NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nearly three weeks after Eugene Palmer parked his pickup truck along a densely wooded state park 30 miles from New York City and vanished, the whereabouts of the elderly man considered the prime suspect in the killing of his daughter-in-law remain a mystery.

The morning of Palmer’s disappearance, his daughter-in-law, Tammy Palmer, 39, was shot to death at her home shortly after her children left for school. The New York Times reported that Palmer, 73, was upset with her over a restraining order she had filed against her husband, who is Palmer’s son.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – David Blaine has safely unplugged.

The thrill-seeking magician came down Monday evening from the 20-foot-high (6-meter) perch on a New York pier where he spent the past 72 hours standing inside an artificial lightning storm generated by seven high-voltage, low-current Tesla coils.

The 39-year-old performer said the electrifying performance would be his last endurance stunt.

NEW YORK, Oct 5 (Reuters) – A young model was insane when he
killed and castrated a prominent Portuguese journalist in a New
York hotel room, believing he could “harness the power” of the
man’s severed testicles, a defense lawyer said at the start of
the murder trial on Friday.

Renato Seabra, 22, has been charged with second degree
murder for the killing of 65-year-old Carlos Castro in the room
they were sharing at the Intercontinental Hotel near Times
Square in January 2011.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Magician David Blaine climbed atop a wobbling platform above a high-voltage Tesla coil in a tent on a Manhattan pier on Tuesday, dressed in a 20-pound chain-mail suit, and proceeded to shoot purplish arcs of lightning out of his hands and the top of his head.

The event – an unusual sort of press conference at which journalists were asked to stop their ears with foam plugs – was a preview of a stunt he will undertake starting on Friday, when he plans to stand on a 20-foot-high platform for 72 hours without food amid an artificial lightning storm crackling between low-current, million-volt Tesla coils.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Magician David Blaine climbed atop a wobbling platform above a high-voltage Tesla coil in a tent on a Manhattan pier on Tuesday, dressed in a 20-pound chain-mail suit, and proceeded to shoot purplish arcs of lightning out of his hands and the top of his head.

The event – an unusual sort of press conference at which journalists were asked to stop their ears with foam plugs – was a preview of a stunt he will undertake starting on Friday, when he plans to stand on a 20-foot-high platform for 72 hours without food amid an artificial lightning storm crackling between low-current, million-volt Tesla coils.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hikers were being urged to steer clear of a popular New York state park for the weekend while police search for a man suspected of shooting his daughter-in-law and believed to be armed and hiding in the thickly wooded area.

Police have been searching for Eugene Palmer, 73, since Monday in connection with the killing of Tammy Palmer, his son’s 39-year-old wife. They believe he is probably roaming the woods of Harriman State Park, some 30 miles north of Manhattan, after finding his deserted pickup truck near a park entrance.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Poor smokers in New York State spend about a quarter of their entire income on cigarettes, nearly twice as much as the national average for low-income smokers, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by the non-profit research group RTI on behalf of the state’s health department, found there was no statistically significant decline in the prevalence of smoking among poorer New Yorkers between 2003 and 2010, even as the habit declined by about 20 percent among all income groups.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Occupy Wall Street celebrated its one-year anniversary on Monday with a day of demonstrations that resulted in nearly 150 arrests but failed to produce the turnout or fervor that first propelled the movement into the national conversation.

The demonstrations attracted roughly 1,000 activists, down sharply from last fall, highlighting the challenge the movement has faced in trying to sustain interest in protesting against what it calls an unfair economic system.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City’s Jewish ritual circumcisers who use their mouths to draw away blood from the wound on a baby’s penis must now get the parents to sign a consent form, health officials said on Thursday.

The New York City Board of Health voted unanimously in favor the new regulation, citing the risk that infants could catch a potentially deadly herpes infection through the ancient ritual.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City passed the first U.S. ban of oversized sugary drinks on Thursday in its latest controversial step to reduce obesity and its deadly complications in a nation that is fatter than ever.

By a vote of eight members in favor, with one abstaining, the mayoral-appointed city health board outlawed sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces nearly everywhere they are sold, except groceries and convenience stores. Violators of the ban, which does not include diet sodas, face a $200 fine.