February 26, 2005

ENERGY STOCKS FUEL MARKET RALLY

Rallying energy companies drove stocks to their biggest three-day rally of 2005 and put the Dow Jones industrial average in positive territory for the year. Rising oil prices fueled the...

EBBERS ON DECK - EX-WORLDCOM CEO READY TO TAKE STAND

Bernard Ebbers is ready to talk. In a surprise move, lawyers for the disgraced former CEO of WorldCom said yesterday that Ebbers was ready to take the stand next week...

QWEST ON HOLD IN MCI BID WAR

Despite its sweetened $8 billion bid, Qwest continued to get a busy signal from the MCI board. The No. 2 long-distance company said yesterday it would still do its "utmost"...

GIMME SHELTER

FIT FOR NIC; FIT FOR YOU NOW you can live like Nicole Kidman, or at least like she did for the past year. The 5,500-square-foot duplex loft at 76 Crosby...

HEAVENLY HAMPTONS - OUR SPECIAL REPORT TELLS YOU WHERE TO RENT AND BUY

WHEN it comes to the Hamptons, the rich are different from you and me: The rich have already rented. That's the consensus of a sampling of East End real-estate brokers...

HOME SHOPPING CLUB - IT'S A CUDDLE PARTY

Bernardaud, Christofle, Vivre 560 Seventh Ave., at 40th Street, 2nd floor (718) 747-1656 Sale: Sunday through March 3. Open: Sun.-Wed., 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m./Thurs., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Crystalware, tableware, flatware and...

MY NEW HOME

COUPLE SEEKS FAMILY ROOM THEY BOUGHT: Forest Hills Gardens 4-BR house, $740K ROUGHLY half of American marriages end in divorce. And while we at NYP Home are in favor of...

WHITE'S OUT AT 'MORNING NEWS'; KRISHNAN REPLACES VETERAN ANCHOR

SUKANYA Krishnan is replacing Lynn White on "The WB11 Morning News" beginning Monday. White, who had co-anchored the show since its June 2000 debut, was on the air yesterday -...

SIS-BOOM-BLAH

MAN OF THE HOUSEHalf a star Move out. Now.Running time: 97 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence, sexual content, crude humor, drug reference). At the Loews E-Walk, the Lincoln Square, the Union...

YOU'LL SKIP THIS BIG, BAD WOLF PIC IF YOU'RE SMART

CURSED (one star) Anemic werewolf saga.Running time: 96 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence, brief male nudity). At the E-Walk, the Battery Park, the Kips Bay, others. 'CURSED," the sorry werewolf flick...

SEX SLAVES; SO EASY TO BUY A GIRL, IT'S CRIMINAL

"48 Hours Mystery: Rescued from the Shadows" Tonight at 10 on CBS/Ch. 2 (three stars) IN perhaps a first for TV, CBS News corre spondent Peter Van Sant actually buys...

BRAVO! RUNAWAY'RUNWAY' FINALE

THE finale of "Project Runway" was dressed- for-success on Bravo. Last Wednesday's two-hour finale, in which Jay McCarroll snared a victory with his Fashion Week designs, notched over 2 million...

STAR PARTIES - TIPS FOR AN AWARD-WINNING OSCAR SOIREE

IF you're throwing an Oscar party, there are two things to remember. "Serve hot food and make sure you have plenty to drink because it's a long show." That's according...

A GROUCHIER SORT OF OSCAR PARTY

Downtown's coolest cover band, the Loser's Lounge, chooses a different pop legend to pay tribute to with each of their shows. Since 1993, they've rocked out to the Prince and...

THE FLAKY LAND OF THE FREEZE

There's no business like snow business. The Big Apple will be mighty frigid this weekend and is bracing for a wallop of snowstorm on Monday - the third day of...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Three teens learned about police procedure firsthand while putting together their own version of TV's "Cops" on a street in Morgan Hill, Calif. One teen was videotaping while a buddy,...

HOTEL GERMS REMOTE-LY PERILOUS

Most hotel guests shudder when they see a stray hair on the bed or a fingerprint smudge on a drinking glass, but they rarely think twice about reaching for one...

AT ST. PAT'S, PRAYERS ARE FEW BUT FERVENT

EDWARD Cardinal Egan asked us to humbly pray for a most incredible human yesterday at 7:30 a.m. Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral. "We pray for him because of the extraordinary...

STABBER HIT WITH PARENT-SLAY RAP

A mentally disturbed New Jersey woman accused of stabbing her elderly parents this week now faces a murder charge because her father has died, authorities said yesterday. Cecilia Scoggins, 54,...

UNION GUY GUILTY OF $$ TOUCH-UP

A crooked ex-official for the union that represents showbiz makeup artists took a no-jail plea in Manhattan yesterday, copping to cooking the books to cover his plans to swindle members...

YANKEE FAN TOPS SOX IN NAME GAME

Take that, Red Sox Nation. A sneaky Yankees fan won a charity contest to rename a Boston arena for a day, and Sox fans are seeing red over the name...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

* MANHATTAN *** A Harlem man paralyzed by a gunshot wound in 1992 has died, and cops are still searching for his killer, police said yesterday. Darryl Hamilton, 42, got...

COURT RAPS 'R2-DWI-2'; DRIVING BAN FOR ROBO-STAR

The force isn't with R2-D2. Kenny Baker, the pint-sized actor who played the legendary "Star Wars" robot, yesterday was banned from driving for a year following his DWI arrest near...

POPE SHOWS HIS PEP ; JOKES WITH DOCS

Pope John Paul II is breathing on his own, making snappy jokes and not suffering from pneumonia, the Vatican said yesterday in an effort to reassure well-wishers around the world...

MIKE FOES PUSH FOR QNS. OLYMPIC STADIUM

Members of the 2012 Olympics evaluation committee had barely finished packing their bags yesterday when Mayor Bloomberg found himself fending off demands to move the site of a proposed Olympic...

WEB VID XXX-POSES FRED'S LIMP BIZKIT

A graphic three-minute sex video of Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst hit the Internet yesterday - and it could be the work of the same hackers who broke into Paris...

JACKO 'KILLS' GRANNY - HOSP 'BOOTED' HER FOR STAR

The family of a 74-year-old woman who died of a heart attack earlier this month is blaming a California hospital's fawning attention to a flu-stricken Michael Jackson for her death....

SCALE BACK IRAQ FORCE: POLL

A huge majority of Americans think Iraq's big-turnout election will make a difference in the U.S. role there - and most think America should withdraw at least some troops, a...

MAYOR ENTERTAINS IOC COMMITTEE

Mayor Bloomberg had a good ol' time entertaining the International Olympic Committee evaluation team - perhaps a little too good. By his own admission, the mayor overdid it a bit...

CAR-AZY PRICES; FOR 559G YOU CAN PLAY SPEED RACER

For a car that can go from zero to 60 in less than three seconds, the Saleen 7 is one hot set of wheels. But at a shriek-inducing $559,500, it's...

HILLARY STICKS TO GUNS IN FEUD

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday stood by stinging comments she made about Iraq's likely new leader and his close ties to Iran. Clinton dug in the day after...

BRUNO-BRO BOSS OUT AMID NEPOTISM FURY

ALBANY - The head of the state's drug and alcohol treatment agency abruptly quit last night, just months after being rebuked by Gov. Pataki for putting his daughter on the...

LIL' KIM: SCRATCH HIP-HOP-HATER JURORS

Rapper Lil' Kim yesterday moved to toss out 40 prospective jurors - who had slammed her and trashed the hip-hop industry - from serving in her perjury trial expected to...

DEFENSE 'SPINS' ZONGO'S WOUND

City coroners call it gunshot wound "C," and prosecutors - who note it shows Police Officer Bryan Conroy shot unarmed West African artisan Ousmane Zongo at least once from behind...

TRAGIC FINAL CALL; TRUNK GAL TOLD OF SECRET

The pregnant woman who was murdered and stuffed into a car trunk in Queens phoned her ex-husband hours before she vanished and told him she had a powerful secret to...

TRUCE EXPLODES IN FRESH TERROR; HOMICIDE BLAST KILLS 4 AT TEL AVIV NIGHTCLUB

TEL AVIV, Israel - A terrorist bomber shattered the Mideast truce last night when he blew himself up outside a beachfront nightclub, killing at least four Israelis and injuring more...

HUNTER S. WIDOW TOASTED CORPSE

Hours after Hunter S. Thompson killed himself, his widow drank scotch and reminisced about him with family and friends in the same room where the corpse sat. Anita Thompson told...

CENTRAL PARK COPS SQUEEZE THE 'ORANGE'

It's a close curtain call as two cops carefully inch their truck through one of Christo's gates in Central Park yesterday. Vic Losick, a cinematographer filming "The Gates" for a...

POLISH 'MOBSTER' DENIES BOXER SLAY

A Polish fugitive nabbed for allegedly killing a promising Brooklyn boxer in 1995 pleaded not guilty to the murder yesterday. Accused gangster Natan Gozman was detained and sent to the...

SCENE OF THE GRIME - FDNY'S ICKY SEX GROTTO

The basement room in the Bronx fire station dubbed "Animal House," where three firefighters lined up to have sex on grungy, stained couches with a fire groupie, was a dingy...

CBS 'MEMOGATE' BIG QUITS

Mary Murphy, one of the CBS News staffers ensnared in the "Memogate" scandal, officially resigned yesterday - more than a month after being asked to do so by the network....

CORPSE CARVER A 'MED EXPERT'

A maniac with "some medical knowledge" and a high-powered cutting tool may have dismembered a young Brooklyn man whose body parts were dumped in the subway, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly...

BOY, 12, SHOT IN HARLEM

A 12-year-old Harlem boy and a bystander were shot in a hail of bullets hours after the boy had been in a spat with two neighborhood thugs. Police said the...

TRUCE EXPLODES IN FRESH TERROR ; HOMICIDE BLAST KILLS 4 AT TEL AVIV NIGHTCLUB

TEL AVIV, Israel - A homicide bomber carrying 20 pounds of explosives blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv nightclub last night, killing at least four other people, wounding 50...

CLIPPERS MAKING LATE RUN

Levance Fields has been down this road before. Xaverian won the Brooklyn/Queens Diocesan title a year ago and then went all the way to the CHSAA "AA" title game before...

MOM USED CANCER BOY TO BILK CELEBS: DEFENSE

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The mother of Michael Jackson's accuser had her cancer-patient son ask celebrities for money and spent some of it on a boob job and a tummy...

DAMN YANKEE FAN'S BOSTON MA$$ACRE

Take that, Red Sox Nation. A sneaky Yankees fan won a charity contest to rename a Boston arena for a day, and Sox fans are seeing red over the name...

CORPSE CARVER WAS 'EXPERT'

A maniac with "some medical knowledge" and a high-powered cutting tool may have dismembered a young Brooklyn man whose body parts were dumped in the subway, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly...

HILLARY STICKS TO HER GUNS IN FEUD

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday stood by stinging comments she made about Iraq's likely new leader and his close ties to Iran. Clinton, who visited Iraq earlier this...

'TRICK' COMES IN FOR $27.80

1ST RACE - Quanaco, hugging rail under apprentice Eriluis Vaz, gunned to daylight lead around clubhouse turn; Bubba Sparks, 7-5 favorite under Rich Migliore, moved up to press pace down...

KURT NOT AT EASE AT CENTER

KNICK NOTES Kurt Thomas has made no secret of his desire not to play center and to be allowed to remain at his natural spot of power forward. But with...

CLIFF'S 'D' ANSWER ; ROBINSON SHORES UP NETS

When all else fails, defend your man. That's Cliff Robinson's simple plan for getting comfortable with the Nets, his fifth NBA team. Robinson, the 38-year-old veteran the Nets acquired 12...

DEVILS PRESENT STORMY DEFENSE

After Syracuse spanked St. John's, 83-69, coach Jim Boeheim bemoaned the fact that his Orange defenders didn't find Daryll Hill, no less stop him. Hill went off for a career-high...

DON'T LOOK THIS 'GIFT' HORSE IN THE MOUTH

It will be a few more weeks - around the time racing moves from the inner dirt track back to the main oval on March 16 - when horses shipping...

NO BIG HURT; UNIT SKIPS SESSION, SAYS HE'S 'FINE'

TAMPA - Whether it was due to a recent tweak of Randy Johnson's left calf or the master plan of pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, the Big Unit was held back...

SANTANA WANTS TO STAY

Santana Moss wants to remain a New York Jet. In an interview yesterday morning on 1050 ESPN Radio's "Wally and the Keeg," Moss said he could deal with a trade...

METS CAN BE MEN OF STEAL

PORT ST. LUCIE - Mets fans may be about to witness the best base-stealing team in club history. The 2005 Mets could be a lot of things - exciting, competitive...

KNICKS WON'T GIVE UP; STEPH: DEADLINE DEALS 'MAKE US BETTER'

Despite the Knicks' clear attempt at beginning a rebuilding movement at Thursday's trade deadline by acquiring two first-round draft picks in a deal with the Spurs that included center Nazr...

NO MORE KIDDING AROUND

NET NOTES Just in case you or any of the Nets didn't get the message before . . . "From here on out, it's crucial. We've got to make up...

JACOBS BACK IN THE SWING

MET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - A year ago, Mike Jacobs won the award given to the top Met minor leaguer. Not much good has happened since. Jacobs played in...

HOT ROCK HELPS DOLPHINS ROLL

CUNYAC WOMENCSI 73Hunter 60 Darlene Rock unveiled a "Can't Stop The Rock" sign just before yesterday's women's CUNYAC basketball championship game held at Lehman College. She was paying homage to...

BIG GUNS WON'T BUS TO FACE SOX

YANKEE NOTES TAMPA - When the Red Sox host their blood rivals in Fort Myers on March 7, they may see more Columbus Clippers than Yankees. Yankee manager Joe Torre...

FORTEAU FINDS FORTÈ IN FINAL ; JACKET JUNIOR EXTENDS COACH'S STAY

CUNYAC FINAL City Tech 76 CSI 66 While coaching in his last year at City Tech before moving to Florida, Ray Amalbert has seen his share of nail-biters this season,...

THEY'RE ENJOYING SOME TWIN THRILLING

NET NOTES The Nets' team brass was about a minute and a half away from reviewing the whole ping-pong ball stuff, on the verge of calling the Knicks to see...

KRSTIC GETS RICHER ; NENAD'S CAREER-HIGH 25 HELP NETS BEAT BOBCATS

Nets 93Bobcats 86 Nen-sanity ruled in the Swamp for the Nets. Again, there was a Nets third quarter that was the stuff of nightmares. Again, command had vanished. Again, a...

STORY: BOSS KNEW JASON WAS JUICED

YANKEE NOTES Jason Giambi was pressured by the Oakland organization to become a home-run hitter - and years later, George Steinbrenner knew the bulked-up slugger was on steroids, the recent...

HEALTHY JACOBS BACK IN SWING

MET NOTES PORT ST. LUCIE - A year ago, Mike Jacobs won the award given to the top Met minor leaguer. Not much good has happened since. Jacobs played in...

JETS TALK DEAL: MOSS FOR COLES - COMEBACK ROUTE WOULD BE GREAT CATCH

THIS WAS just over two years ago, inside the visitors' locker room at Network Associates Coliseum. The Jets had just seen a splendid late-season run to the playoffs die in...

MATSUI EXTENSION IN WORKS

TAMPA - Brian Cashman will meet agent Arn Tellem for breakfast this morning to lay groundwork for Hideki Matsui's contract extension, the Yankees' GM said yesterday. "Nothing's getting done [today],"...