” Jonathan Alter, the journalist, wrote Friday. “He gave New York its swagger back.”

“RIP to one of NYC’s great political characters,” Tina Brown, the former New Yorker editor, wrote on Twitter Friday. “Koch made the Big Apple bigger.”

The mayor’s mischievous side is apparent in a video obituary produced by the New York Times with his participation. In the opening scene an elderly Koch turns to the camera, smiling, and asks, “Do you miss me?”

As part of a video Q&A series, Koch was asked what it was like to guest star alongside the Muppets in the 1984 movie Muppets Take Manhattan. “Better than playing with human beings,” he answered. “Much more decent.”

At times Koch’s penchant for unvarnished speech drew the wrong kind of publicity. During the 1988 presidential race Koch, mayor of a city with ethnic and racial fault lines, said Jews would have “to be crazy” to vote for Jesse Jackson, the black candidate. Norman Mailer, the novelist, wrote that Koch “may have succeeded in blasting the last rickety catwalk of communication between Jews and blacks in this city” with the comment.

On Friday the Rev Al Sharpton, head of the National Action Network, said Koch was “never a phony or a hypocrite. He would not patronize or deceive you. He said what he meant. … May he rest in peace.”

In his ninth decade the mayor kept a Twitter account. One of the last messages posted was a happy birthday wish for himself – and a note of reciprocation for the affection his hometown had shown.

“Citizens, thank you for all your birthday wishes. I am 88 years old today and still lucky to live in the greatest city in the world.”