Wednesday News

• Governor says he wants to avoid MTA fare hike

  Gov. David A. Paterson vowed to do "everything I can to prevent" an MTA fare hike next summer, he said Tuesday, noting that another increase is unwise with riders still smarting from a March hike of 3.85 percent.

• Estelle Getty, 1923-2008: She had a 'golden' role

  Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," died yesterday. She was 84.

• Officials: Collection boxes often aren't about charity

  A white steel container planted near Main Street in Sayville says: "Thank you for donating clothing, toys and shoes."

• Lawsuit targets Farmingdale's 'gentrification'

  Legal experts say a federal judge's decision to give the go-ahead to a housing discrimination lawsuit filed by Hofstra Law School and Latino tenants against the Village of Farmingdale shows how disputes about "gentrification" are expanding from cities to the suburbs.

• Officers shoot, kill retired cop questioned in mob hit

  A retired New York Police Department sergeant questioned about the killing of his boss - a mob-connected jeweler - was himself shot dead early yesterday by two officers after he fired at them in front of his Staten Island home, police said.

• Airlines blame fuel prices for steep losses

  Despite an increase in the number of people flying this year, more airlines - including discounter JetBlue Airways Corp. of Forest Hills - yesterday reported steep losses in the latest quarter, blaming soaring fuel prices for the turbulence.

• A most-wanted fugitive lived for years in plain sight

  BELGRADE, Serbia - For more than a decade, the world's most-wanted war crimes fugitive displayed a talent for eluding international justice. His secret? Hide in plain sight.

• Joan Folk, nurse who spoke out on issues, dies at 83

  Scores knew Joan N. Folk as "the nurse in the neighborhood," always available to mend cuts and bruises and give practical advice.

• Charges dismissed in Martin Tankleff murder case

  Martin Tankleff is a free man - for good.

• Suozzi launches campaign to draw tourists to Nassau

  Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi went to Manhattan on a tourist raid yesterday, picking up 16 visitors to the Big Apple and giving them an all-expense-paid tour of Nassau.

• WORLD & NATION: AT HOME

  A woman accused of slicing open a pregnant woman's belly and taking her baby was obsessed with getting an infant and even had hallucinations of hearing babies cry after a February 1990 miscarriage, according to court records. A few months later, Andrea Curry-Demus stabbed one woman in an apparent plot to steal her newborn; the next day, she kidnapped another baby from a hospital. Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg, Pa., was charged Sunday with homicide, kidnapping and related offenses in the death of Kia Johnson, 18. Johnson's decomposing body, with her wrists and ankles bound by duct tape and layers of tape and plastic covering much of her head, was found Friday in Curry-Demus' apartment. A day earlier Curry-Demus had taken the baby to a hospital, claiming first that she was the mother and later that she paid for the child. Authorities say the two women met at the Allegheny County jail on July 15 while visiting different inmates.

• Christian Bale denies charges of assault on sister, mom

  Christian Bale yesterday denied allegations of assault made by his mother and sister, hours after the star of "The Dark Knight" was arrested, questioned by London police and released.

• Charges in execution-style shooting at Westbury club

  A case of mistaken identity led to the execution-style shooting of four young men, one fatally, in a car at a Westbury nightclub, police said yesterday after arresting four in connection with the shooting.

• WORLD & NATION: ABROAD

  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hopes to judge North Korea's seriousness about abandoning nuclear weapons when she holds the Bush administration's highest-level talks in four years with the Stalinist state this week. The North has been given a four-page draft document laying out what the United States wants from it to prove it has told the truth about its past atomic programs. Rice expects Pyongyang's foreign minister to provide at least an initial response to the proposal at today's meeting. The draft calls for intrusive inspections of North Korean nuclear facilities, soil sampling and interviews with key scientists.

• Prosecutor: Ex-bin Laden driver knew target of 4th hijacked plane

  GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A former driver for Osama bin Laden knew the target of the fourth hijacked plane on Sept. 11, a prosecutor said Tuesday as he sought to undercut defense arguments that the Guantanamo prisoner was a low-level employee of the terrorist leader.

• Obama shifts from war zones to Mideast peace efforts

  AMMAN, Jordan - After visits to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama shifted his focus to Mideast peace efforts yesterday, arriving for two days of talks with leaders in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

• 2 enslaved women sue Muttontown couple for millions

  Two Indonesian women who were enslaved by a wealthy Muttontown couple filed a civil suit yesterday against the couple, seeking millions of dollars in damages under the federal racketeering statute, according to their attorneys.

• Nassau worker wants apology from comptroller

  A Nassau County worker portrayed by the county comptroller as a potential abuser of a government gas card wants an apology, and his superiors back up the worker's claim he did nothing wrong.

• Chavez, Russia talk business, anti-American sentiment

  MOSCOW - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez blew through Russia yesterday, cutting business deals, griping about the United States and pumping up the friendship between the two oil-rich nations.

• City to offer translation services to immigrants

  Mayor Michael Bloomberg's order that city agencies provide translations for the six most spoken languages means immigrants won't have to rely on English-speaking children to translate complex government forms, supporters said yesterday.

• Obituary: Kenneth Miller, 63, satellite communications pioneer

  As an inquisitive child, Kenneth Allen Miller grew up in Oceanside fixing and making things, his budding interest in engineering spurring him to build radio receivers and to try his hand at being a ham radio operator, a feat he accomplished by the time he was 12.

• Study: Cancer drug dramatically shrinks prostate tumors

  An experimental cancer drug shrank prostate tumors dramatically and more than doubled survival in 70 percent to 80 percent of patients with aggressive cancers, British researchers reported yesterday.

• Pastor wants to keep church in her North Bellmore home

  A woman who's been honored by Hempstead town officials for the good work of her church can't get approval by the town's zoning board to continue operating it.

• LI women sue casino workers over insults in Spanish

  A couple of roulette table workers at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut took a gamble themselves last September when they bet that a group of nine women playing at their table could not speak Spanish, according to a lawsuit.

• Grandmother pleads guilty in Queens sex-traffic case

  In the end, Consuelo Carreto Valencia, who until last year never traveled far from the hardscrabble town in Mexico where she was born, just didn't want to die in an American jail.

• Is McCain ready to announce his running mate?

  ROCHESTER, N.H. - Yet another town-hall meeting isn't doing the trick. Neither is dropping in on a former Republican president.

• Dean Skelos joins effort to close Courtesy Hotel

  The highest-ranking Republican in the state has joined West Hempstead residents in calling on Republican town Supervisor Kate Murray to close down the crime-ridden Courtesy Hotel.

• Boy's mom makes plea to find hit-run suspect

  The mother of a boy whose legs were broken in a hit-and-run accident made an emotional plea yesterday for the driver to own up to the crime.

• WAR UPDATE

  Iraq has been a no-go zone for most civilian aircraft for almost two decades. First, there were UN sanctions after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Then U.S.-led forces toppled the dictator in 2003, and violence engulfed the country. Yet, now that insurgent attacks and sectarian bloodshed have ebbed over the past year, Iraq's government is beginning to promote tourism. It will be a tough sell - and even if officials can grab the attention of the adventuresome, Iraq's tourism facilities are shabby. The opening of a new airport Sunday in the southern city of Najaf is expected to help boost the number of religious pilgrims. Iraq is thinking about more than pilgrims, though. Last week, officials displayed tourism posters and said they are intent on attracting visitors to Iraq's fabled archaeological sites, many of them looted and damaged in fighting.

• Teacher trysts again, cops say

  A former Wantagh high school teacher, already awaiting sentencing for having sex with a 16-year-old student, was charged yesterday with having another five trysts with the boy since she pleaded guilty to the original charges last month, authorities said.

• Tribunal seen as deterrent to war crimes

  AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The former president of Liberia is on trial. A vice president of Congo is in custody. The former leaders of Cambodia are in the dock. And a key figure in the Bosnia war is now in custody.

• Sharpton's lawyers: Feds drop criminal probe

  Federal prosecutors have disbanded their criminal probe into the financial dealings of the Rev. Al Sharpton and his Harlem civil rights group, the minister and his lawyers said yesterday.

• Amagansett residents air complaints at town meeting

  A standing-room-only crowd turned out at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett to complain.

• Husband who killed wife over insult gets 25 to life

  Eva Torres wept in Nassau County Court yesterday as the man who stabbed her mother to death apologized for the pain he caused her.

• Nassau Legis. to review county's public works surplus

  The Nassau Legislature's budget review director questioned why the county's public works department has run surpluses between $1.3 million and $4.2 million over the past five years, calling for its funding to be "thoroughly reviewed."

• Dad seeks asylum for kids, saying they were abused

  A Brentwood contractor from Honduras wants a federal immigration judge to use his three children to establish a new reason for asylum - sexual abuse.

• Texas, say hello to Dolly

  MIAMI - Forecasters say Dolly has become a hurricane and is heading toward southern Texas and northeastern Mexico.

• THE BUZZ

  NEW MOVIE TEAM NAMED. Over the years, TV's best-known movie review show has gone from hosts Siskel and Ebert to Ebert and Roeper to Roeper and guest critics - and now it's Lyons and Mankiewicz, The Associated Press reports. Ben Lyons, a Hollywood reporter and film critic for "E! News" and others, and Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz will take over "At the Movies" when its new season begins in September, Disney-ABC Domestic Television said yesterday. Don't look for the syndicated program's "thumbs up-thumbs down" ratings to return. Roger Ebert shares a trademark lock on it with the widow of his late co-host, Gene Siskel, and Ebert has said they're hanging on to it.

• Huntington Bay police honored with state accreditation

  The 10-member Huntington Bay police force has been honored with accreditation from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice.

• State auditors crack down on tax refund claims

  New York tax auditors this year more than doubled the number of its letters asking residential filers to justify state tax refund claims, saying they are cracking down on hundreds of millions of dollars in tax fraud.

• Viagra may help women on antidepressants

  CHICAGO - Viagra's effect in women has been disappointing, but a new small study finds those on antidepressants may benefit from taking the little blue pills.

• Among new NY laws: You can't watch a dogfight

  ALBANY - It's now illegal to watch a dogfight in New York even if you didn't get charged admission or place a bet.

• More counterterrorism funds for New York City, LI

  WASHINGTON - Police on Long Island and New York City will see an increase in federal dollars for counterterrorism projects this year.

• Bill would lead to restrictions on video game violence

  ALBANY - Gov. David A. Paterson signed a bill yesterday that he said will lead to restrictions on video game violence and help families better monitor grisly games.

• As gas prices rise, traffic deaths decline

  COLUMBUS, Ohio - Rising prices at the gas pump appear to be having at least one positive effect: Traffic deaths around the country are plummeting, just as they did during the Arab oil embargo three decades ago.

• Street floods after water main break

  A tree-lined, densely packed residential street in Woodmere turned into a river late last niight after a water main apparently broke, with a sinkhole nearly swallowing a car.

• NASSAU COUNTY: Injured cop's family getting $25G check

  The family of an injured Nassau police officer was to receive a $25,000 check today from the Police Crisis Fund, officials said.

• Robert Downey Jr. postpones plans to write a memoir

  The "Iron Man" will not be wielding a pen: Robert Downey Jr. has postponed plans to write a memoir and has returned his advance to publisher HarperCollins, a spokeswoman for the actor told The Associated Press.

• Study pushes tuberculosis tests for immigrants to U.S. from Africa, Southeast Asia

  Immigrants to the United States from Africa and Southeast Asia should be tested and treated for tuberculosis before they arrive to prevent importing the disease, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

• THIS DATE IN HISTORY

  1885: Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63.

• Jonas Brothers to perform at MTV Video Music Awards

  The Jonas Brothers will perform at this year's MTV Video Music Awards, The Associated Press reports.

• DIX HILLS: LIE shut by loose section on bridge

  It was thought to be the heat that closed down a lane of the Long Island Expressway yesterday in Dix Hills.

• Bruno hired as CEO at company with state contracts

  ALBANY - Former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has been hired as chief executive of CMA Consulting Services, which provides computer programming and information technology to the state and other clients.

• What you can do to cut down energy use at home

  Long Islanders consume more energy - and leave a bigger carbon footprint - than the average New Yorker, according to some reports. What changes can I can make at home to cut down on energy use?

• MOSQUITO SPRAYING

  Parts of Fire Island and Smith Point Park are scheduled for mosquito spraying today, Suffolk health officials said.

• Two would-be robbers foiled by lack of planning

  Two would-be robbers burst into a Lynbrook convenience store Monday night, waving handguns and demanding cash. But a few moments later they ran off empty-handed, due to a lack of planning, Nassau police said.

• HICKSVILLE: Pre-dawn accident on parkway kills man

  A car crashed into a wooded area off the shoulder of the Northern State Parkway and burst into flames in a fatal pre-dawn accident that closed the westbound parkway for almost two hours yesterday, New York State Police said.

• HICKSVILLE: Pedestrian hit and killed

  A 29-year-old man running across Newbridge Road in Hicksville was killed early yesterday when a small pickup truck hit him, Nassau County police said.

• NEW YORK: Gladys Nederlander, producer, 83

  New York theater and TV producer Gladys Nederlander has died. She was 83.

• Wednesday, Jul. 23, 2008

  A photo of the Long Island Expressway in Nassau County was used incorrectly yesterday to illustrate a story about Suffolk County's clash with the state over patrols on state highways.