January 5, 2002

Salvation Army, which raised more than $60 million to help victims of Sept 11 terrorist attacks, has been overwhelmed by response to its simple idea of providing immediate, practical assistance by paying household bills; agency's technology and processing and printing out checks could not keep up with bills pouring in, and thousands of families have now discovered their rent, car payments and other expenses were not paid at all; agency has received more than 30,000 bills from some 8,000 families, avalanche of paperwork that swamped limited personnel and quaint check-writing equipment; photo; official Alfred J Peck Jr comments on embarrassment (M)

Shares of Conseco Inc drop 16 percent after resignation of Conseco Finance president Bruce A Crittenden and after Salomon Smith Barney analyst Colin Devine issues negative report on company's prospects; Crittenden is succeeded by Charles H Cremens; Conseco spokesman Mark Lubbers says decline in stock is linked to Devine's report (M)

Profile of and interview with Paul Pierce, who has gotten NBA's attention this season with his strong play for Boston Celtics; photo (M)

William C Rhoden, in Sports of The Times, contrasts old University of Miami football team, which was boisterous and rowdy, with 'new,' more respectable Miami; photo of coach Larry Coker (M)

University of Miami coach Larry Coker accepts four trophies to signify various national championships of college football; coaches vote Miami the champion; they are under this obligation in poll conducted by ESPN and USA Today because Hurricanes won Bowl Championship Series title game; news media also names Miami champion in Associated Press poll after Hurricanes surge to 34-0 lead in first half; New York Times computer ranking also puts Hurricanes on top; photo; table (M)

About 20 police detectives and agents from New York City Finance Dept go to National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South to execute search warrant as part of investigation into possible grand larceny and tax evasion; remove 40 boxes of files; scene is culmination of long-running fight between club's president, O Aldon James Jr, and disgruntled members and Gramercy Park property owners who have accused James of misappropriating funds, charge that he denies; photo (M)

Raymond W Kelly is sworn in for second turn as New York City police commissioner; officials say Kelly will create high-level position within department to oversee city's response to terrorism threats and is creating policy to make city's homeless shelters safer; Mayor Michael R Bloomberg comments; photo (M)

Nearly 3,500 Taliban prisoners have been held for month in Shibarghan prison built for 800, raising concern of aid groups; photo; prisoners are being interrogated by US, but jailer is Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum, Afghanistan's new deputy defense minister and ethnic Uzbek warlord with long reputation for brutality; Red Cross reports dozens of dysentery cases; other Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters are imprisoned in Kohat, Pakistan, where locals are complaining of mistreatment; US officer at Shibarghan says he has not been inside prison, but that interrogators are processing prisoners as quickly as possible, treating them with dignity (M)

Investigators looking into crash of American Airlines flight in Queens in November have so far found no pre-existing flaw in jet's tail section and are now focusing on performance of pilots, who they believe triggered plane's wild rolling and yawing in seconds before it went down; data recovered from American Airlines Flight 587 show that plane hit turbulence from plane in front of it and seconds later began to swing violently and break up; photo (M)

Army Special Forces sergeant Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, is killed in brief firefight in eastern Afghanistan, first death of US serviceman by hostile fire since war began nearly three months ago; CIA officer is wounded; ambush happens after small team of Americans and Afghans meets with local leaders near Khost and Gardez to try to get information about Al Qaeda locations; Gen Tommy Franks warns much dangerous work remains to be done; US planes bomb Al Qaeda training camp in province; Pentagon reports Al Qaeda regrouping at compound; Khost area is filled with bandits, renegade Taliban and die-hard Al Qaeda; speculation noted about whereabouts of Osama bin Laden (M)

Three Kings Day Parade is held in East Harlem; event, sponsored by El Museo del Barrio, this year honors heroes of World Trade Center and Flight 587 disasters; photos (S)

Steve Spurrier, who in his dozen years as head coach at University of Florida led Gators to national championship and six Southeastern Conference titles, resigns, saying he feels that his coaching career is complete; acknowledges that he is interested in pursuing job in NFL; photo (M)