March 24, 2003
ALL'S QUIET ON JUNK-MAIL FRONT
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWith the war in full gear, consumers are reaping a minor benefit: Direct marketers may be curbing their telemarketing and direct mail campaigns - at least temporarily. That might be...
STALKING THE SADDAM OF DRUG LORDS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00am"The True Story of Killing Pablo" Tonight at 9 on The History Channel WITH the U.S. mission now in full swing to bring down and/or kill Saddam Hussein, the question...
IRISH 'FOLEY' SQUARE SHOOTER
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amFOLEY At the Irish Repertory Theatre, l32 W. 22nd St. Through April 19. Call (212) 727-2737. ---- ONE of the most exciting and innovative forms new Irish theater has found...
WITH THIS RINGO ... EX-BEATLE WED TO MUSIC AND THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWHETHER he's the best drummer in the world may be a matter for debate, but no one can challenge that Ringo Starr is certainly the best-known. He's also one of...
STARR REPORT
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amA Gray matter on 'Boston Public' Sharp-eared viewers watching tonight's episode of "Boston Public" will want to pay attention to the scene in which Tamyra Gray's character, Aisha - who...
AS GLITZY AS IT GETS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amTHE Oscars didn't seem any more somber or subdued than they did any other year. As in previous years, last night's telecast on ABC was dull, overlong and also mildly...
WAR CAN'T STOP OSCAR GOLD: BRODY'S WIN A GREAT SURPRISE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThere is some hope for the much-maligned Academy Awards after all. Adrien Brody's surprise win a Best Actor for "The Pianist" was one of the biggest upsets - and proudest...
WAR CAN'T STOP OSCAR GOLD: NO DREARY DRESSES AT THIS SHOW
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe Oscars went on in high style despite the lack of a real red carpet. Contrary to predictions, there were few dressed-down cocktail dresses in the crowd, and even fewer...
PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES IN YOUR NEW GIFT BAG ...
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amTHE first whiff of spring is usually enough to start New York women shopping, and this year, there's good reason to try some retail therapy, like buying cosmetics. "Getting out...
RIDICULOUSLY BLITHE SPIRITS: DON'T THESE PEOPLE KNOW THERE'S A WAR GOING ON?
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWHILE American soldiers were dying in Iraq, Hollywood's elite was living it up in front of paparazzi at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday. Their fingers may have flashed peace...
L.I. MOTHER: MY SON, THE HERO
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amShe knew it was him before she even saw the soldier's face. Vivien Gurfein recognized her son tearing down a poster of Saddam Hussein and dancing with the liberated residents...
PARK AVE. SECRET-TRYST VIDEO STIRS DEBATE ON VOYEUR LAW
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe time for "Stephanie's Law" is now, says a Brooklyn woman who learned the hard way that there are no laws to protect victims of videotape voyeurism. The 43-year-old administrative...
WEIRD BUT TRUE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amNew Jersey cops got their man at the one place they knew he'd be - his brother's funeral. But the minister officiating over the service for Darren Saunders wasn't thrilled...
HOW ONE GOOD SAM DESERVED ANOTHER
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amAn Orthodox Jew from L.A., who began a friendship with a Muslim fruit-stand vendor who returned his lost wallet, has come to his pal's aid after a stroke felled the...
DEFINING GENEVA'S 'RULES OF WAR'
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWhat is commonly referred to as "The Geneva Convention" is actually four linked treaties that protect prisoners of war, ensure medical treatment for wounded combatants, and guard civilians. Ratified by...
LIBERATION - FREED IRAQIS DEBUNK PEACENIKS' POSTURING
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amEN ROUTE WITH V CORPS YOU may know the statistics: The sixth of the Iraqi population that lives in exile, the 100,000-plus disappeared persons of the Kurdish "anfal." You may...
TRAFFIC TICKET TURNS DEADLY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amA Long Island cop blew away a Hamptons man who was attacking him with a 4-foot branch - in a bizarre attempt to avoid getting a speeding ticket, police said...
POLS MILK MILEAGE AND BILK TAXPAYER
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amCRIMINAL investigators probing illegal freebies to state lawmakers have stumbled onto what they believe is a new scheme for defrauding the state, The Post has learned. Investigators have been told...
WINNING BIG - THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FOG OF WAR REPORTING
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amIN combat, the ideal leader is the man who remains calm and methodical under fire. Today's 24/7 broadcast news demands just the opposite: raised voices, an atmosphere of crisis and...
FIERCE CLASHES RATTLE COPTER CREWS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amRiverfront Staging Area, central IraqSOME shaken U.S. troops yesterday said the brutal battle with defiant Iraqi units outside Nasiriyah was among the most intense fighting they'd ever seen. "One pilot...
'FRIENDLY-FIRE' TRAGEDY - U.S. MISSILE KILLS 2 BRITS ON BOMB RUN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe U.S. military promised a full investigation yesterday after a British Tornado jet was shot down by "friendly fire" near the Kuwaiti border on returning from a bomb run in...
PATRIOT RALLIES SUPPORT TROOPS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amAfter watching the anti-war forces have their say over recent days, the supporters of the U.S. campaign in Iraq turned out yesterday to show their own brand of patriotism. The...
BUSH WARNS: TREAT POWS HUMANELY - OR ELSE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON President Bush yesterday warned the Iraqis who've grabbed U.S. prisoners to treat them "humanely" and said anyone who brutalizes the POWs will be treated as a war criminal. "The...
DAD IS SLAIN IN B'KLYN ROAD-RAGE NIGHTMARE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amA would-be peacemaker was gunned down in front of his mother and 10-year-old daughter in Brooklyn early yesterday after he tried to aid his sister in a traffic dispute, police...
ARAB-AMERICAN IS PENTAGON POINT MAN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The Pentagon yesterday unveiled a new face for its public-relations campaign on Operation Iraqi Freedom: a Lebanese-American general whose past military exploits have already been glorified in a...
COMMANDOS POISED FOR BID TO RESCUE CAPTIVES
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. military forces in Iraq scrambled electronic spy planes and special commando units into action minutes after learning that American soldiers were taken prisoner by Iraqi paramilitary thugs,...
NYPD DAILY BLOTTER
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amQUEENS * A Hollis woman was killed, apparently by her live-in boyfriend, who then scribbled a note to fake the woman's suicide, police said. Shakeisha Patterson, 29, was found at...
POSSUM-PLAYING FIENDS JUMP GIS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amSaddam Hussein reached into his bag of dirty tricks yesterday. In a desperate bid to halt the allied forces drive towards Baghdad, hardened fighters resorted to a fake surrender and...
COPTER CRASH KILLS SIX IN AFGHANISTAN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amAn Air Force helicopter carrying six American soldiers crashed in Afghanistan yesterday, killing all on board, U.S. Central Command said. Although the cause of the crash was still under investigation,...
HORRORS LOOM IN THUGS' JAIL, '91 POWS SAY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - Former American war prisoners say they were brutally beaten and humiliated by their Iraqi captors - one of whom sexually abused a female Army major - and they...
LIVES LOST AND GROUND GAINED: DEAD GIS & POWS ON TV -- 10 MARINES KILLED AT NASIRIYAH -- CRUCIAL RIVER CROSSING SEIZED
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amU.S. Marines carry a wounded soldier away from the fray during intense fighting in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, where 10 Marines were killed after Iraqis, pretending to surrender,...
L.I. WIFE MOWS DOWN HUBBY WITH VAN: COPS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amA Long Island mom, driving with her three small children, smashed her minivan into her estranged husband yesterday after he refused to help pay the mortgage, Suffolk police said. Sheila...
FOES MACHINE-GUN IMAGINARY 'PILOTS'
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe skies blazed crimson over Baghdad yesterday as heavy waves of missiles pounded the capital through the night - following a day in which hundreds of Iraqis descended on the...
'TRAITOR' GI A MUSLIM LONER - MAY GET DEATH IN TENT SLAY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amOpposition to war against Iraq may have spurred an American Muslim soldier - known as a disgruntled loner - to fatally shoot one comrade in Kuwait and wound 15 others...
MOM PRAYS FOR CAPTURED SON
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe mother of one of the five U.S. soldiers paraded on Iraqi television yesterday is praying that her "scared" son will be rescued quickly. Anecita Hudson of Alamogordo, N.M., confirmed...
OSCARS TURN TO BUSH-BASH - SHAMELESS WINNERS GIVE HIM 'PEACE' OF THEIR MINDS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amPolitics took center stage at the Oscars last night, with shocked Best Actor winner Adrien Brody making a heartfelt plea for peace. In contrast to Brody's soft-spoken, emotional acceptance speech,...
OSCARS TURN TO BUSH-BASH - PEACE RANT STEALS THE SHOW FROM BEST PIC 'CHICAGO'
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe razzle-dazzle musical "Chicago" danced off with the top prize at the Oscars last night as Hollywood's elite turned the war-clouded ceremony into a peace rally. Patriotic fervor went AWOL,...
TROOPS SEIZE 'CHEM' FACTORY - COULD BE 'GOLD MINE' OF DOOMSDAY EVIDENCE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. troops yesterday captured what appears to be a giant chemical-weapons plant - and its commanding general. The seizure could provide proof that Saddam Hussein has doomsday weapons...
BLOODY ROAD TO NASIRIYAH - 10 MARINES SLAIN AS AMERICANS SEIZE KEY CITY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amU.S. forces faced the fiercest fight of their desert march to Baghdad yesterday when Saddam Hussein's loyalists inflicted more than 60 casualities during ambush attacks before Marines wrested control of...
HAIR'S THE NEW WONDER WOMAN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amGreat Hera! After more than 60 years of lassoing lawbreakers while sporting long locks, Wonder Woman will soon be performing her derring-do with a daring new 'do. The DC Comics'...
TRUE-BLUE N.J. KIDS TRADING COP CARDS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThese New Jersey cops are real cards - trading cards, that is. And kids in the Garden State are collecting and swapping them just as they would the baseball cards...
WAR CLOUDS DARKEN OSCARS: SECURITY TIGHT AS ACADEMY TONES DOWN THE GLITZ
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe winds of war blew a somber smokescreen over the traditionally hedonistic Oscar ceremony last night. The frivolous pre-show ceremonies were nixed and merriment muted as Tinseltown's glitterati shrouded themselves...
VICTORY WILL SHUT UP H'WOOD BLOWHARDS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amTODAY, the day after the Academy Awards, is prime time for Hollywood to keep talking. Now that the bile of Baghdad has boiled over into unthinkable brutality, surely it's time...
STICKING IT TO THE WINNERS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amMeet the man with the onerous - some would say enviable - task of telling Nicole Kidman to hush and Jack Nicholson to can it. When Bill Conti, who conducted...
CHUCK PRESSES D.C. FOR $ECURITY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amSen. Charles Schumer said yesterday he will push the feds to give New York its fair share of federal security funds to keep the city safe from terrorists. "It would...
'TRAITOR' GI A MUSLIM LONER: MAY GET DEATH IN TENT SLAY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amOpposition to the war against Iraq might have spurred a young American soldier described as a disgruntled, Muslim loner to kill one of his own comrades in Kuwait and wound...
BLOODY ROAD TO NASIRIYAH: 10 MARINES SLAIN AS AMERICANS SEIZE KEY CITY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amU.S. forces faced the fiercest fight of their desert march to Baghdad yesterday when Saddam Hussein's loyalists inflicted more than 60 causalities during ambush attacks before Marines wrested control of...
BOMBS DRIVING BAGHDAD BATTY: POUNDED FOE SCOURS RIVER FOR IMAGINARY 'PILOTS'
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe skies blazed crimson over Baghdad for a fourth day yesterday as waves of bombs continued to pound the capital - while hundreds of Iraqis descended on the Tigris River,...
ARAB-AMERICAN IS PENTAGON'S POINT MAN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - The Pentagon yesterday unveiled a new face for its public-relations campaign on Operation Iraqi Freedom: a Lebanese-American general whose past military exploits have already been glorified in a...
CAPTURED PLANT MAY BE PROOF OF CHEM ARMS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amWASHINGTON - U.S. troops captured what seems to be a giant chemical weapons plant in the first potential proof that Saddam Hussein has doomsday weapons despite all his denials, according...
PITT POUNCES AGAIN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amMIDWEST REGIONPittsburgh 74Indiana 52 BOSTON - Nightmares supposedly only last a few seconds. Indiana's NCAA Tournament nightmare lasted eight minutes and 39 seconds. That's how long the Hoosiers went yesterday...
BIG DAY FOR UNSUNG BROWN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amBOSTON - It was a dream come true for a kid from the Bluegrass State: Playing for Rick Pitino. Getting to a Final Four. Cutting down the nets as they...
TORRE SLAMS TARDY RAUL WITH 1G FINE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amYANKEE NOTES TAMPA - Raul Mondesi found out yesterday what happens when a player takes advantage of Joe Torre. Mondesi missed a plane from the Dominican Republic early Saturday morning...
DEVILS IN LEAD FOR JENNINGS TROPHY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amApparently having restored order to their game - and to the Atlantic Division standings - by winning three straight after losing their grip on first place with last Monday's defeat...
METS MUST ENTER CHASE FOR VAZQUEZ
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amPORT ST. LUCIE - Don't be overly concerned about Al Leiter's performance yesterday as the Braves knocked the lefty around Thomas White Stadium. Leiter's pitches were up in the zone...
SCORING SLUMP CAN'T STOP RANGERS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThey're winning, so they're working, these cockamamie Ranger line combinations devised three games ago by Glen Sather on which one featured forward after another is out of position. But honestly,...
NO DECISIONS MADE ON AMAZIN' ROTATION
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amMET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - Mets general manager Steve Phillips said there would "probably not" be any final starting-rotation decisions made by tomorrow and that he couldn't pinpoint when...
THIS GIVEN DAY, 'ZONA AND ZAGS CREATED CLASSIC
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amOK, we're all familiar with the "on any given day" truisms of the NCAA Tournament. We know that on "any given day" David can slay Paul Bunyan University. But those...
IT COMES DOWN TO HATTEN & WATSON
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amFor all the talk about how teams win games, tonight's St. John's-Virginia NIT matchup could very well come down to a pair of superstars. Marcus Hatten, meet Travis Watson. Watson...
NETS TURN IS FOR WORSE; COUGHING UP ROCK BEEN MAIN FACTOR IN RECENT SLIPPAGE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amCLEVELAND - Sometimes, you really don't need a doctorate to figure out winning and losing. Look at the Nets this month, for example. You'll see all sorts of follies, including...
HUSKIES BELIEVE THEY HAVE THE ANSWERS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amSOUTH REGION If it were only this easy. "We told Ben, 'You need to take this game over offensively,' " Jim Calhoun said. That was the halftime message Calhoun and...
SHELLED LEITER ISN'T WORRIED
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amMets 11Braves 10 PORT ST. LUCIE - Al Leiter has his health, and he has his spot in the rotation. Those are two things that have been very scarce in...
BLOOD AND GUTS ; BATTERED POINT GUARD PROPELS GRITTY 'CUSE TO COMEBACK WIN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amEAST REGIONSyracuse 68Okla. St. 56 BOSTON - Gerry McNamara had bumped heads with Victor Williams along the baseline, came off a screen, and then, blood rolling from his forehead into...
BIG EAST'S A REAL SWEET BEAST
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amBOSTON - As the victorious Pittsburgh Panthers, fresh off a 74-52 snuffing yesterday of Indiana, were making a beeline for their locker room, they passed the Syracuse Orangemen who were...
SUSPECT 'D' THE KEY FOR IRISH'S SWEET RUN
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amINDIANAPOLIS - Notre Dame had heard all the unsavory things that were being said about its basketball team in recent weeks. The Irish, losers of four of their previous five...
MUTOMBO MAY PLAY SATURDAY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amNET NOTES CLEVELAND - There will be at least two practices this week and then, if all goes well, Dikembe Mutombo will suit up and play Saturday for the Nets...
NEW YORK HERO EMERGES
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amCan New York Hero, who flew from New York to Kentucky to post an upset victory in Saturday's Grade 2, $500,000 Lane's End at Turfway Park, follow in the footsteps...
AUBURN SHOCKS 2ND SEED WAKE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amEAST REGIONAuburn 68Wake 62 TAMPA - After the final horn, they dashed toward every corner of the court. You see that a lot in this NCAA Tournament, normally after a...
BOOMER ON BOSS: HE'S DONE WORSE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amLAKELAND - David Wells still calls out "hi" each time George Steinbrenner walks by. But for a few weeks now, the lefty says, The Boss not only refuses to answer,...
WELLS: PHOTO SKIP NO SLAP AT GEORGE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amTAMPA - David Wells didn't mean to slight George Steinbrenner and his teammates when he refused to participate in a Sports Illustrated picture session Saturday at Legends Field. SI asked...
DEAD-EYE SPARTANS RIP GATORS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amSOUTH REGIONMich. St. 68Florida 46 TAMPA - The rhythms of the college basketball season can be so wild and unpredictable. One morning in February, the Florida Gators woke up and...
TOUGH TERPS TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amSOUTH REGION Maryland 77 Xavier 64 NASHVILLE - Perhaps Drew Nicholas' dramatic NCAA Tournament first round game-winner energized Maryland. Perhaps the Terrapins have remembered what made them national champions last...
'CATS TAKE ANOTHER STEP ; BLOW AWAY UTAH, EYE BIGGER PRIZE
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amMIDWEST REGIONKentucky 74Utah 54 NASHVILLE - In Kentucky's locker room - the most subdued winning locker room one will ever find in the NCAA Tournament - a white greaseboard sat...
CALL IT A WHOLE NEW SEASON
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amCLEVELAND - Call it a tale of two seasons. Last season, bounces went right for the Nets. This season? Look at two plays last night. Trailing 79-78 in the fourth...
CAVS WHIP NETS' 'HYDE'; SCOTT'S SQUAD TURNS UGLY IN SECOND LOSS TO LOWLY CLEVELAND
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amCavs 93Nets 88 CLEVELAND - Lose to the Cavs once, hey, stuff happens. Blind dogs find bones, clods trip over gold bricks, old nags win races. But lose to them...
KNICKS ALL BUT RAPT UP
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amThe Knicks and Raptors will be connected a lot from here on in. The teams play twice in a six-day span, starting tonight at the Garden. Barring a spectacular Knick...
BOGANS HAPPY WITH FOUR SCORE AT KENTUCKY
March 24, 2003 | 5:00amNASHVILLE - Kentucky guard Keith Bogans never wanted to be the poster child for staying in college, or the champion of that endangered species: the star senior. He just wanted...