Death toll climbs past 80 in Algeria terrorist siege

ALGIERS, Algeria — The death toll from the terrorist siege at a natural gas plant in the Sahara climbed past 80 on Sunday as Algerian forces searching the refinery for explosives found dozens more bodies, many so badly disfigured it was unclear whether they were hostages or militants, a security official said.

Algerian special forces stormed the plant on Saturday to end the four-day siege, moving in to thwart what government officials said was a plot by the Islamic extremists to blow up the complex and kill all their captives with mines sown throughout the site.

In a statement, the Masked Brigade, the group that claimed to have masterminded the takeover, warned of more such attacks against any country backing France's military intervention in neighboring Mali, where the French are trying to stop an advance by Islamic extremists.

"We stress to our Muslim brothers the necessity to stay away from all the Western companies and complexes for their own safety, and especially the French ones," the statement said.

Algeria said after Saturday's assault by government forces that at least 32 extremists and 23 hostages were killed. On Sunday, Algerian bomb squads sent in to blow up or defuse the explosives found 25 more bodies, said the security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

"These bodies are difficult to identify. They could be the bodies of foreign hostages or Algerians or terrorists," the official said.

In addition, a wounded Romanian who had been evacuated died, raising the overall death toll to at least 81.

"Now, of course, people will ask questions about the Algerian response to these events, but I would just say that the responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched a vicious and cowardly attack," British Prime Minister David Cameron said. Three Britons were killed and another three were feared dead.

On Monday, Philippine Foreign Affairs officials said six Filipinos were among the hostages killed. Spokesman Raul Hernandez told reporters that 16 Filipinos have been accounted for and four others are still missing.

The dead hostages were also known to include at least one American and French workers. Nearly two dozen foreigners by some estimates were unaccounted for.

It was unclear whether anyone was rescued in the final assault on the complex, which is run by the Algerian state oil company along with BP and Norway's Statoil.

Two private Algerian TV stations and an online news site said security forces scouring the plant found five militants hiding out and learned that three others had fled. That information could not be immediately confirmed by security officials.

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Queens man killed in early-morning Midtown crash

Christopher Sadowski

Police are investigating an early-morning crash in Midtown.

A Queens man was run down in an overnight chain-reaction crash in Midtown, police say.

The accident happened at 2 a.m. today on East 26th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues.

Police say an unidentified 42-year-old man was driving a Nissan Pathfinder when his car slammed into a double-parked yellow cab, causing the cab to roll forward and strike Mir Hoosain, 35.

Hoosain died at the scene.

The crash's impact hurled the Pathfinder and taxi into three other parked cars, sending one of those drivers to the hospital in stable condition.

The Pathfinder remained at the scene hours later, its front axle twisted, engine fluid and glass shards coating the road. Police are still investigating.

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Arrest made in death of Amityville boy, 4

Frank Eltman

Police investigate the death of an Amityville child's death.

AMITYVILLE — An arrest has been made in the slaying of a 4-year-old boy found alone inside a Long Island apartment after an anonymous 911 call, police said Saturday.

Jonathan Thompson, 31, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Adonis Reed, Suffolk County police said in a news release.

Adonis was found unconscious on a couch in an apartment in a private house on a quiet Amityville street on Wednesday afternoon. He was pronounced dead at a hospital, and his death was classified as a homicide. Detectives said he showed signs of being assaulted.

Suffolk County police Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick told reporters Wednesday night that Adonis was "a victim of violence."

Thompson's home address is the same as the residence where the boy was found. He was arrested in Brooklyn with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Thompson was in custody Saturday and not immediately available for comment. He is scheduled to be arraigned later in the day.

Neighbor Eric Erath told reporters on Thursday that he used to see the little boy and his 6-year-old sister occasionally playing around the house, but he couldn't recall the last time. "Every time I used to see them, they were both very cheerful," said Erath, who lives next door.

He said he never saw any signs of abuse. "I do not believe anything like that happened," he said.

The boy's sister was in the custody of county child welfare officials, police said. It wasn't clear if the children lived at the apartment.

The apartment house where the boy's body was found is in a middle-class neighborhood with a hodgepodge of old and new architecture. The apartment is in a two-story Victorian-style house with yellow shingles.

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Algeria attacks center of gas plant; death toll unclear

ALGIERS, Algeria — A deadly Algerian military raid to free hostages from at least 10 countries and wipe out their Islamist militant captors moved closer to the heart of the natural gas complex on Friday, the government news service said.

A total of 18 militants were killed and the plant's living quarters were secured, according to the news agency, which cited security officials. Dozens of energy workers remained unaccounted for after the Algerian military's initial claim that the assault at the remote desert facility was over late Thursday.

Algeria's government has kept a tight grip on information, but it was clear that the militant assault that began Wednesday has killed at least six people from the factory — and perhaps many more.

Workers kidnapped by the militants came from around the world — Americans, Britons, French, Norwegians, Romanians, Malaysians, Japanese, Algerians. Leaders on Friday expressed strong concerns about how Algeria was handing the situation and its apparent reluctance to communicate.

British Prime Minister David Cameron went before the House of Commons on Friday to provide an update, seeming frustrated that Britain was not told about the military operation despite having "urged we be consulted."

Terrorized hostages from Ireland and Norway trickled out of the Ain Amenas plant, 800 miles south of Algiers, the capital. BP, which jointly operates the plant, said it had begun to evacuate employees from Algeria.

"This is a large and complex site and they are still pursuing terrorists and possibly some of the hostages," Cameron said. He told lawmakers the situation remained fluid and dangerous, saying "part of the threat has been eliminated in one part of the site, a threat still remains in another part."

Algeria's army-dominated government, hardened by decades of fighting Islamist militants, shrugged aside foreign offers of help and drove ahead alone.

On Friday, Algeria's ambassador to Japan was summoned and told that Japan demanded that Algeria prioritize hostages' lives and cooperate more closely.

The US government sent an unmanned surveillance drone to the BP-operated site, near the border with Libya, but it could do little more than watch Thursday's military intervention. British intelligence and security officials were on the ground in Algeria's capital but were not at the installation, said a British official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

A US official said while some Americans escaped, other Americans were either still held or unaccounted for. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was briefed early Friday, according to a senior defense official, who offered no other details because "we view it as a sensitive, ongoing situation." The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

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At least 20 hostages, including Americans, escape from al Qaeda captors in Algeria

AFP/Getty Images

Hostages had been taken captive at this natural gas complex in Algeria - but 20 of the hostages later escaped, an official said.

ALGIERS, Algeria — At least 20 foreign hostages escaped Thursday from Islamist militants who had taken over an Algerian natural gas complex in the Sahara desert, an Algerian security official reported.

Americans and Europeans were among those who escaped, he said, without elaborating. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

At least 20 gunmen attacked the vast complex early Wednesday in retaliation for France's military intervention against al Qaeda-linked rebels in neighboring Mali.

The militants, who claimed to have 41 hostages, have been in a tense standoff since then, surrounded by the Algerian military, which has helicopters flying over the plant.

Some 30 Algerian workers fled the complex earlier in the day, suggesting that the militants are having trouble managing the many hostages they have taken at the vast natural gas complex, the third largest in oil-rich Algeria.

Algerian authorities, meanwhile, were talking with tribal Algerian Tuareg leaders in hopes of mediating the dispute that involves dozens of hostages

The group claiming responsibility — called Katibat Moulathamine or the Masked Brigade — originally said it had captured 41 foreigners, including seven Americans, in the surprise attack on the Ain Amenas gas plant, 800 miles south of the capital of Algiers.

Two people, one a Briton and the other Algerian, were killed in the initial assault, which the US defense secretary has called "a terrorist attack." The kidnapping is one of the largest ever attempted by a militant group in North Africa.

The hostage-takers are reportedly seeking a safe passage out of the isolated area, something Algerian authorities have already rejected.

Another Algerian official, also not authorized to speak publicly about the attack, said authorities are in contact with tribal elders among Algerian Tuaregs, who are ethnically related to the rebels fighting the Mali government, some of whom have close al-Qaida links.

The France-based head of a catering company at the plant told French media before the latest escape that some 40 foreigners appeared to be held hostage in a separate area from the Algerian workers.

Regis Arnoux of the Mareseille-based CIS Catering company said while electricity to the plant has been cut, it had at least three weeks of food supplies.

Militants phoned a Mauritanian news outlet to say one of its affiliates had carried out the operation and that France should end its intervention in Mali to ensure the safety of the hostages.

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JPMorgan's fourth-quarter earnings up 55 percent from year before

JPMorgan Chase, the country's biggest bank by assets, says its fourth-quarter earnings shot up 55 percent over the year.

The bank made $5.3 billion after paying preferred dividends, compared with $3.4 billion this time a year ago.

Per share, those earnings amounted to $1.40, blowing away the $1.16 expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue also beat expectations. It rose 10 percent over the year, to $24.4 billion, after stripping out an accounting charge. Mortgage originations jumped 33 percent.

The bank also announced that executives and board members had finished their separate reviews of the bank's surprise 2012 trading loss, which eventually ballooned to $6 billion.

The stock fell in pre-market trading, losing 56 cents to $45.79.

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VOTE for the worst liar in history

Lance Armstrong’s lies weren’t the first to lead to a stunning crash. Here is a list of the rest of history’s 10 all-time greatest liars, a rogues gallery of devious dissemblers who can all be enshrined in the forked tongue Hall of Shame.

AFP/Getty Images


RICHARD NIXON — You know when a guy says “I am not a crook,” watch out. “Tricky Dick” Nixon took presidential perfidy to new heights, when he went on TV on August 15, 1973 and said “I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in.” A year later, he resigned.

AP



BERNIE MADOFF — He was more of a Ponzi King than the scam’s inventor, Charles Ponzi. Madoff pretended to be one of the most savvy investors in New York, but his firm was a bogus house of cards that wound up costing his investors $50 billion when it collapsed. Now Bernie cooling his heels in prison.

Spencer A. Burnett

TAWANA BRAWLEY — Her lie set racial tensions in New York to boiling in the 1980s. The Dutchess County teen falsely claimed to have been abducted and raped by a group of men, including a cop and a prosecutor. In 1988, a grand jury found her story was a horrific hoax.

AP

JOHN EDWARDS — A slick haircut doesn’t mean you’re honest. The clean-cut Edwards went from possible President to loathed liar when — after two years of denials — he admitted in 2010 to siring a love child with mistress Rielle Hunter while his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer.

AP

MILLI VANILLI — Their album may have been called “Girl You Know It’s True, ” but it was really a big lie. The “musical” duo of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, became laughing stocks in 1990 when they had to return their Grammy for best new artist after it was revealed they did not actually sing the songs on the album.

AP

ANTHONY WEINER — Sure, you were “hacked” Mr. Weiner. When a picture of the Queens Congressman’s “member” wound up on the internet he tried to claim he got shafted — by a hacker to stole the picture and put it on line. Later it was revealed that he actually sent the pic to a young woman who was not his wife. He finally admitted “I have not been honest,” and short time later resigned.

AP

PETE ROSE — He was known as “Charlie Hustle.” It was an appropriate nickname. Baseball’s all time hit leader denied for years that he ever gambled on baseball, even though he was banned from the game in 1989. Then in 2004, he admitted he did place bets on the national passtime, and even bet on his own team, the Cincinnati Reds “every night.”

AP

MARION JONES — She lost her golds on the track, but still takes top honors for lying. The disgraced track star had the five medals she won in the 2000 Summer Olympics stripped for doping, charges she initially denied. She was later sentenced to six months in jail for lying to federal prosecutors who were probing use of steroids.

PINOCCHIO — History’s all time greatest liar, this little wooden “boy” wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him. His fibs were so devious that they actually made his nose grow, making him the forerunner of all politicians throughout history.

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Newtown debates future of school where 26 died

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A month after a gunman killed 26 people at an elementary school, some Newtown parents say the building should be demolished, while others believe the school should be renovated and the areas where the killings occurred removed.

Talk has turned to the future of the Sandy Hook Elementary School as life slowly begins moving forward in town. Resident at a public meeting Sunday made passionate arguments about whether their kids should ever return to the site of the tragedy.

"I have two children who had everything taken from them," said Audrey Bart, whose children attend the school but weren't injured in the shooting. "The Sandy Hook Elementary School is their school. It is not the world's school. It is not Newtown's school. We cannot pretend it never happened, but I am not prepared to ask my children to run and hide. You can't take away their school."

But fellow Sandy Hook parent Stephanie Carson said she can't imagine ever sending her son back to the building where 20 first-graders and six educators died.

"I know there are children who were there who want to go back," Carson said. "But the reality is, I've been to the new school where the kids are now, and we have to be so careful just walking through the halls. They are still so scared."

The meeting at Newtown High School about the future of Sandy Hook drew about 200 people. A second meeting has been set for Friday. Town officials also are planning private meetings with the victims' families to get their input.

On Monday, the grassroots group Sandy Hook Promise invited victims' family members to a news conference where an initiative to prevent similar tragedies was to be unveiled.

Co-founder Tim Makris said Friday the group, formerly known as Newtown United, does not represent or speak for the families. "We're here to help and support the families when they're ready to move forward," he said.

Although opinions were mixed at Sunday's meeting in Newtown, most agreed that the Sandy Hook children and teachers should stay together. They've been moved to a school building about seven miles away in a neighboring town that has been renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Mergim Bajraliu, a senior at Newtown High School, attended Sandy Hook, and his sister is a fourth-grader there. He said the school should stay as it is, and a memorial for the victims should be built there.

"We have our best childhood memories at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and I don't believe that one psychopath — who I refuse to name — should get away with taking away any more than he did on Dec 14," he said.

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Egypt court grants Mubarak appeal, orders retrial

REUTERS

A court granted former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's appeal of his life sentence.

CAIRO — A court granted Hosni Mubarak's appeal of his life sentence in a Sunday hearing, ordering a retrial of the ousted Egyptian president on charges that he failed to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that toppled his regime nearly two years ago.

The ruling read out by judge Ahmed Ali Abdel-Rahman during a brief hearing also granted the appeal of Mubarak's security chief Habib el-Adly, who is also serving a life sentence after his conviction on the same charges. He too will be retried.

No date has been set for the start of their retrial.

The ruling came one day after a prosecutor placed a new detention order on Mubarak over gifts worth millions of Egyptian pounds (hundreds of thousands of US dollars) he and other regime officials allegedly received from Egypt's top newspaper as a show of loyalty while he was in power.

The public funds prosecutor ordered Mubarak held for 15 days pending the completion of the investigation. Mubarak, 84, was moved to a Cairo military hospital last month after slipping inside a prison bathroom and injuring himself.

Mubarak's two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and businessman Alaa, are in prison while on trial for alleged insider trading and using their influence to buy state land at a fraction of its market price. The two were acquitted of corruption charges in the same case as Mubarak, but judge Abdel-Rahman on Sunday said the court has granted the prosecution's appeal against their not-guilty verdict.

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Suspects sought in TV cooking-show crew member's Brooklyn slaying

A former Brooklyn café owner who worked on the set of ABC’s “The Chew” was shot dead on a Bedford-Stuyvesant street in an apparent robbery attempt, police sources said yesterday.

Ivan Giovanettina, 41, had “some sort of altercation” with two men who approached him at around 9:30 p.m. Thursday on Macon Street, two blocks from his home, the sources said.

Giovanettina at one point began chasing the men, when one of them turned and shot him in the lower back, sources added.

He was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital.

IVAN GIOVANETTINA Apparent mugging victim.

Police believe the motive was robbery, even though Gionvanettina’s wallet, with $250 in it, was still at his apartment and his iPhone was found near his body.

Friends said they believe the victim had only gone out for cigarettes or food.

Giovanettina, from Switzerland, was a co-owner of the now-closed Blu York coffee shop in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

“He’s just someone everybody would want to have as a friend,” said roommate Alex Wilson. “He takes care of us.”

Video surveillance from a nearby store shows the suspects, wearing hooded jackets, walking by Tompkins Avenue and Halsey Street prior to the shooting. No arrests had been made as of late yesterday.

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Man gunned down in Bed-Stuy

A man was gunned down in Bedford-Stuyvesant Thursday night, according to police.

The man, described by cops as a white male in his 30s, was shot in the torso near the corner of Macon Street and Throop Avenue at around 9:30 p.m., authorities said.

He was transported to Kings County Hospital where he later died.

Police are still investigating. No arrests have been made.

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Barclays Center unveils massive 70-foot-long mural

Barclays Center officials unveiled a 70-foot-long mural Wednesday.

Barclays Center honchos yesterday unveiled a new 70-foot-long by 10-foot-wide mural they say captures the borough’s energy and vitality.

Fort Greene artist José Parlá’s site-specific work --- which is visible from arena’s Dean Street entrance – was inspired by the book “Brooklyn Is” by James Agee and the artist’s personal experiences living blocks away and watching the Nets’ 18,000-seat new home being built. Parlá – who’s work appears nearby at Brooklyn Academy of Music Fisher Theater – is a favorite of rap-mogul Jay-Z, who owns a small stake in the Nets, and Jay-Z's wife Beyonce.

“The painting, Diary of Brooklyn, is a personal document of my experiences living in Brooklyn for almost 20 years,” Parlá said. “The writing of the diary, however, is written expressionistically illegible in hopes that the painting itself is transformed and received as the personal diary of individual viewers from Brooklyn, or visiting and experiencing the city.

"The painting is also in homage to the borough's history and includes quotes from the book, 'Brooklyn Is: Southeast of the Island' by classic American writer James Agee.”

The mural is among a series of visual arts projects being installed throughout the new arena, including new commissions inspired by the creative energy of the borough and installations that celebrate the lives of the people in Brooklyn. They will include Mickalene Thomas’s monumental mural combining photo collage and painting to depict the Brooklyn cityscape; and two works by OpenEndedGroup, a collaborative of three digital artists—Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, and Paul Kaiser—that will be displayed on the Barclays Center Oculus, a 3,000-square-foot, 360-degree LED marquee outside the Center’s main entrance.

“As the Barclays Center becomes a new crossroads for Brooklyn, it is also defining a new model for the role that sports and entertainment arenas can play in the life of their communities,” said arena developer Bruce Ratner.

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Overturned tanker truck causing traffic problems on Long Island highways

CEDARHURST — An overturned tanker truck is causing significant traffic problems on two major Long Island highways.

Nassau County police say Rockaway Turnpike and the Nassau Expressway are closed in the area of Burnside Avenue where the accident occurred at 4:54 a.m. Wednesday.

Firefighters are on the scene spraying foam on the truck. It's not immediately clear if any of the tanker fuel has leaked.

There are no immediate reports of injuries.

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Sheriff thinks Newtown school massacre a factor in Ala. bomb plot

PHENIX CITY, Ala. — An Alabama teenager who called himself a white supremacist is accused of plotting to attack classmates and a teacher with small homemade explosives, though his attorney argues the allegations are blown out of proportion and the teen never intended to hurt anyone.

Derek Shrout, 17, is charged with attempted assault after authorities say he planned to use homemade explosives to attack fellow students at Russell County High School in eastern Alabama.

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told The Associated Press he believed the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary was a factor because the first date in the boy's journal describing the plan was Dec. 17 — three days after the Connecticut killings, where a gunman killed 20 young children and six adults.

AP

Derek Shrout, 17, center, appears at a court hearing to face an attempted assault charge after authorities say he planned to use homemade explosives in a terrorist attack on fellow students at his school.

Taylor said the boy told investigators he's a white supremacist and five of the six students he named in his journal are black. The journal was found by a teacher, who turned it over to authorities.

His attorney, Jeremy Armstrong, declined to discuss specifics of the case, but he did say the publicity around the case so far was "blown a little out of proportion."

"Our position is that our client had no intention to harm anybody," he said.

A search of Shrout's home found several small tobacco cans and two large cans, all with holes drilled in them and containing pellets. Taylor said all they needed were black powder and fuses to become explosives. The journal also allegedly mentioned using firearms. The sheriff said Shrout's father owned a few household weapons, like a hunting rifle, a shotgun and a handgun.

"He just talks about some students, he specifically named six students and one faculty member and he talked about weapons and the amounts of ammunition for each weapon that he would use if he attacked the school," Taylor said.

The sheriff said he didn't believe the teen's initial claim that the journal was a work of fiction.

"When you go to his house and you start finding the actual devices that he talked about being made, no, it's not fiction anymore," Taylor said. "Those devices were — all they needed was the black powder and the fuse — he had put a lot of time and thought into that."

The teen, who is thin and wears glasses, said little during an initial court appearance Monday. District Judge David Johnson set bond at $75,000. Authorities said the family posted bond Monday night to secure the teen's release.

The judge ordered the teen not to contact anyone at his school, students or teachers, and not to use the Internet without parental supervision. He also must wear an ankle monitoring device.

Some of Shrout's classmates confirmed his interest in white supremacy.

David Kelly, the senior class president, told WTVM-TV that he was Shrout's battalion commander in JROTC.

"At first through JROTC, he was confident, well-rounded, but as time went by, he was doing the whole white power thing," Kelly told the station.

Another JROTC classmate, David White, said Shrout's involvement grew deeper in his short time at the school.

"I saw that he was taking it more serious than anything, he started getting real deep into it, and he had a little group of people doing it with him. So, I thought it was getting to where I shouldn't be around it, so I started not even hanging out with him for a long time," White said.

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Lindsay Lohan due in NYC court

RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/AP

Lindsay Lohan is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

Lindsay Lohan and her entourage of lawyers and press are due to descend at 9 a.m. this morning on Manhattan Criminal Court.

The trouble-plagued actress will learn if the DA's office has decided to press misdemeanor assault charges against her for allegedly sucker-punching a Florida fortune teller during a late-November nightclub fracas.

It is not clear if prosecutors have wrapped up their preliminary investigation or even have drawn up a criminal complaint in the starlet-on-psychic smack down.

But sources tell The Post that the DA's office has spent the last month assessing the credibility of bottle-blonde, Palm Beach-based sooth-sayer Tiffany Mitchell, 26, along with the credibility of other eye-witnesses who they've interviewed from both the Mitchell and Lohan camps.

Lohan's side is insisting the star never laid a hand on Mitchell, and only confronted the blonde after some $10,000 cash went missing from Lohan's purse in the VIP section of the tony Chelsea club Avenue.

Mitchell's side is insisting Lohan threw a hissy fit after Mitchell asked to snap a picture of the "Mean Girls" actress -- and that the punch knocked her off her feet and made her cheek swell.

Today is Lohan's first scheduled appearance on the alleged assault.

Mitchell and her "Palm Beach Psychic Visions" business has received less than stellar reviews -- with critics on various blogs blasting her for charging hundreds of dollars for "aura cleansing."

Mitchell and her husband Wayne Stevens have recently moved to New York; Mitchell and her celebrity civil lawyer, Gloria Allred, met with prosecutors last month.

Prosecutors have also been examining fuzzy, strobe-lit surveillance video footage from the 4 a.m. incident.

Lohan's lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, has declined to comment on the case, as has Mitchell's lawyer.

The starlet -- recently panned for her performance as Elizabeth Taylor in the TV movie "Liz & Dick" -- is next due in LA court in just a week.

There she faces a more imminent legal threat -- a possible 240-day jail term for allegedly violating her probation on a jewelry shoplifting conviction by lying to cops this past June to avoid arrest after her Porsche plowed into a dump truck on the Pacific Coast Highway.

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Gun show and sale held an hour’s drive from scene of Newtown murders

Defiant gun dealers ignored protesters and put their wares on sale at a controversial arms expo yesterday just an hour’s drive from the site of the Newtown, Conn., elementary school massacre.

The eighth annual East Coast Fine Arms Show, held at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Stamford, features about 250 tables and was held despite the objections of Stamford Mayor Michael Pavia, who called it “untimely and insensitive.”

“I don’t see it as a problem, because it’s the person who did it, not the gun,” said vendor Stuart English, 51, who hawks antique guns made before 1899.

“No one shoots up places with antique guns. If it was a modern gun show, I’d say it was insensitive.”

William Vollmer, husband of Sandy Hook Elementary teacher Janet Vollmer, told The Post that the gun display was “in very poor taste.”

Janet Vollmer locked her classroom door, saving 19 young lives, as Lanza rampaged through the school. She and her students survived the attack.

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Quake hits Alaska, but waves don't pose a threat

USGS

An earthquake struck at midnight Friday off the coast of Alaska.

JUNEAU, Alaska — A strong earthquake shook parts of southern Alaska and coastal Canada this morning, but officials say the waves don't pose a serious threat.

A tsunami warning was issued after the magnitude 7.6 quake struck at midnight Friday and was centered about 60 miles west of Craig.

That warning was canceled about an hour later.

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Patrick Dempsey's bid to buy coffee chain appears successful

SEATTLE — Actor Patrick Dempsey said it appears his bid to buy a small coffee chain has prevailed in a bankruptcy auction that included Starbucks Corp.

Late Thursday night, Dempsey announced that his company, Global Baristas LLC, made the winning bid for Tully's Coffee. He noted in a KOMO-TV interview that a bankruptcy judge will have the final say on Jan. 11. Still, Dempsey tweeted "We got it! Thank you Seattle!"

Dempsey's company will pay $9,150,000 for Tully's and complete the purchase later this month after the court hearing, he said in a statement.

AP

Patrick Dempsey

"I'm thrilled that we won and I'm even more excited about saving Tully's Coffee and its hundreds of jobs," he said. "Tully's is a great company with committed employees, and with its base in Seattle, one of the world's greatest cities, I'm confident we will be able to successfully build the brand and help grow the economy. "

Tully's Coffee has 47 company-owned locations in Washington and California. The company, with more than 500 employees, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

Dempsey, who gained the nickname "McDreamy" on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy" set in a fictional Seattle hospital, has said he wants to rescue the chain.

"Seattle has been very good to me over my career, and I am honored to have the privilege to own Tully's and work closely with the company's employees," he said in his statement.

After Thursday's auction, Starbucks spokesman Zack Hutson confirmed his company participated and "is currently in a back-up position" for some of Tully's assets. The final certification of the winning bid won't occur until the Jan. 11 bankruptcy court hearing, Hutson said.

"We have to wait until next week to make sure everything — I believe the 11th — to make sure it's all finalized," Dempsey told KOMO-TV.

The Starbucks spokesman said his company made an offer for 13 of Tully's company-owned stores in the Puget Sound region plus 12 outlets at Boeing Co. sites. Hutson said another bidder made an offer for all other assets — and is in a back-up position for those.

Also in the running was Baristas Coffee, which operates a chain of drive-thru espresso stands featuring female employees in skimpy outfits.

Both Starbucks and Tully's are based in Seattle.

The auction process was not public.

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Brooklyn man arrested, accused of stripping naked in Connecticut church

KILLINGLY, Conn. — A Brooklyn man who police say stripped naked in a church in the presence of congregants and school children is being evaluated at an eastern Connecticut hospital.

Gary Pohronezny has been charged with disorderly conduct, risk of injury to minors and interfering with police related to the alleged incident at St. James Catholic Church in Killingly on Wednesday.

Police say the 41-year-old Pohronezny was taken to Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam for evaluation.

It was not known Thursday morning if he is represented by a lawyer.

Pohronezny is scheduled to appear in Danielson Superior Court on Jan. 10.

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NY area lawmakers furious after House GOP scraps vote on Sandy aid

WASHINGTON — New York area-lawmakers in both parties erupted in anger late Tuesday night after learning the House Republican leadership decided to allow the current term of Congress to end without holding a vote on aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he was told by the office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia that Speaker John Boehner of Ohio had decided to abandon a vote this session.

Cantor, who sets the House schedule, did not immediately comment. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland told reporters that just before Tuesday evening's vote on "fiscal cliff" legislation, Cantor told him that he was "99.9 percent confident that this bill would be on the floor, and that's what he wanted."

A spokesman for Boehner, Michael Steel said, "The speaker is committed to getting this bill passed this month."

In remarks on the House floor, King called the decision "absolutely inexcusable, absolutely indefensible. We cannot just walk away from our responsibilities."

The Senate approved a $60.4 billion measure Friday to help with recovery from the October storm that devastated parts of New York, New Jersey and nearby states. The House Appropriations Committee has drafted a smaller, $27 billion measure, and a vote had been expected before Congress' term ends Thursday at noon.

More than $2 billion in federal funds has been spent so far on relief efforts for 11 states and the District of Columbia struck by the storm, one of the worst ever to hit the Northeast. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund still has about $4.3 billion, enough to pay for recovery efforts into early spring, according to officials. The unspent FEMA money can only be used for emergency services, said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J.

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are receiving federal aid.

Sandy was blamed for at least 120 deaths and battered coastline areas from North Carolina to Maine. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were the hardest hit states and suffered high winds, flooding and storm surges. The storm damaged or destroyed more than 72,000 homes and businesses in New Jersey. In New York, 305,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed and more than 265,000 businesses were affected.

"This is an absolute disgrace and the speaker should hang his head in shame," said Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.

"I'm here tonight saying to myself for the first time that I'm not proud of the decision my team has made," said Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. "It is the wrong decision, and I' m going to be respectful and ask that the speaker reconsider his decision. Because it's not about politics, it's about human lives."

"I truly feel betrayed this evening," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.

"We need to be there for all those in need now after Hurricane Sandy," said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.

The House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, said she didn't know whether a decision has been made and added, "We cannot leave here doing nothing. That would be a disgrace."

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