January 18, 2002

BLUE CHIPS' PROFITS BOOST DOW

Powerful profits from top companies like General Electric, Citigroup and Compaq boosted the Dow to its biggest gain in a month. Several big tech companies reported after the bell, and...

UNITED NATIONS MAY ERECT 10-STORY BUILDING

The United Nations is expanding, The Post has learned. The scheme, which must be approved by the General Assembly, will include the development of a new, 10-story building that would...

BLOOMBERG EYES EVEN BIGGER PRINCETON CAMPUS

Michael Bloomberg's company plans to more than double the size of its operations in Princeton, N.J. Plans filed with the Montgomery Township Planning Board have the mayor's ever-expanding Bloomberg L.P....

TAKI TRIES TAKING N.Y. PRESS: BUT ATTEMPT AT $5M DEAL FAILS

TAKI Theodoracopulos, the jet-setting columnist, has tried to put together a deal to buy the right-leaning New York Press from founder Russ Smith. Smith founded the paper 15 years ago....

SEC TARGETS ACCOUNTANTS : PITT OUTLINES PLANS FOR WATCHDOG GROUP

SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt talked tough, but tossed yet another puff ball to the scandalized accounting industry yesterday. In an effort to reverse his squishy image, the new head of...

EBAY BIDDERS EAGERLY GRAB ENRON LEFTOVERS

Enron stock is selling for mere pennies, but the market for artifacts from the company's gift shop and desktops is booming. Dozens of souvenirs with the Enron logo started cropping...

BENEFITS FOR JOBLESSNESS RUNNING OUT IN FIRST WAVE

New jobless claims declined for the third week in a row to a five-month low, but the unemployment rate is still slated to rise. Analysts said that although new claims...

RAH DE DEUX

MOLISSA FENLEY AND DANCERSAt the Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave., between 18th and 19th streets, (212) 242-0800. Season runs through Jan. 20. IT is one of dance's odder pairings, but...

TERROR TALE TANGLED IN LOVE TRIANGLE

TIME OF FAVORTimely and intriguing, if as subtle as a truck bomb.Running time: 102 minutes. Not rated (violence, sexuality). In Hebrew with English subtitles. At the Quad, the Sutton, others....

IT'S THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE

ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS Bellissimo!In Danish and Italian, with English subtitles. Running time: 100 minutes. Rated PG-R (sexuality). At the Angelika and the Lincoln Plaza. THE utterly charming Danish comedy "Italian...

GOODING GOES TO THE 'DOGS'

SNOW DOGSHuskies si, Cuba no.Running time: 99 minutes. Rated PG. At the E-Walk, the Kips Bay, the Chelsea, others. THAT winning an Oscar can be a curse as well as...

'PLASTIC' SHOWS ITS METTLE

PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE 1/2 PLASTIC People of the Universe, an experimental rock band heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground, was formed in 1968 in what was then Czechoslovakia....

NO GROUNDS FOR 'CASTLE'

THE CASTLEAt the Manhattan EnsembleTheater, 55 Mercer St. ThroughFeb. 17. Call (212) 925-1900. A MAN arrives in midwinter at an inn; he claims to be a land surveyor working for...

FINAL ANSWER: REGIS WON'T TAKE DAY JOB

REGIS Philbin won't be hosting the syndicated version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." "Regis has been offered the syndicated 'Millionaire' not once, but twice, and has declined," Philbin's...

WILLIE BOY IS HERE: AFTER NEW YORK GIG, HE'S ON THE ROAD AGAIN

BEFORE he was one of America's best-known pop icons, Willie Nelson was a songwriter - a storyteller. He came to fame in '61 after penning "Crazy" for Patsy Cline and...

HELLO FOX, BYE 'FILES'; DUCHOVNY BACK FOR THE FINAL X-IT

'X-FILES" star David Duchovny will likely pop up on the show again - now that it's been canceled. Duchovny, who played Special Agent Fox Mulder for 8½ seasons, left the...

AUDACIOUS AUDITION ; 'PENIS' LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD MEN

THIRTEEN men walked into a Midtown Manhattan theater yesterday, but only 10 left with their heads held high. The other three slunk away before they did what they came to...

HITTING JUST THE RIGHT NOTE

WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES A stunner by cult filmmaker Bela Tarr.In Hungarian, with English subtitles. Running time: 145 minutes. Not rated (violence). At the Anthology Film Archives, Second Avenue and Second Street,...

WINTER WHITE WAY SALE ; COUPON CLIPPERS FILL THE ORCHESTRA

IF you lower ticket prices, they will come."Seasons of Savings" - Broadway's first industry-wide winter sale - is turning out to be quite a success story. The League of American...

STARR REPORT

The forgotten people of Chinatown In all the coverage of Sept. 11 and its aftermath, there's one angle that's been largely ignored - the population of Chinatown, in the shadow...

DIGGING 'ROOTS'

"Roots: Celebrating25 Years" Tonight at 8 on NBC/Ch. 4 ½ SO much is missing from tonight's "Roots" special on NBC that I hardly know where to begin. You can start...

SELLING JOHN MALKOVICH: LONER BRAVES SUNDANCE FOR DIRECTORIAL DEBUT

PARK CITY, Utah - One of the odder sights at the Sundance Film Festival, where endless hours are given over to industry schmoozing on snowy streets, was the solitary figure...

MOUSSAOUI ROOMIE HELD IN 9/11 PROBE

The Oklahoma roommate of alleged "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui has been held secretly for months by feds who are still trying to determine if he was involved in the Sept....

THE OFFICE GLUT - IT'S A BIG THREAT TO REBUILDING AT GROUND ZERO

AMONG the quandaries facing John Whitehead's Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp. is one that would have been unthinkable two years ago, when the interlocked Wall Street and Silicon Alley booms had...

HOOKER-SNOOKERED GRAMPS, 81, WAS ON THE PROWL: SUFFOLK COPS

An undercover female cop posing as a hooker on Long Island busted an 81-year-old man and charged him with patronizing a prostitute in a Suffolk County police "john" sting operation....

A HEAVY-METAL BILL FOR SUBWAYS

Transit Authority engineers figure it will take 3,000 tons of steel to rebuild the shattered 1/9 subway line beneath the World Trade Center. To hold all that steel together, they'll...

MEET 'JOE SIXPACK' ARMANI

In a case of the pot calling the kettle black, Giorgio Armani, maker of some of the most expensive fashions in the world, is fed up with luxury. "I'll tell...

SHEIKS, LIES & VIDEOTAPE

INTELLIGENCE services in Europe and the Middle East found it hard to believe the CIA's claims that the famous Osama bin Laden videotape was found by chance somewhere in a...

TO WIN THE PEACE ; AIDING AFGHANISTAN IS IN AMERICA'S INTEREST

EVEN as our Special Forces troops - with diminishing assistance from our increasingly truculent local allies - continue to search out and destroy al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in the...

'WRONG MAN' FREED - DA DROPS CHARGE 14 YRS. AFTER SLAY

The wheels of justice turned slowly for Sami Leka - but 11 years after he was locked up for a murder he says he didn't commit, the father of five...

THIS NYPD DRILL IS THE RIOT 'ACT'

Hundreds of baton-wielding riot cops were put through their paces in a citywide mobilization exercise at Shea Stadium yesterday as New York prepares to host the World Economic Forum beginning...

'MIRACLE' WTC COP GOES HOME

Hero Port Authority Police Sgt. John McLoughlin, who miraculously survived 22 hours trapped under a mountain of World Trade Center rubble some 30 feet underground, went home yesterday after being...

84,000 SKY-MARSHAL HOPEFULS IN THE WINGS

Sky-marshal wannabes are flooding the FAA with applications to join the in-flight security force assigned to keep the friendly skies from turning dangerous. There have been about 150,000 applicants since...

ECON SUMMIT BRINGS OWN TERROR THREAT

YOU can take the cop out of New York, but you can't take the cop out of John Timoney, former deputy police chief of this wonderful town, and former police...

SEXY FIGURE SKATERS ARE ON THIN ICE WITH OLYMPIC JUDGES

Judges at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games have issued a stern warning to competing figure skaters - clean up your acts. They say they've gotten complaints that many of the...

NEW TV SITCOM IS BASED ON SCHUMER

WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles Schumer, New York's opinionated, argumentative lawmaker, is the model for a planned TV comedy series about life as a D.C. lawmaker in an all-male Capitol Hill...

ACCOUNTANT BANKS ON 33G GLITCH: COPS

A Long Island accountant was jailed after a bank mistakenly deposited more than $33,000 into his account and he started withdrawing the money, police said. Leon Perry, 28, of Rockville...

'VETTE THEFT A 'TOTAL' FAILURE IN CRASH WITH L.I. COP CAR

A luckless car thief making his getaway in a stolen brand-new Corvette was busted after he sped away from a Long Island car dealership - and crashed into a passing...

FURIOUS FEDS STAGE $ICK-OUT ON PATAKI'S NEW HEALTH PLAN

Gov. Pataki's controversial health-care package was under attack yesterday from the White House - and from one of the strangest alliances ever seen at the state Capitol. Bush administration Budget...

SURVIVOR OF 9/11 IS TRIPLY BLESSED

A brand-new mom who barely escaped from the Trade Center on Sept. 11 said yesterday she and her "miracle" triplets are alive today because of God and the heroism of...

AIRPORTS TO MAKE 'SCREEN' DEBUTS

It's "E-Day" for U.S. airports and airlines, which must implement new tactics for explosives screening by today or face the wrath of federal fines. Transportation Secretary Leon Mineta has said...

COPS BUST SUSPECT IN GANGSTER GUN BATTLE

Cops have captured a man they say wounded an innocent 11-year-old boy in a gang battle in Queens more than a year ago. Detectives have charged Jossean "Sosa" Velazquez, 18,...

WHY BLUE LIGHT IS OUT - STORE GIVES ITS PREZ THE BOOT & HIRES BAILOUT BOSS

Attention, Kmart shoppers - the end is near. The fabled chain took another step toward bankruptcy court yesterday by ousting its president, Mark Schwartz, for losing his price war against...

RECOVERY: IT'S UP TO PATAKI

George Pataki, whose ham-handed overreach on post-9/11 federal aid to the Empire State caused Washington to pause and wonder whether it really loved New York after all, now has firm...

MONUMENTAL CHANGE - BACKER SCRAPS PLANS FOR 'ALTERED' FDNY STATUE

A top developer yesterday scrapped plans to commission a politically correct statue that would have changed the races of two of the three firefighters who took part in a celebrated...

FEDS PROBE LAUGHING-GAS DEATHS

Federal inspectors yesterday descended on a Connecticut hospital to investigate the deaths of two women who mistakenly were given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen while they were undergoing routine heart...

STRAPHANGER BLOOMY STUMPS AND SCHMOOZES

Mayor Bloomberg, after campaigning for a legislative candidate yesterday morning, found himself discussing his daughter's job hunt, the press and the budget shortfall with straphangers on another subway ride to...

FIND THESE FIVE TERROR FIENDS - SEIZED VIDEO SHOWS'MARTYR' WANNABES

WASHINGTON - In a chilling alert, Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday asked the public to be on the lookout for five al Qaeda terrorists who might be out on a...

MARTHA STEWART LIVING WITH RETAILER'S WOE

Being exclusive to one retailer has its high and low points - and Martha Stewart is getting a taste of the low. Kmart's troubles with low sales, growing debt and...

CASH-STRAPPED CITY COUNCIL SITTING ON 60G

Despite the city's cash crisis, the City Council is pumping $60,000 into new executive-style leather chairs, The Post has learned. After a flurry of meetings in which council staffers stressed...

'MONSTER' OF A GIFT - RUDY WILL THANK NATION DURING SUPER BOWL

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will pay a tribute to America for supporting New York City after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in a TV spot that will air during the...

CHURCH'S HOMELESS CASE GOES TO APPEAL

City lawyers filed papers yesterday saying they will appeal a federal judge's ruling allowing homeless people to sleep on the steps of a Midtown church. The city filed a notice...

NINFA AND LEVY IN GROUND ZERO SPAT

The president of the Board of Education blasted Schools Chancellor Harold Levy yesterday for trying to force parents to send their kids back to their school building near Ground Zero....

FISH STORY TURNS TRAGIC AT CITY HALL

City Hall is a tough environment even for the hardiest of souls, and some of those brought into the Bloomberg administration have already washed out. A handful of pet fish...

O BROTHER, 'WEAR' ART THOU? 'BIN LADIN' LABEL A BUST

Don't expect to buy "Osama's pajamas" anytime soon. The Swiss are moving to revoke a trademark for the "Bin Ladin" line of clothing, sportswear and jewelry granted to Yeslam Binladen,...

RUDY OK'D $28M FOR B'KLYN STUDIO

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani decided in another last-minute deal to pump $28 million into a Brooklyn movie studio backed by an ally, it was revealed yesterday. The city Economic Development...

TAKE BACK COP FIRED 4 TIMES, NYPD TOLD

A police officer who's been wrongfully fired from the NYPD an amazing four times over the past 20 years can have his job back - again, an appeals court ruled...

MOBSTER IS TRIED IN FUNERAL SLAY

An alleged Gambino underling who ran with the violent "Giannini crew" robbery gang went on trial yesterday for a gang-style murder and a failed scheme to rob diamonds and gold...

A GLIMPSE INSIDE CUBA'S CAMP X-RAY

WASHINGTON - Dazed, shackled and blindfolded, the al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners arriving in Guantanamo Bay don't know whether they're in Biloxi or Bangkok - all they're told is which...

CEO SELLING TWO OF HIS ASPEN HOMES

Enron Chairman Ken Lay, who raked in $100 million on company stock before the energy giant went bankrupt, is trying to raise even more cash by selling off some of...

ENRON SACKS ANDERSEN - FAILED FIRM RIPS INTO AUDITOR

Enron fired Arthur Andersen as its auditor yesterday after congressional investigators released documents showing the bean-counters had big worries about the energy trader's accounting methods before it went bust. "We're...

SHAKEUP URGED AT HS AFTER SHOOTING

Teachers at troubled Martin Luther King HS are demanding the resignation of the principal over a shooting in the hallways Tuesday, while the mother of one of the victims prepared...

WTC KIN IN $$-PAYOUT PROTEST

Families of World Trade Center terror victims rallied last night for changes to the federal plan to compensate them for their loved ones' deaths. Denise Matuza, 35, was in the...

CLEARED 'RADIO MAN' AIRS JOY, NOT STATIC

An Egyptian student wrongly accused of lying about having an aviation radio near the World Trade Center shouted with joy yesterday at being sprung from jail - and even offered...

SUICIDE TERRORIST KILLS 6 AT BAT MITZVAH IN ISRAEL

JERUSALEM - A Palestinian terrorist killed six people and injured 30 others yesterday when he burst into a bat mitzvah ceremony in northern Israel and began spraying terrified guests with...

FAMILY MEALS HELP KIDS COPE: DOCS

Kids from families who eat meals together appear to have fewer mental health problems, a new study reveals. The research, conducted by the Alicante Medical Center in Spain, compared young...

HE SEES LASER OP IN HARSH NEW LIGHT

And now here's the downside of getting laser eye surgery - it can make you see your spouse too well! That's the word from the president of Slovakia, who says...

THE 'BIN LADIN' LABEL: O BROTHER, 'WEAR' ART THOU?

"Osama's pajamas" could be coming to a store near you. Yeslam Binladin, one of Osama bin Laden's 53 siblings, is hoping to throw his hat into the fashion arena by...

SOME THUGS WILL GO FROM CUBA COOLER TO U.S. TRIALS

WASHINGTON - Pentagon lawyers are planning to put some captured al Qaeda and Taliban fighters being held in Guantanamo Bay on trial for terrorism in U.S. criminal courts, Defense Secretary...

LINDROS' MATES OUT OF EXCUSES

NEXT year Bobby Holik might be wearing the same Blueshirt as Eric Lindros. Last night, however, the fierce Devils center lined up against No. 88 in a match that really...

DO YOURSELF A FAVORITE ; RESTED HOME TEAMS ALWAYS PLAYOFF BEST BETS

THIS is the one week, historically, when the NFL has been easiest to figure out. Home teams in the divisional round are 36-8 since 1990, when the NFL went to...

'WLFA' FIGHTS ON

THE nation's leading sportsmen's rights organization is changing its name to better position itself to serve the nation's sportsmen and sportswomen. The Boards of Trustees and Directors for the non-profit...

STEVENS GLAD TO GIVE WRIST A REST

It stands as a tangible symptom of the Devils' near-dynasty in decline. On the other hand, ahem, Scott Stevens views the end of his 10-year streak of All-Star Games as...

BAFFERT SIZING UP HIS DERBY HOPES

Trainer Bob Baffert and the Triple Crown go together like ham and eggs. Since 1996, when his Cavonnier lost the Kentucky Derby by a nose, "Bullet Bob" has run at...

A WORK IN PROGRESS; PATRIOTS HOPE QB BRADY HAS MAGIC LEFT

FOXBORO - Has the shine begun to wear off Patriots' wunderkind quarterback Tom Brady? With the high-powered 11-6 Raiders coming to Foxboro to play the AFC East-champion 11-5 Patriots in...

REFS DON'T GET IT EITHER

FOURTEEN years after the NFL's replay rule was introduced, very few understand exactly how it works. And the confused, of all people, include an NFL replay official and an on-field...

FOX PULLS PLUG ON NIGHTLY REPORTS

AFTER five years, the Fox Sports Net show that was supposed to compete with ESPN's "SportsCenter" will shortly vanish, the latest victim of TV's rotten economic climate. FSN will suspend...

NETS: WE CAN'T REST YET ; MORE TO DO DESPITE WIZ WALKOVER

A 44-point win over Michael Jordan and the Wizards? The fifth best record in the NBA? A win total already matching last year's? None of it means much to the...

JET STAFF SET TO FLY

The Jets have an organizational meeting scheduled for today to evaluate every player on the team, yet the organization is somewhat in flux. Their assistant general manager, Mike Tannenbaum, yesterday...

BLUE-COLLAR BEARS ARE BIG HITS AGAIN

Looking for a team you can root for now that the Jets and Giants are in cold storage until next summer? Meet Da Bears. This is a blue-collar team that...

MCLEOD, GOMPERS TAME ROUGH RIDERS

Gompers 62T. Roosevelt 39 There's no doubt Stedford McLeod is a different player from a year ago. He's bigger, stronger and more experienced. But there's a more important difference that...

BIG BUCKS BACKSTOP ; YANKEES, POSADA CLOSE TO $50M DEAL

The Yankees and Jorge Posada are closing in on a five-year contract that would make the switch-hitter the second highest paid catcher in history behind Mike Piazza, The Post has...

DON'T BLAME LAYDEN FOR EW DEAL

IT GRIEVES me to be put in a position where I'm forced to defend Scott Layden; he's apparently a good guy and a diligent worker, but, as GM of the...

MORE TINKERING TO DO

A GUY goes into a room to do some touch-up painting. But each time he appears done, he finds a new place to dab. Pretty soon, he looks up to...

EAGLES AND STORM STRUGGLING ALONG

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - About the only thing Boston College and St. John's had going into last night's game is that both were 2-2 in Big East play and couldn't...

INJURIES CONTINUE TO TAKE TOLL

KNICK NOTES The Clarence Weatherspoon situation got weirder while Marcus Camby and Latrell Sprewell vowed to play tomorrow despite not practicing with foot and neck injuries, respectively. Weatherspoon claimed yesterday...

SLIDING KNICKS NOT LIKELY TO UNLOAD CHANEY

Knicks GM Scott Layden attended practice at Purchase College yesterday and met with embattled coach Don Chaney afterward. Layden will be at Purchase again today. But though the Knicks are...

CAMBY: TRADING SPREE WON'T SIT WELL

Marcus Camby believes it would be a big mistake to trade Latrell Sprewell, who has drawn interest from other clubs. The 14-23 Knicks have no untouchables. "He's out best player,...

STAR SNUB PROVIDES STEVENS WRIST REST

It stands as a tangible symptom of the Devils' near-dynasty in decline. On the other hand, ahem, Scott Stevens views the end of his 10-year streak of All-Star Games as...

PEDRO'S ON, THEN GONE: ASTACIO MEETS PRESS, FLIES HOME TO PITCH

Torn between two teams, Pedro Astacio took the money and ran. The 32-year-old right-hander left from Queens yesterday on a 1:30 p.m. charter flight back to the Dominican Republic to...

NEW ND COACH SETS BAR HIGH

Under a now-tarnished Golden Dome, the Notre Dame football program took the first step on the road back to prosperity yesterday. Tyrone Willingham met his team for the first time...

DEVILS FEAST ON FADING RANGERS

Devils 6 Rangers 4 There is nothing like bleeding Rangers to arouse any shark still left in the Devils. Bleeding? They're hemorrhaging. It was back in 1989 that the Rangers...

JOHNNIES GO ON RUN TO DAYLIGHT

St. John's 64 B.C. 57 CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - St. John's was staring into the abyss. Down by 14 at Boston College last night, the first two-game losing streak of...

NOW, JUST A COUPLE OF TOMATO CANS

FOR the first time in nine years, this would have to go on an undercard. For the first winter since 1992-93, neither the Rangers nor the Devils can be portrayed...