November 8, 2004

MICROSOFT INVESTORS WAIT ON $32B

Microsoft Corp. shareholders will keep both eyes on the annual meeting tomorrow, where the company is expected to give them an early, $32 billion Christmas present. The software giant's $3-a-share...

DEBT OF WINTER - RISING RATES SPUR JITTERS OVER HOLIDAY SPENDING

With the economy basking in a healthy stock rally and a sharp boost in hiring, investors are looking to clear a third hurdle: jitters over consumer spending. Data due this...

BILLING FRAUD - ADS OVERPLAY BIG STARS' BLINK-AND-YOU-MISS-'EM ROLES; A LOT OF MOVIE STARS ARE MISSING IN ACTION

HUGH Grant gets second billing to Renée Zellweger and his picture is prominently featured in the ads, but don't expect to find a whole lot of the handsome British heartthrob...

DAVE DROPS BY FOR CUP OF SUGAR

REGIS Philbin says he's still not sure why David Letterman chose today's "Live with Regis & Kelly" (9 a.m./Ch. 7) to make a rarer-than-rare appearance on someone else's TV show....

STARR REPORT

Roseanne, bar one Roseanne Barr, guesting on last Friday's "Good Day Live," crooned some lines from a children's song, "The Donut Farm," as part of her new endeavor into children's...

LOST BEATLES

TV footage of The Beatles that hasn't been seen in 40 year is to be broadcast on next Sunday's "American Music Awards," says Dick Clark, the show's prodcuer. The tape...

STORE WARS - TV GOES GUNNING FOR WAL-MART

WE'RE screwed. That's the conclusion it is possible to reach after watching two new documentaries about Wal-Mart that are airing, by coincidence, just six days apart. The two - one...

BATTLE OF THE BABY BULGE - BIRTH JUST A PREGNANT PAUSE FOR SLIM STARLETS

YOU'D think pregnancy was just another method-acting role, the way Hollywood mamas pack on the pounds, then shed them in just weeks. Thanks to a combination of peer and industry...

FURIOUS REPUBLICANS RIP 'DO-NOTHING' GOV

ALBANY - New York's Republican Party has "lost its way," and Gov. Pataki deserves much of the blame, angry GOP officeholders have told The Post. "The Republican Party in this...

KIDNAP-JURY BIBLE 'BAN'

Lawyers for the Utah pedophile "prophet" accused of kidnapping and sexually abusing Elizabeth Smart in 2002 want jurors sequestered during his trial - and Bibles banned from their hotel rooms....

WILL YOU, PUFF, PUFF, MARRY ME?

Jeremy Olshan, a New York Post reporter, proposed yesterday to his girlfriend at the end of the marathon. This is his first-person account on how he went the extra mile:...

FUROR IN 911 SNAFU - OPERATOR'S BLUNDERS

A 911 snafu that almost doomed a toddler who was trapped in an SUV for days with her dead mother stemmed from an operator's inexperience, a tipster's foreign accent and...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

A Nebraska woman has been jailed - for having a filthy house. Rosie Fellman of Omaha allowed trash and debris to pile 5 feet deep in her house and garage...

'HALO' PLAYERS TO HAVE A BLAST

Video gamers could barely contain their anticipation yesterday as they counted down the hours until tomorrow's release of Microsoft's "Halo 2" for Xbox - expected to smash opening-day sales records...

THAT'S 'INCREDIBLE'! - HEROES $OAR TO TOP SPOT

"The Incredibles" lived up to their name over the weekend - with the latest animated smash from Pixar and Disney raking in $70.7 million at the box office. The family...

'64 WORLD'S FAIR TOWERS IN LIMBO

Preservation will have to take a back seat to procrastination at the aptly named Tent of Tomorrow, the Queens towers left over from the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows...

MISSILE GAP: 4,000 WEAPONS MISSING

There are as many as 4,000 portable surface-to-air missiles missing - and possibly looted - in Iraq, U.S. military intelligence said yesterday. The missing missiles, which can be fired from...

GUERRILLAS MASSACRE 35 COPS, SOLDIERS

In attacks reminiscent of the coldblooded murders of 49 off-duty Iraqi soldiers last month, rebels yesterday executed 23 government policemen in three attacks after slaughtering a dozen national guardsmen in...

TRUFFLE PRICE MUSHROOMS TO 40G IN NYC AUCTION

Some people pay doctors hundreds of dollars to get rid of a fungus - Jeffrey Chodorow paid tens of thousands of dollars to get not one but two of them....

TROOPS SMASH FALLUJAH - HOSP CAPTURED

U.S. ground forces began their long-awaited assault into Fallujah yesterday, capturing the city's main hospital, soon after Iraq's interim government declared martial law as part of a 60-day state of...

WTC SUICIDE RAGE - ANGER TINGES SYMPATHY OF 9/11 KIN

Families of 9/11 victims yesterday reacted with shock, sympathy - and anger - over last week's shotgun suicide at Ground Zero of a 25-year-old Georgia man despondent over the outcome...

OWNER WANTS BABY-BITING HUSKY BACK

The owner of the Siberian husky that bit a month-old baby is starting a petition to get his dog back. Max, the 6-year-old husky who attacked Steven Gibson as he...

KID-SEX SHOCKER - WOMAN SEDUCED 8-YEAR-OLD BOY: COPS

A 29-year-old Connecticut woman - accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy for months - says she considers the little neighbor her "boyfriend" and hopes to marry him someday, authorities...

DRUGS SUSPECTED IN B'KLYN SLAYING

A 24-year-old man was shot dead yesterday in a Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment building, police said. Divine Pringle was discovered with a gunshot wound to his chest at about 12:30 a.m. in...

POINT-BLANK BULLET BOUNCES OFF WOMAN'S HEAD

God stepped in to stop the bullet. That's the way a thankful Brooklyn woman explains cheating death after her ex-boyfriend allegedly put a gun to the back of her head...

FOR GORE, FEELING'S MUTUAL

Al Gore is looking for your hard-earned investment dollar. The former vice president is starting a mutual-fund management company that will invest in companies that combine environmental friendliness and social...

MOPED DAD KILLED IN HIT-&-RUN

A 44-year-old Long Island man riding a moped died in the arms of his son after being struck by a hit-run driver near his home, police said yesterday. Cesar Lorenzana...

MCG'S OLD XXX TIMES

Even before the gay-sex scandal that brought him down, disgraced New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey frequented female strip clubs and narrowly dodged a scandal involving a hooker, it was reported...

A SMART START - TEST CHECKS YOUR KID'S MENTAL PACE

A simple quiz for parents is able to reveal the mental agility of their babies at the tender age of just 6 to 12 months. The test, developed by the...

FUROR OVER 911 BLUNDERS - OPERATOR ERRORS FOILED CAR-TOT RESCUE

A 911 snafu that almost doomed a toddler who was trapped in an SUV for days with her dead mother stemmed from an operator's inexperience, a tipster's foreign accent and...

GROUNDBREAKING AT YESHIVA SITE

The Torah Academy of Brooklyn, a private Jewish school that has bounced from building to building for more than two decades, is finally getting a permanent home. School officials and...

KERRY WAR FLIP 'GIFT' FOR GOP

WASHINGTON - Karl Rove yesterday described John Kerry's flip-flop on paying for the war in Iraq as "a gift that kept on giving" and said Swift Boat attacks on Kerry...

HS PROTESTERS: YOU GOTTA HAVE ART

Hundreds of students and alumni of Art and Design HS will rally today outside the Midtown school to put the "art" and "design" back in the curriculum. They say budget...

GIS STORMING INTO FALLUJAH - CAPTURE HOSP AND 2 BRIDGES IN REBEL CITY

U.S. ground forces began their long-awaited assault into Fallujah yesterday - capturing the city's main hospital and two bridges soon after Iraq's interim government declared martial law. Witnesses reported heavy...

4,000 SHOULDER-FIRED MISSILES MISSING

There are as many as 4,000 portable surface-to-air missiles missing - and possibly looted - in Iraq, U.S. military intelligence said yesterday. The missing missiles, which can be fired from...

BULLET BOUNCE MIRACLE - GAL SURVIVES HEAD SHOT

God stepped in to stop the bullet. That's the way a thankful Brooklyn woman explains cheating death after her ex-boyfriend put a gun to the back of her head and...

PUP NEEDS SHOTS BEFORE WHITE HOUSE MOVE

Miss Beazley, the 11-day- old first pup, will not meet her adoptive two-legged family until she moves into her new digs in the West Wing of the White House in...

ARAFAT'S WIFE RIPS HIS AIDES - HIGH-LEVEL VISIT CANCELDLLED OFF

Three top Palestinian leaders are flying to Paris today to consult with the doctors treating critically ill Yasser Arafat - whose wife charged yesterday that it's all part of a...

ARAFAT'S WIFE RIPS HIS AIDES - ALLEGES 'CONSPIRACY'

A trip to Paris by three top Palestinian leaders to consult with the doctors treating critically ill Yasser Arafat was suddenly canceled today after the PLO leader's wife charged the...

STINK OVER CIGAR STORE

A cancer survivor says she's being smoked out of her sixth-floor Greenwich Village apartment by her downstairs neighbor - a cigar store. Liza Wolsky, who's suffering from a rare blood...

CITY'S ELECTION OT FUROR

Election officials couldn't come up with $100,000 to buy extra servers so voters could look up their polling sites online during the election - but they wound up forking over...

PRISON SCARES DADDY - CON MAN'S KID TALKS

The young son of a convicted New York con man who's on the lam in Costa Rica said his father will never surrender to authorities because he can't handle the...

MARIO BACKS ELIOT FOR GOV

FORMER Gov. Mario Cuomo is urging Sen. Charles Schumer not to run for governor, saying his loss in the Senate could add "a really dangerous candidate" to the U.S. Supreme...

'KINKY' CONDIT FIGHT - WAR OVER SEX SECRETS

Former California Congressman Gary Condit is fighting mightily to keep his sexual secrets and personal wealth from being aired in his defamation suit against crime author Dominick Dunne, according to...

SNEAKER SQUEAKER - THRILLING FINISH TO FUN RUN IN SUN

The New York City Marathon was a runaway hit yesterday - with more than 2 million spectators enjoying a spectacular show of athletic prowess packed with triumph, tears and sheer...

SLIWA'S SISTER HAVING TWINS - AT 57

Curtis Sliwa's sister - who co-founded the Guardian Angels with him - is due to give birth to twins tomorrow, three days shy of her 57th birthday. Aleta St. James...

'APPRENTICE' 101 - BIZ SCHOOLS TEACHING TRUMP SHOW'S TIPS

Colleges across the country are revamping their MBA courses to incorporate tips from "The Apprentice." At first, business professors used the show and the exploits of its star Donald Trump...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

THEBRONX * A man was shot four times in a Soundview apartment yesterday, but was not seriously injured, police said. The 32-year-old victim, whose name was not released, argued over...

ANGER AT WTC SUICIDE - 9/11 FAMILIES REACT

Families of 9/11 victims yesterday reacted with shock, sympathy - and anger - after a Georgia man killed himself at Ground Zero on his 25th birthday because he was distraught...

LOCAL RIDERS TO EXPRESS RAGE AT MTA

Straphangers and drivers are expected to rail against transit officials today at a hearing in Staten Island on an MTA plan to raise fares and tolls. The hearing will be...

ARAFAT HAS LIVER FAILURE

Three top Palestinian leaders will fly to Paris today to consult with the doctors of critically ill Yasser Arafat, who is in a coma because of liver failure, officials said....

TANGLED WEB AT CITY HALL - IRE OVER ELECTION SITE

Election officials couldn't come up with $100,000 to buy extra servers so voters could look up their polling sites online during the election - but they wound up forking over...

WINNERS KNOW PAIN OF DA FEET

The New York City Marathon was a runaway hit yesterday - with more than 2 million spectators enjoying a spectacular show of athletic prowess packed with triumph, tears and sheer...

VERMIN SLAUGHTER 23 COPS

In attacks reminiscent of the cold-blooded murders of 49 off-duty Iraqi soldiers last month, rebels yesterday executed 23 government policemen in three attacks after slaughtering a dozen National Guardsmen in...

XBOXERS CAN'T WAIT TO SAY HELLO, 'HALO'

Video gamers could barely contain their anticipation yesterday as they counted down the hours until tomorrow's release of Microsoft's "Halo 2" for Xbox - expected to smash opening-day sales records...

EXPECT MATTINGLY BACK - BUT MEL HAS YANKS ON HOLD

Weekend discussions between Don Mattingly and the Yankees progressed to the point where the club expects Mattingly to return for a second year as Joe Torre's hitting coach. Late last...

POROUS NETS CAN'T DEFEND THEIR PLAY

Defense has long been a staple of New Jersey Nets basketball, but through three games of the young season, the play in their own end of the floor has more...

ENGINEERING A SPECIAL RUN

Matt Bournea plans to go to an Ivy League school next year, preferably Cornell, to study biomedical engineering. "I was thinking about doing pre-med, but I like engineering," said Bournea,...

CAN'T AFFORD A TINY TIM

KNICK NOTES The challenge is out to Tim Thomas. "We need Tim to be at a higher level," Lenny Wilkens said. "When he misses a shot or two, I don't...

MEN OF STEEL - BIG BEN, WARD, BUS ROLL OVER EAGLES

Steelers 27 - Eagles 3 PITTSBURGH - When Bill Parcells described Ben Roethlisberger as the most impressive rookie quarterback he's seen since Dan Marino in 1983, it wasn't just hyperbole....

CASE OF FAINT INDIFFERENCE

FOR all the reaction shots of parents watching their kids play ball, we'd have traded them all for just one. Saturday, we'd have given it all to see how Dan...

KNICKS AT A LOSS TO EXPLAIN 'FUNK'

After the most embarrassing home opening loss in Knicks history, the normally stoic Lenny Wilkens raised his voice emphatically Saturday night. "I was very upset because I thought it was...

THE RADCLIFFE REDEMPTION

After winning the closest women's race in New York City Marathon history, Britain's Paula Radcliffe covered her face with her hands and her shoulders with the Union Jack. After a...

JINTS' TURNOVER TURMOIL

GIANT NOTES The Giants headed into yesterday's game against the Bears knowing the importance of limiting turnovers by their offense and forcing them with their defense. After seven games, they...

A PASS THAT FAILED

ORCHARD PARK - You wanted to believe something was wrong when the ball left Chad Pennington's hands, when it floated helplessly into double coverage, away from Wayne Chrebet, into Lawyer...

PAULA'S WIN NO STRETCH - OUTDUELS PAL TO REGAIN TOP SPOT

PAULA Radcliffe calls Susan Chepkemei a close friend. For six miles, they were inseparable. These women didn't need water at the last station, more like a crowbar, or orders to...

BEARS DANCE FOR JOY

Amid some stunned Giants, a more stunned sellout crowd at Giants Stadium and, maybe most stunned of all, their fellow Bears, Chicago's Jerry Azumah and R.W. McQuarters decided to dance....

DISGRUNTLED JETS: WE BLEW IT

ORCHARD PARK - The Jets' 6-2 record at the halfway point of the season is impressive enough, having played themselves into position for a run at the playoffs. But the...

RUNNER-UP MEB: I'M THE GREATEST

Meb Keflezighi's hubris is surpassed only by his prowess. After his silver medal in Athens, he pronounced American distance running back. After his narrow miss and runner-up finish at yesterday's...

THIS LOSS JUST UN-BEAR-ABLE - SLEW OF ERRORS DOOMS GIANTS

Bears 28 - Giants 21 These sort of debacles were supposed to have been purged from the Giants resume. With Tom Coughlin steering the ship, they weren't supposed to lose...

BILLS DEFLATE MARTIN - RB: WE NEED TO REBOUND

ORCHARD PARK - Curtis Martin is always the most honest Jet, the one Jet who will never run away from a hard question or a harder reality. So it was...

KASTOR HAS NOTHING LEFT

Since her impressive bronze medal performance in the women's marathon this past summer in the Athens Olympics, Deena Kastor began to question if her body would be up to the...

CHAD TO WORSE AS JETS TOPPLE - QB INJURED AS BILLS TURN GREEN BLUE

Bills 22 - Jets 17 ORCHARD PARK - The game ended with Chad Pennington, a/k/a The Franchise, standing on the Jets' sideline with a white ski cap on, unable to...

SANTANA FINALLY HAS A BIG DAY

JET NOTES ORCHARD PARK - Finally, the Jets got the ball to Santana Moss. Unfortunately, his six receptions for a career-high 157 yards and a TD didn't result in a...

TOP SEED TO FRIARS

St. Anthony's got a late interception to stop Iona Prep's final drive and held on for a 39-34 win to sew up the No. 1 seed in next week's CHSFL...

RANGERS' PICK HOBBLED

The Rangers continue to sustain losses even when they're locked out of the rink. For the news yesterday regarding 2003 first-round draft choice Hugh Jessiman, the Dartmouth left winger who...

FORGET KOMEBACK KURT - GIVE ELI THE BALL

IT is time to get Eli Manning up in the bullpen. Get him ready, Tom Coughlin. The bloom came off Kurt Warner's rose yesterday. Warner (two fumbles, two interceptions, seven...

A LESSON YET TO BE LEARNED

The Giants thought they learned all this two weeks ago. They insisted as much in their locker room all week, proclaiming over and over that no inferior team would roll...

BEARS STEP IT UP

Amid some stunned Giants, a more stunned Giants Stadium sellout crowd and, maybe most stunned of all, their fellow Chicago Bears, Jerry Azumah and R.W. McQuarters decided to dance. Smack...

JINTS JUST BLUNDER-FUL

Just as Tiki Barber made the last cut to free him from the last Bears defender and headed in for a 14-yard touchdown run, he noticed a yellow flag thrown...

STRAHAN MAY BE LOST FOR SEASON

GIANT NOTES To make a bad loss even worse, there is fear among the Giants that Michael Strahan, their Pro Bowl defensive end, could be lost, possibly for the season,...

THE POST'S TOP 25

Rank (prev) TEAM RESULT NEXT 1 USC (9-0) won 28-20 at Oregon State vs. Arizona (1) Have this funny feeling that every non-stop from L.A. to Miami is sold out....