New York

Construction workers discovered 74 bone fragments over the weekend on a rooftop at a vacant skyscraper across from the World Trade Centre site in New York, the largest discovery of body parts since clean-up of the building began last fall, officials said. The skyscraper was damaged during the events of September 11 2001.

Jared Nissim wanted to make one thing clear. ”This is definitely not a dating service,” the 32-year-old New Yorker explained, as a motley group of 18 men and women, many unknown to each other, gathered around a long table at a Manhattan restaurant.

Steve Vaught’s quest to shed the dozens of kilograms of fat he was lugging around began with a single step, as did his one-man expedition to cross the United States on foot. Vaught, who began his trek last April in Oceanside, California, has so far covered more than 3 700km — the last leg to New York with freezing Midwestern winds snapping at his back.

Anti-war artists, musicians and activists marked the third anniversary of the United States-led invasion of Iraq with a concert to benefit groups campaigning against the war. Musician Michael Stipe, actress Susan Sarandon and activist Cindy Sheehan were among the headliners at the ”Bring ‘Em Home Now!” concert.

Road crews scrambled to clear highways for Monday’s commuters, and travellers stranded at airports still waited to get home as the United States Northeast dug out from a record-breaking storm that dumped 60cm or more of snow. The storm dropped 68cm of snow in Central Park — the heaviest since record-keeping was started in 1869.

Here lies the forgotten history of New York. And here. And over there. All across the city’s five boroughs, old cemeteries are tucked away, some visible but ignored by passers-by, some in the shadow of latter-day high-rises, some so remote as to be overlooked entirely.

A scraggy Philip Esposito steps on an uptown train and begins telling his story: He’s HIV positive, homeless and hungry. He needs a few dollars to get something to eat. Commuters lining the subway car have heard it all before. They ignore him, many assuming he’s full of it. But Esposito (27) isn’t lying.

Groovy is over, hip is square, far out is long gone. Don’t worry, though — it’s cool. ”Cool” remains the gold standard of slang in the 21st century, as reliable as a blue-chip stock, surviving like few expressions ever in the constantly evolving English language. It has kept its cool through the centuries — even as its meaning changed drastically.

Whether you peed in snowballs and chucked them at your friends or fed your unsuspecting vegetarian sister some meat, chances are your most embarrassing, tightly-held secrets are yearning for an audience. That’s where United States artist Frank Warren comes in. He has hit upon an ingenious outlet for all those dirty little secrets we mischievously, or shamefully hide.

”The eyes are the window of the soul.” For New York’s partying singles, that’s the new credo for a good time and possibly a new partner. In a dimly-lit Manhattan bar, with soft music filling the background, 60 men and women sit in pairs gazing intently and silently into each other’s eyes for a long, quiet three minutes, before switching to the next person.