December 4, 2004

New York City police sergeant is struck by stolen van during stakeout in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and police manhunt ends many hours later with shooting and arrest of suspect, Delfin Aviles, on Manhattan's Upper West Side; photo (M)

New York and four European capitals brought their campaigns for the 2012 Summer Olympics to a hall full of European sports leaders on Friday after being warned by the International Olympic Committee to stop criticizing each other. Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, was among the mayors who traveled here to lend weight to their cities' campaigns. Moscow sent its vice mayor, and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and Mayor Ken Livingstone of London appeared on videotape.

California lawmaker Dr Keith Richman, just days after California Public Employees Retirement System president Sean Harrigan is ousted, plans to introduce bill that would begin process of closing state's giant public pension funds to new employees and give them 401(k) plan instead; move would echo proposals by Bush administration and some members of Congress to divert portion of Social Security payroll tax into individual savings accounts; bill is certain to run into resistance from unions that represent public employees and from Democratic politicians, who control both houses of Legislature (M)

Hewlett-Packard executives reportedly greet news that IBM might sell its personal computer business to Chinese PC maker Lenovo with good cheer; Dell Computer executives offer no comment, but industry analysts speculate that they are happy over decision; many in computer industry are concerned that IBM withdrawal could accelerate competition in PC industry, where prices are already falling; photo; graphs (M)

New York City faces loss of nearly $100 million in state aid for social services programs for fiscal year 2004; Gov George E Pataki used line-item veto to cut funds, and Legislature is not expected to override vetoes; cuts reflect state's financial troubles as well as drying up of federal welfare money that state has been able to use indirectly for non-welfare spending; some non-profit groups in city that lost funds are already laying off workers and cutting programs; photo (M)

Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposes to increase half-dozen business, real estate and fuel taxes to raise $900 million a year to help pay for transit network's five-year rebuilding program; proposal by chairman Peter S Kalikow is being presented to Pataki administration and State Legislature as way to deal with authority's crushing debt and capital costs, financial burden that has forced authority to consider mix of transit fare increases and service cuts; photo (M)

Labor Department reports 0.1 percent decline in jobless rate in November, to 5.4 percent; reports increase of 112,000 jobs, far fewer than in October and not enough to keep pace with average increases in adult population; analysts now say spectacular jump of 337,000 jobs in October was mostly aberration in trend of slow growth in jobs and wages; graph (M)

Health and Human Services Sec Tommy G Thompson announces that he is resigning; is eighth member of Bush cabinet to resign since election; says he tried to resign in 2003 but agreed to stay at White House's request; expresses concern about threat of global flu epidemic and possibility of terrorist attack on nation's food supply; Dr Mark B McClellan, federal official in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, is leading candidate to succeed Thompson; photo (M)

New York City faces considerable challenge spending new money for public schools recommended by court-appointed panel: $5.6 billion a year in additional operating money and $9.2 billion for new school buildings, classrooms, libraries and other capital improvements; Mayor Michael R Bloomberg's aggressive plan for prekindergarten programs would require hiring more than 4,000 teachers and adding tens of thousands of classroom seats; proposal to spend $2 billion yearly over next five years on school construction could increase construction costs for entire region; old schools would also need to be retrofitted for new technologies; Mayor Michael R Bloomberg is adamant that none of funds from education settlement should come from city (S)

The semicharmed life of Jamal Crawford, master of minor miracles and architect of game-saving shots, took an unexpected turn last night, when his good fortune was trumped by the league's leading feel-good story. In his brief tenure with the Knicks, Crawford has twice won games in the final seconds, and the stage was set for another fantastic finish against the Orlando Magic. With his team down by 3 points, and 18.7 seconds left, Crawford stood out of bounds with the ball in his hands, with Cuttino Mobley hopping in front of him and a capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden anticipating another brilliant finish.

Profile of Lenovo Group, China's largest and world's fastest-growing PC maker, which is virtually unknown in US; company, based in Beijing, is partly owned by Chinese government, had sales of over $3 billion in 2003, controls about 27 percent of Chinese PC market and is ranked eighth globally among PC makers; Lenovo, which produces low-cost PC's, some selling in China for as little as $360, is setting sights on Western markets and reportedly is considering purchasing IBM's personal computer unit, valued at between $1 billion and $2 billion; photos; chart (M)

Ukraine Supreme Court overturns result of disputed presidential election, saying it was marred by 'systematic and massive violations,' and orders new runoff between declared winner Prime Min Viktor F Yanukovich and opposition leader Viktor A Yushchenko by Dec 26; court ruling comes 12 days after tens of thousands of Ukrainians began protests in Kiev and other cities denouncing what they considered violation of their right to choose successor to departing Pres Leonid D Kuchma; photos (M)