April 26, 2003

JUDGE PERMITS FILE-SHARING

The music industry suffered a legal setback yesterday when a federal judge ruled that two tech firms are not liable for file-swapping among their users. The decision will be appealed,...

AMR DODGES BANKRUPTCY

American Airlines evaded some of its worst-ever turbulence yesterday by working out new labor pacts to help avoid imminent bankruptcy. The settlement came just hours after its chairman and CEO...

TOUGHER TERMS FOR CITI, SANDY

Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney's settlement with regulators will include tough compliance standards that go beyond those of the other nine banks that are part of the global research settlement, say...

PROFIT-TAKERS THROW DOW FOR A LOSS

Wall Street traders were quick to take profits yesterday in a selloff that wrecked the week's brief rally. They blamed weak corporate outlooks and anemic economic growth for cashing out...

WASSERSTEIN WOOS POWERHOUSE PARR TO LAZARD

Bruce Wasserstein, Lazard's hard-charging chief executive, is close to landing one of Morgan Stanley's top dealmakers as he looks to revitalize the erstwhile mergers powerhouse, The Post has learned. Gary...

CARSON'S CRIB ON EBAY BLOCK

HEEEEERE'S Johnny's house! Johnny Carson's boyhood home in Norfolk, Neb. will be auctioned off on eBay beginning Monday. Jim Pruett, who bought the house in March for $150,000 along with...

A DOORS KEEPER

THE DOORS WITHOUT a doubt, the same morbid cu riosity that draws people to car races to see a colossal smashup was what sold out The Doors reunion concert at...

BIG BIRD UNPLUCKED - MAN IN YELLOW LETS IT FLY IN BEAKY TELL-ALL

AS the man inside Big Bird, Caroll Spinney has always been content to stay out of the limelight. But now, after being cooped up for so long in that 8-foot...

SHEAR MADNESS

TALK about looking sheepish - but wouldn't you, if you were getting a buzz cut in public? Check out the latest barnyard 'dos this weekend at the Prospect Park and...

A SHOT IN THE PARK - DRINK AL FRESCO IN THESE CITY SPACES - WITHOUT A PAPER BAG

New Yorkers need some serious fresh air and sunshine right about now, and what better way to get it than hanging out in the park? How about hanging out in...

IT'S BEEN A DOG'S SAGE

The dog-friendly Barbelles have always subscribed to the view that a drinking establishment seems cozier and friendlier with a wet nose or two lying about. But sometimes it's just not...

DINNER PARTY CHEAT SHEET

Dinner Party Cheat Sheet desperately wants Justin Timberlake back in its life. OOPS, I DYED IT AGAIN For some reason, the nation was captivated this week by Britney Spears' new...

SWEET 'N' LUDLOW - THE LATEST ON THE NEW LOWER EAST SIDE

Most New Yorkers know the Lower East Side is a good place to see a band or grab a drink, but it has lots more to offer these days -...

SUSPECT'S OBSESSION BOMBS

Cops have cracked the case of the mysterious cache of guns and bombs left in a policewoman's car, authorities said yesterday. Andrasan Scott, 29, who was arrested on Thursday, is...

HEARTS ACHING OVER LOCALS' HUNGER PAINS

SAFWAN, Iraq - Even if you were against the war, you could not be in favor of the poverty that is as pervasive in this country as sun and sand....

COWED SYRIA YIELDS SADDAM'S SPY BOSS

WASHINGTON - Responding to intense U.S. pressure, Syria yesterday expelled and turned over to U.S. forces a former Iraqi spymaster who orchestrated the assassination attempt on former President George Bush,...

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON GAVE ADVICE TO BRITISH PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR

WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton gave advice to British Prime Minister Tony Blair on how to achieve a diplomatic solution to Iraq just prior to the war. "President Clinton...

'KIDNAPPER' LURED GIRLS ON INTERNET

Visiting Florida wasn't a memorable experience for an 18-year-old Manhattan man who prosecutors say was trying to start an escort service using kidnapped underage girls. "I'm not sure if I've...

MUSIC BIG NABBED ON GUN CHARGE

A New York music-biz exec with the embattled rap label Murder Inc. has been arrested in Los Angeles on federal firearms charges. The executive, Dexter Ottley, 38, was taken into...

BUSH DELIVERS A FRENCH KISS-OFF

President Bush is likely to spend just one night in France - one less than French President Jacques Chirac wants - when he visits the reluctant ally for an international...

19-TO-LIFE IN BOYFRIEND SLAY

A Brooklyn woman who savagely stabbed her boyfriend to death after catching him with another woman was sentenced yesterday to 19 years to life in prison. Valerie Seeley, 46, fatally...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

MANHATTAN * A 15-year-old boy was arrested yesterday after mugging a man on the Upper West Side, police said. Melvin Bryant was arrested around 12:05 a.m. after two cops nabbed...

JUDGE IN PARENT TRAP

It was a mother's love for her children that brought down Brooklyn bribe-scandal Judge Gerald Garson. The mom of three whose call to prosecutors led to Garson's arrest told the...

CANADIAN CRISIS - 2 MORE DIE AS TORONTO BIDS TO LIFT 'FLU' WARNING

SARS claimed two more lives in Toronto yesterday even as officials hoped to convince the World Health Organization to yank the travel warning that's keeping tourists and their dollars away...

RENT BOSS TALKS SMALL

Landlords' costs are up a whopping 16.9 percent - but the head of the Rent Guidelines Board vowed yesterday that he won't back a double-digit rent increase for a million...

BENCH BOSS VOWS COURT OVERHAUL

In the wake of the divorce court bribe scandal, Brooklyn's head judge said she will change the way the borough's courts are run, including the way clerks and bailiffs are...

GRANNY GETS 20 YRS. FOR $37M SCAM

A 71-year-old grandma who lived it up at the St. Regis hotel while running a $37-million global financial scam will spend the next 20 years in a federal prison. Manhattan...

'RAB-BUY' DENIES PAYING OFF GARSON

A Brooklyn rabbi and his daughter pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges they tried to pay thousands of dollars to have bribe Judge Gerald Garson fix the woman's bitter child...

ON-THE-LAM BANK-RUN BIG 'ADMITTED THEFT'

Fugitive Chinatown bank manager Carol Lim confessed to bank bosses last month she ripped off money from various accounts and even handed over $243,000 in cash, according to a federal...

'DAD SHOT MOM' - BOY, 13, TELLS OF SLAYING

In a soft but clear voice, a 13-year-old boy yesterday told a stunned Nassau County jury: "I saw my dad shoot my mom." The startling testimony came at the trial...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Accounting professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison invited Enron whistle-blower Sherry Watkins to lecture their students about the corporate cheating that led to the downfall of the energy trading giant....

'WILL & GRACE' STAR IN SHOPLIFT BUST

"Will and Grace" star Shelly Morrison faces felony theft charges after she was busted for shoplifting from a Los Angeles department store, authorities said yesterday. Morrison, 66, who plays wisecracking...

RENT BOARD BOSS EYES SINGLE DIGITS

Landlords' costs are up a whopping 16.9 percent - but the head of the Rent Guidelines Board vowed yesterday that he won't back a double-digit rent increase for a million...

FDNY HIRES 600 TO CUT DOWN OT

While every other city agency is shedding workers, the Fire Department is adding 600 firefighters in an attempt to reduce overtime, it was announced yesterday. "The more firefighters you have,...

'KIDNAPPER' LURED GIRLS ON 'NET

Visiting Florida apparently wasn't a very memorable experience for an 18-year-old Manhattan man who prosecutors say was trying to start an escort service using kidnapped underage girls. "I'm not sure...

'HIGH' SCHOOL TRIP COSTS U.N. KIDS

The United Nations International School has suspended five students for allegedly organizing a booze and marijuana bash during a school-sponsored trip in Washington, D.C. - right under the noses of...

RAPPER IN DEADLY BATTLE - SINGER SHOT, PAL SLAIN IN 3 A.M. RUN-IN

An early-morning Chelsea fender-bender turned into a deadly shootout when two carloads of angry nightclubbers - including up-and-coming rapper Freaky Zeeky - had an accidental run-in, and some of them...

EXEC WINS SMOKE-OUT LAWSUIT

An exec got the boot from Elite Model Management for complaining about butts, a jury determined yesterday. After four days of deliberations, a jury found Elite liable for subjecting Victoria...

KIDDIE-PORN PROF RESIGNS POST

The perverted professor who pleaded guilty to possessing a sickening stash of child pornography is finally out of a job. Edward Samuels turned in his resignation to New York Law...

ARMED & DANGEROUS - DARK SIDE OF MODEL'S KILLER

Robert Ambrosino was a sharp-dressing barfly, a charmer and a ladies man who sipped top-shelf whiskey and often picked up the tab, his friends say. But pals of Lyric Benson,...

NEW YORK GOP COUNTING ON BUSH'S BIG GUNS IN '04

MAYOR Bloomberg is hoping that prominent Republicans, in town for the GOP presidential convention next year, will help boost the local party. "Would it be great if Colin Powell [a...

SYMPATHY FROM MAYOR GLOOM-BERG

Mayor Bloomberg says he feels your pain. Stung by a punishing new poll that shows voters think he's out of touch with the average New Yorker, the mayor said he...

CITY SCHOOL DAZE AS GOV HALTS $$ PAYOUT

ALBANY - Gov. Pataki, warning the state is rapidly running out of cash, revealed yesterday he's delaying a massive $1.6 billion payment to all New York school districts. Pataki's grim...

'FLOATER' LIKELY CITY ISLAND BOY

Police were scrambling to determine whether a decomposed corpse found floating near City Island yesterday was one of the teens who drowned there in January. City Island resident Mark Bierman...

HIGH 5 FOR MOOSE

Yankees 3 - Rangers 2 ARLINGTON - Seated on a couch in the Yankee clubhouse, Mike Mussina watched Michael Young's liner glance off Nick Johnson's glove and trickle toward second...

JINTS LOOKIN' TO MOVE UP - ACCORSI CAN'T GET HIS MAN AT NO. 25

There is little doubt the Giants will meet up with frustration today if they simply wait until 24 selections are made in the first round of the NFL Draft and...

'PEACE' PROVIDES SCARE

For the first time in several days, there were no additions or subtractions from the prospective field of 14-18 horses for next Saturday's Kentucky Derby. But for a few hairy...

LIGHTNING NEED TO STRIKE HARD

If the Lightning plan on making this a series, if they plan on getting on their horses and putting an end to the dominance the Devils exhibited in Game 1,...

A GLOVE-STRUCK PITCHER RETURNS

HS BASEBALL: Monroe 9 - Adams 0 Luis Rosario was one of Monroe's most reliable players - and then his glove got stolen. "All of a sudden, he could barely...

RICE BIG MAN SHUNS RUTGERS FOR WILDCATS

Maybe this time, he means it. Shagari Alleyne, Rice's 7-foot-2 center, who changed his mind last week about his verbal commitment to Rutgers, has now committed to Kentucky. "I decided...

BURNS WANTS DEVS FIRED UP

His Devils are setting and chasing records, like the ones Martin Brodeur can hunt today. So Pat Burns found it necessary yesterday to rip their practice attitude, reminding them that...

BIG UNIT ADDS TO HIS REPERTOIRE

Since Art Howe entered the majors in 1974, he says there is only one left-hander who compares with Randy Johnson. "Carlton," Howe said. While Steve Carlton is silent somewhere far...

ROGERS PROVES HIS NET WORTH

MILWAUKEE - Even while wearing the green and white of the Celtics last season, Rodney Rogers knew there was something special about the Nets. "Outsiders can see," insisted Rogers, the...

A NO-STAR DRAFT? LIKE HELL IT IS!

SO the 2003 NFL Draft is less sexy than it's been lately. That's been the dull buzz? Where's the superstar? Where's the suspense? Where's the intrigue? Where's agent Drew Rosenhaus...

STARS LOOK FOR FIRST VS. CREW

Despite playing their first two games at home, the retooled MetroStars mustered just one lone point. Now comes the hard part: Going on the road to Columbus, the Eastern Conference...

SORIANO'S SEEKING NEW AGENT

YANKEE NOTES ARLINGTON - Alfonso Soriano has dismissed Don Nomura as his repreSentative, and that has the industry buzzing about who will land the All-Star second baseman with the potential...

SIGNS OF LIFE AT SHEA

Mets 4 - D'backs Raul Gonzalez has come out of nowhere. Armando Benitez has come out of purgatory. Finally, the Mets seem headed in the right direction. While Benitez was...

WILSON MAY EASE PIAZZA'S LOAD

Mike Piazza doesn't care about catching 144 games a season. Just like about everything else in this game, he's already done it. So as he returned to the lineup for...

SORIANO'S LOOKING FOR NEW AGENT

YANKEE NOTES ARLINGTON - Alfonso Soriano isn't only the hottest hitter in baseball, he is a smoking commodity on the agent market. Soriano has dismissed Don Nomura as his representative...

THE HEALING GAME - YANKS' CLUB REHAB ON MEND

ARLINGTON - They have nothing against Tampa, but the elite members of Club Rehab can't wait to check out. And the counselors feel the same way. "We are looking forward...

GREEN DAY - JETS MAKE DEAL, ACQUIRE FOURTH PICK FROM BEARS

The Jets today have an opportunity to turn their agitating offseason into distant memory by becoming a big-time draft-day winner thanks to a stunning blockbuster trade that brought them the...