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)