November 1, 1997

A 19-year-old English nanny was sentenced yesterday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years for murdering an 8-month-old Massachusetts boy she was caring for. In Britain, the guilty verdict on Thursday was met with shock, and many in the United States said they believed the profession of innocence made yesterday by the nanny, Louise Woodward, at her sentencing.

THE Indiana Pacers had finished their shoot-around at Continental Arena yesterday morning as workers scurried to complete the finishing touches for the Nets' season opener. Reporters descended in the direction of the players, but they went past Reggie Miller, past newly acquired Chris Mullin. Instead, the cameras and microphones encircled Larry Bird, the former Celtics star who made the surprising move last summer to become the Pacers' coach. Last night was his regular-season debut. Did he feel any pressure?

Voters in Wildwood will decide on Tuesday whether to close the bars in the seaside town two hours earlier -- at 3 A.M. instead of 5 A.M. Police have sought the change for years as a way to stop drunken revelers from flocking to Wildwood when bars close in neighboring towns, said Police Capt. William M. Fisher. Residents joined the cause when a North Wildwood man, John W. Vollrath Jr., was beaten to death outside a nightclub in February, he said.

On a Halloween Day filled with rumors that took on an almost ''War of the Worlds'' tone, hundreds of thousands of New York City students stayed away from public schools yesterday because they, or their parents, feared a rash of gang-related attacks. Those who did venture to school often found additional police officers patrolling in and near their classrooms and even escorting them to and from subway stations to keep them safe. By various accounts, they were.

Some 100,000 bottles of Italian perfume that were stolen last month from a container truck at the Sealand Terminal in Port Elizabeth were recovered yesterday by detectives from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.