January 10, 2005

CITIBANK EXEC TAKES TOP ISRAEL BANK JOB

JERUSALEM - Israeli officials surprised economists yesterday and tapped an American financial wizard to lead its central bank and promote the country's improving economy. Stanley Fischer, a vice chairman of...

AT&T CHIEFTAIN AN 'EMPTY SUIT': GRUBMAN

Star stock analyst Jack Grubman so despised newly appointed AT&T CEO C. Michael Armstrong in 1997 that he was telling top clients the telecom executive was an "empty suit," a...

WINTER WONDER - ROBUST SALES AND FALLING OIL SPARK OPTIMISM

The good times were certainly rolling for consumers and businesses as 2005 dawned. Retail sales, factory production and job growth all posted higher than expected gains in December while oil...

WRONG CALL FOR AILING GARNER

LAID-up "Alias" star Jennifer Garner says she was misdiagnosed last month - and what was at first said to be a virus turned out to be pinched nerves. She was...

CRITICS' GROUP LOVES 'BABY'

CLINT Eastwood's boxing drama "Million Dollar Baby" has scored a knockout with the National Society of Film Critics, which named it as the best picture of 2004. Hilary Swank, who...

BRIS-FUL FILM FEST - HONORING JEWS ALL OVER THE WORLD

IT has to be a film festival first: home-movie footage of someone's circumcision. "My Bris" is just one of many surprises in store at the 14th annual New York Jewish...

STARR REPORT

Good news for Tony Buena Vista's "Tony Danza Show" has been renewed in over 90 markets comprising 60 percent of the country for the 2005-06 season - including the ABC...

EARLY THAW - POP STAR HEATS UP 'SUMMERLAND' RETURN

IN the dead of winter, the WB network is welcoming back its only hit new drama of the season, "Summerland." The show, which aired briefly last summer, is about a...

FIRST DATE WITH NEW 'LATE LATE'

CRAIG Ferguson had a request for TV critics. "If you're reviewing the show, be nice," he pleaded at the outset of his first show last Monday night as the new...

DEADLY FASHION SINS - STUNG BY STYLE? IT'S TV'S NEW 'GAL PALS' TO THE RESCUE; NEW 'QUEER EYE' CREW RESCUES FASHION VICTIMS

PRIDE, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. We're all guilty of at least one of those seven deadly sins - especially when it comes to fashion. Take our envy...

THE FIRST LADY OF 'QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GIRL'

'QUEER Eye for the Straight Girl" is as different from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" as women are from men. So says Honey Labrador, the 39-year-old First Lady of...

MIKE IN CLINTONS' CROSS HAIRS

IT'LL be Hillary and Bill Clinton versus Mayor Bloomberg later this year, no matter which Democratic mayoral contender is selected, The Post has learned. Sen. Clinton, the state's junior U.S....

MONEY FOR HATE - NOT MUSLIM TSUNAMI VICTIMS

THE Saudi Arabian government and individual Saudis have spent billions of dollars spreading Wahhabi extremism and fostering hatred. No expense is spared to vilify Israel or the West. But when...

MORALLY TAINTED - U.N. CAN'T BE TRUSTED TO PROTECT THE WEAKEST

NOW that images of the tsunami have been replaced by desperate people fighting for food tossed from U.S. war planes, the world is focused on the next phase of disaster....

WOULD-BE ASSASSIN ESCAPES PAKISTANIS

An alleged conspirator who took part in an at tempt to assassinate Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has escaped detention, sparking a nationwide search, it was reported yesterday. The alert is...

INT'L FOOD FIGHT - SERAFINA FURIOUS AT BEIRUT IM-PASTA

Imitation is the worst form of flattery, say the owners of Manhattan's trendy Serafina restaurants - after they discovered an exact replica of their eateries doing business in the Middle...

WEIRD BUT TRUE

Everyone knows politics can be rough, but this is ridiculous. A town councilwoman in West Virginia last week was busted a second time for allegedly attacking the same police chief...

SENATE RACE (& YONKERS) IN LIMBO

A long, bitter fight over a state Senate seat has left Yonkers without representation in the Albany body - a situation residents and community leaders of the state's fourth-largest city...

'FOCKERS' IN 3-PEAT

Moviegoers keep flocking to "Meet the Fockers," making the flick No. 1 at the box office for the third straight weekend and pushing its gross beyond the star-studded comedy's prequel...

SPECTOR PULLED GUN ON 3 GALS: DA

LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors in the Phil Spector murder case are out to paint the legendary music producer as a violent nut who brandishes guns - especially at women -...

NYER ON MERCY MISSION - BIZ GAL'S 'VACATION'

Gail Evertz has traded her BlackBerry for Black & Decker. On Friday, Evertz put the finishing touches on a board meeting for her employer, asset-management firm Guggenheim Partners - and...

SPOKES-MAN CHUCK - SEN. BIKES BROOKLYN

Twenty minutes into his regular weekly bicycle ride through the side streets of Brooklyn, Sen. Charles Schumer pauses and jerks his finger toward an elderly Hasidic Jew intently studying his...

FINEST & BRAVEST'S INAUGURAL HONOR

WASHINGTON - New York's Finest and Bravest will get their Irish up celebrating President Bush's inauguration next week. The Emerald Society Pipes & Drums bands of the NYPD and FDNY...

EARTH MOVES IN WAKE OF QUAKE

Two weeks after the tsunami disaster, the earth is still ringing like a bell. And it may keep ringing for weeks. You can't hear it, but hypersensitive gravity meters can....

UNEASY RIDERS DREADING PRIVATE-BUS STRIKE

Some 70,000 commuters in Brooklyn and Queens were bracing last night for a tough winter, as drivers and mechanics for two private bus lines prepared to walk off their jobs...

IRAQ CIVILIANS KILLED ON DAY OF VIOLENCE

American soldiers killed between four and eight Iraqis - two of them cops and the rest believed to be bystanders - at a checkpoint near Baghdad, capping a bloody weekend...

EMBATTLED HYNES FOE EYES REMATCH

A political foe of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes will announce next week that she is running for his seat for a second time - despite the fact that she...

ABBAS HAILS VICTORY - DEDICATES IT IN HONOR OF 'MARTYR' ARAFAT

JERUSALEM - With the world watching and the peace process in the balance, Palestinians went to the polls yesterday in their first presidential election in nine years, choosing the moderate...

SLASHER SUSPECT'S VIOLENT PAST

A homeless man accused of a vicious stabbing rampage in Midtown last week is an ex-con who served time for knifing a man to death. Jesse Nettles, 58, spent 12...

IRAQ-BOUND GI SHOT DEAD AT B'KLYN BAR - SOLDIER'S BROTHER ALSO HIT IN 'WILD WEST' ATTACK

An Army officer who was scheduled to return to Iraq this week was fatally shot, and his brother wounded, outside a Brooklyn bar yesterday. First Sgt. Terrence Balkissoon, 25, who...

PRIVATE-BUS CREWS STRIKE, LEAVING QUEASY RIDERS

Drivers and mechanics for two private bus lines walked off their jobs at midnight, stranding some 70,000 commuters in Brooklyn and Queens, according to an official at one of the...

NYPD DAILY BLOTTER

QUEENS * Cops yesterday busted a 39-year-old man for allegedly robbing the same Queens Village doughnut shop three times since October with what they thought was a gun - but...

CLASHES COULD HURT AID EFFORT

A burst of gunfire in Indonesia and an outbreak of violence in Sri Lanka raised fears yesterday that simmering rebellions in both countries could hamper aid efforts for tsunami victims....

SAMARITAN POST READER PAYING FOR KIDNEY OP

A Massachusetts restaurateur has opened his heart and wallet to help Franklin Piedra pay for a lifesaving kidney transplant. After reading Piedra's moving story in The Post last week, Jerry...

CAM SNARES BABY-BEATER NANNY: COPS

A 50-year-old nanny has been charged with child endangerment after she was caught on a nursery Web cam hitting and shaking the infant she was supposed to be caring for,...

AN INTIMATE BASH FOR 500 OF DONALD'S FAMOUS PALS

D-Day in Palm Beach is approaching as Donald Trump prepares to take over the tony resort town and walk down the aisle for the third time. The marriage of the...

BIOSPHERE FOLLY GOES UP FOR SALE

Talk about a white elephant: Biosphere 2, a glass- enclosed laboratory that was designed to simulate the Earth's environment, is for sale. The $200 million facility, 16 miles north of...

'DREAMS' LIVE ON - KIN TO PUBLISH N'TUCKET SLAY VICTIM'S INSPIRATIONAL BOOK

Before she was stabbed to death in a crime of passion that rocked Nantucket, Beth Lochtefeld was writing a book to help others achieve their dreams - and now her...

CLASHES, RAIN HURT AID EFFORT

A burst of gunfire in Indonesia and an outbreak of violence in Sri Lanka raised fears yesterday that simmering rebellions in both countries could hamper aid efforts for tsunami victims....

HERO HOMELESS - VET'S FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL IN BROOKLYN

Not long ago, Pfc. Herold Noel proudly rumbled through the Iraqi desert with the first wave of American troops. Today, he rambles through the streets of Brooklyn in an SUV...

LAWYER KIN CROOKS: SUIT

An 88-year-old man who claims he lost more than $2 million to a crooked lawyer is out to prove the swindler's prominent family of attorneys had a hand in the...

ARCHIVES BARE RUDY'S VERBAL VENOM FOR FOES

Rudy Giuliani conducted scathing research on his political enemies before and after he became mayor - and the records have now turned up in the city's public archives. David Dinkins...

PENN STA. 'STABBER' KILLED MAN AT PA TERMINAL

A homeless man accused of last week's vicious stabbing rampage at Penn Station is an ex-con who once fatally knifed a man at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, officials said...

U.N.'S OWN PANEL BLASTS 'OIL-FOOD'

WASHINGTON - A panel investigating the scandal-plagued Iraqi oil-for-food program has blasted the U.N. for failing to audit thousands of key contracts - allowing Saddam Hussein to skim billions of...

MIKE: I'D LOSE AS A DEMOCRAT

Mayor Bloomberg admitted last night that if he switched parties again, he would lose the Democratic primary. "Today if I became a Democrat, I'd never get through the Democratic primary,"...

'EMBEZZLERS' SAY THEY'RE BUST

What do you get for a Long Island couple who've already bought a Jaguar, a vintage Corvette, a house and a Hawaiian vacation with half a million in allegedly stolen...

MOORE FUEL TO FIRE - '9/11' IS PEOPLE'S CHOICE AMID 'BALLOT-STUFFING'

Michael Moore's controversial documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" nabbed top honors at last night's People's Choice awards - amid allegations of ballot stuffing via the Internet. While losing to mainstream hit flicks...

SAMARITAN PAYING FOR KIDNEY OP

A Massachusetts restaurateur has opened his heart and wallet to help Franklin Piedra pay for a lifesaving kidney transplant. After reading Piedra's moving story in The Post last week, Jerry...

MOORE FUEL TO FIRE - '9/11' WINS FAVORITE FILM AMID 'BALLOT-STUFFING'

Michael Moore's controversial documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" picked up the top honors at last night's People's Choice Awards - amid allegations of ballot stuffing via the Internet. Although he lost to...

TOP IRAQI COP SLAIN IN DAY OF VIOLENCE

The deputy police chief of Baghdad was shot to death outside his house early this morning. Also today, a suicide bomber, driving a police car, blew himself up outside a...

FARE SCAM FOILED - TA PUTS CRIMP IN METROCARD BENDERS' RIP-OFF

Subway scammers are out of luck - it just got a lot harder to rip off fares by bending expired MetroCards. The Transit Authority has reprogrammed turnstiles at scores of...

ROOKIE COPS WILL HAVE BIG 'IMPACT'

The NYPD's Operation Impact will get an infusion of new blood when 1,000 rookie cops from the class that graduated Friday flood the city's toughest neighborhoods, to make sure homicides...

LAWYER STOLE MY $2M - MAN, 88, SUES

An 88-year-old man who claims he lost more than $2 million to a crooked lawyer is out to prove the swindler's prominent family of attorneys had a hand in the...

JURY TO GET RAD-LAWYER CASE

Jurors begin deliberations this week on whether radical lawyer Lynne Stewart is guilty of supporting terrorism - after an eight-month trial that included evidence about al Qaeda boss Osama bin...

PRICEY BRIDAL REGISTRIES WILL HAVE GUESTS DIGGING DEEP

Donald Trump and Melania Knauss have a taste for the finer things in life, as reflected by the bridal registries they've chosen. Guests are invited to shop for wedding gifts...

JURY TO GET RAD LAWYER CASE

Jurors begin deliberations this week on whether radical lawyer Lynne Stewart is guilty of supporting terrorism - after an eight-month trial that included evidence about al Qaeda boss Osama bin...

FARE SCAM FOILED - TURNSTILES ZAP CROOKS

Subway scammers are out of luck - it just got a lot harder to rip off fares by bending expired MetroCards. The Transit Authority has reprogrammed turnstiles at scores of...

BRAD & JEN'S FOND FAREWELL

Just a day before announcing they were splitting up, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston took this final, poignant stroll on a secluded Caribbean beach, holding each other tight one last...

JEROME STARTS IN A BIG WAY

KNICK NOTES Lenny Wilkens has long debated whether to remove erratic Tim Thomas from the starting lineup. Last night, Wilkens had no choice when Thomas came up lame with a...

LINCOLN LOGS EASY VICTORY OVER JUDGES

H.S. BASKETBALL: Lincoln 73 - Cardozo 57 No one knows when - or even if - Theo Davis will return to Cardozo's basketball team, but it appears that if the...

BELTRAN BRINGS TOOLS FOR EVERY JOB

The moment came pretty early. Carlos Beltran wasn't about to make anybody wait. It was June 27 last season, the third game of Beltran's Astro career, and Houston was visiting...

SUBWAY FULL OF SPITE AGAIN

THE Subway Series are what spark the most elegiac poetry among the old-timers, those many Octobers when the Yankees would take on either the Giants or the Dodgers, when the...

ALIVE AND KICKING

JET REPORT CARDQUARTERBACKS: A Chad Pennington (23-33, 279 yards, 2 TDs, no INTs, 115.6 rating) was outstanding, leading the Jets to victory in their biggest game of the season. RUNNING...

SORE CALF SIDELINES TIM

KNICK NOTES Another one bites the dust, and it wasn't Lenny Wilkens. Tim Thomas was in uniform but did not plan to play last night when the injury-riddled Knicks hosted...

METS LOVE MOVE

If you think Met fans are excited about Carlos Beltran's arrival, you should listen to Met players. Like David Wright, who sounded ready to leap through the phone. "I'm excited,"...

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHTER

CARLOS Beltran is nearly a year younger than Alfonso Soriano, Vladimir Guerrero and Eric Gagne, and nearly two years younger than Alex Rodriguez. He is an elite player in his...

'I LOVE NY' - BELTRAN SET TO FEAST ON BIG APPLE

MANATI, P.R. - Small town guy Carlos Beltran says he's ready for the big city. Sitting behind the wheel of his Hummer H2 near his home yesterday, Beltran said the...

KIDD'S RESURGENCE A BEACON FOR NETS

There were offensive sequences as barren as a desert at high noon, as appealing as tin foil sandwiches. Injuries and illness have thinned the ranks and forced illogical alignments. And...

WR WAYNE 'POSSESSED' BY SUCCESS

INDIANAPOLIS - The way it logically works, said Tony Dungy, and the way it works better for the Colts than anybody else, the opposition's top two cover guys take Marvin...

FROZEN TUNDRA MELTS UNDERFOOT

NOTEBOOK GREEN BAY - The Packers went into yesterday's NFC Wild Card playoff game against the Vikings with a 14-1 record in home playoff games: 12-1 at Lambeau Field, 2-0...

TELFAIR RELISHES GARDEN RETURN

It was March 17, 2004, the Lincoln H.S. Railsplitters had just won the city basketball championship at the Garden, and Sebastian Telfair's future was still part local mystery and obsession....

LENNY: I'M NOT WORRIED

With the Knicks on a four-game losing streak entering last night's game against the equally beat-up Trail Blazers, coach Lenny Wilkens said he's not paying attention to the rumblings about...

KNICKS CAN'T DEFEND LACK OF COMMITMENT

LENNY Wilkens sounded like a coach trying to hang on to his job last night when he warned against inflated expectations his Knicks might never fulfill. "This team hasn't played...

BEATER OF THE PACK - CULPEPPER, VIKES DETHRONE FAVRE IN UPSET VICTORY

Vikings 31 - Packers 17 GREEN BAY - There was no official ceremony, but a not-so-subtle changing of the guard might have taken place last night on the non-frozen tundra...

FOR METS, THIRD CHOICE A CHARM - BELTRAN'S AMAZIN' AFTER YANK REFUSAL

The Mets won the Carlos Beltran derby despite finishing in third place behind the Astros and Yankees. Beltran, the star free-agent center fielder, agreed to come to the Mets only...

MAKING THEM PEY - MANNING THROWS 4 TD PASSES IN COLT ROMP

Colts 49 - Broncos 24 INDIANAPOLIS - Peyton Manning fired slants, hooks, outs. He heaved look-ins, screens, dumps, posts, everything but a towel for the Broncos, who, after losing this...

BEATERS OF THE PACK - CULPEPPER, MOSS COMBINE TO HAND FAVRE UPSET LOSS

Vikings 31 - Packers 17 GREEN BAY - Randy Moss had just put the finishing touches on a grand upset victory, abusing cornerback Al Harris for the 34-yard touchdown catch...

RETIREMENT ON BRETT'S MIND AGAIN

NOTEBOOK GREEN BAY - Maybe it was the disappointment of a terrible performance or the realization that another season has come and gone, but Packers quarterback Brett Favre last night...

TELFAIR RELISHES RETURN

When they were growing up in Coney Island, cousins Stephon Marbury and Sebastian Telfair waged their basketball battles on the legendary Dwyer Gardens court, which is nicknamed "The Garden" after...

ALL'S RIGHT WITH KNICKS - FOR A NIGHT, ANYWAY

YOU watch the Knicks play the way they did against the Trail Blazers last night at the Garden and you wonder why they can't be that team every night. Allan...

BAKER SPEECH TAKES CAKE

KNICK NOTES Vin Baker's surprise locker room speech to the club following Cleveland's matinee massacre Saturday apparently worked as the Knicks responded in last night's mammoth 113-105 victory against Portland...

THIS MAY QUIET SOME RUMORS

Knicks 113 - Blazers 105 While Isiah Thomas was short on platitudes for head coach Lenny Wilkens, the Knicks president said after last night's 113-105 bounce-back win against Portland that...

THERE'S NO STOPPIN' INSIDE SPEED

1ST RACE - If you weren't in front early, you weren't in front late over muddy track favoring inside speed. Lott dashed to lead from post 1 under Norberto Arroyo,...

ERIC'S REPRIEVE - OFFENSE SPARES JET LB GOAT HORNS

Eric Barton had just finished his umpteenth round of interviews in front of his locker. Explaining away his knuckleheaded forearm shiver to the helmet of Chargers' quarterback Drew Brees in...

LOT OF FIGHT LEFT IN 'EM - STEELERS DON'T SCARE GUNG-HO GANG GREEN

The Jets had just lost a hard-fought nail-biter, 17-6, to the Steelers on Dec. 12 at Heinz Field when Herman Edwards and Steelers' head coach Bill Cowher met somewhere round...

THIS JUSTIN - PENNINGTON-MCCAREINS CONNECTION CLICKING AT JUST THE RIGHT TIME

IN many ways, the Jets ought to be considered an awfully dangerous team right now. Resurrected from the brink of extinction, having already gotten a good, hard look at the...

HERM QUIET ON SIDELINE SCUFFLE

JET NOTES Herman Edwards yesterday continued to be mum on the exact topic of his animated discussion with running backs coach Bishop Harris, though it was pretty clear it was...