March 13, 1993

JoAnne Akalaitis, Joseph Papp's hand-picked successor as head of the New York Shakespeare Festival, has been asked to resign by the executive committee of the Festival's board. The action effectively ends her troubled 20-month reign as artistic director of one of the nation's most important nonprofit cultural institutions and its flagship, the Public Theater. The 11-member committee has offered Ms. Akalaitis's post, with a new title of producer, to George C. Wolfe, the director and playwright who is best known for writing and staging the Broadway musical "Jelly's Last Jam." Committee members said that the actor Kevin Kline would also join the management team, though his proposed role was not specified.

In a raw courtroom battle yesterday, Abraham Hirschfeld, a multimillionaire developer and perennial political candidate, beat out Steven Hoffenberg for the right to buy the ailing New York Post. Mr. Hirschfeld, an unpredictable public figure who entered the complex Post drama just weeks ago ostensibly as Mr. Hoffenberg's partner, was chosen by a bankruptcy judge as the more financially able to acquire the newspaper.

The New York City police have reopened their investigation of the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane, both to see if evidence that may have been overlooked shows that the shooting was part of a conspiracy and to see if it provides new leads in the investigation of the World Trade Center bombing, a top police official said yesterday. The move came amid a widening investigation into the search for more suspects and motives in the Feb. 26 bombing and a growing interest by authorities in the man who was tried for the assassination, El Sayyid A. Nosair.

A senior official said Washington would not object "if Yeltsin suspends an anti-democratic Parliament," but would react strongly if he resorted to military force to keep power. Page 4.

Killing at Brooklyn Court A parole officer fatally shot his estranged wife at Brooklyn Family Court, the police said. Page 23. Shearson Sold for $1 Billion American Express is selling its Shearson brokerage subsidiary to Primerica for $1 billion. Page 35. Likely Victory for British Air British Airways appears likely to get United States approval to buy a 19.9 percent stake in USAir. Page 35.