Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe today joined City Council Member Oliver Koppell, Congress Member Eliot Engel, Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz, Bronx Community Board 8 Chair Robert Fanuzzi, Bronx Community Board 8 Parks Committee Chair Bob Bender, and veterans and co-founders of the Memorial Grove Restoration Group Herb Barret and Don Tannen to cut the ribbon on restorations to the Van Cortlandt Park Memorial Grove. The Grove is located in Van Cortlandt Park along West 246th Street in between Broadway and the Van Cortlandt Mansion.

The United Nations officials are shocked at the latest report of 200 massacred in Syria. They are stressing that peace-building architecture holds tremendous potential to help make the transition from conflict to sustainable peace and development, top officials told the Security Council, while stressing the need to enhance the effectiveness of the tools available in this area.

The number 13 as well as the sixth day of the week have similar reputations said to date as far back as ancient times.

It seems their inevitable conjunction from one to three times a year, three of these occurrences in 2012 and exactly 13 weeks apart portends misfortune. According to some sources it's the most widespread US superstition.

Some refuse to work on Friday the 13th; some won't visit restaurants; others wouldn't think of setting a special event on this date.

JP MORGAN CHASE HAS LOTS OF EXPLAINING TO DO. Some Say CEO May Have To Go.
Dimon is no diamond and is in for rough times, as largest US bank reports a loss from a highly-publicized trading mistake has grown to $4.4 billion. This is more than double what was originally announced.

SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDAL. Paterno Legacy In Doubt?
A report is claiming that Penn State football coach concealed since 1998 what he knew about Sandusky's sexual abuse of children. This may may be an indelible stain, while some feel the late coach got a raw deal.

NO COMMENT BY SAUDIS. On Female Olympians.

A severe form of hand, foot and mouth disease is the cause of the majority of recent illnesses and deaths in children reported in Cambodia, according to a joint investigation by health officials.

Following reports from a children’s hospital of unusual numbers of illnesses and deaths among children hospitalized since April 2012, the Cambodian Ministry of Health, with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners, conducted an investigation which identified 78 cases of HFMD, 54 of which resulted in deaths.