CITYWIDE

BLOOMBERG DISAPPROVES OF ANNAN’S ARAFAT GRAVE VISIT

Mayor Bloomberg suggested yesterday that it was inappropriate for the United Nations secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to have paid his respects to the late Yasser Arafat while visiting the Middle East.

“I would not have done it,” Mr. Bloomberg told The New York Sun. “I’ve always thought that Yasser Arafat was a terrorist.”

Mr. Bloomberg on Tuesday represented America at the dedication of the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. On Monday, a day before joining dozens of foreign dignitaries for the museum ceremony, Mr. Annan met with the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah. During his visit to Mr. Abbas’s compound headquarters, Mr. Annan also stopped by Arafat’s grave and placed a wreath by the tomb. Mr. Bloomberg, who unlike Mayor Giuliani has a friendly relationship with the secretary-general, fell short of criticizing Mr. Annan for his memorial gesture, saying, “Kofi Annan has to do what he thinks is right representing the United Nations.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MANHATTAN

FIRE VICTIMS IDENTIFIED IN FAMILY SHOOTOUT

Chou Chan, 43, escaped her Lower East Side apartment building Wednesday evening with only a cut to her forehead after her husband opened fire on their family and then set their apartment ablaze, killing himself and two others, police said.

As fire poured from the top floor windows of Masaryk Towers at the corner of Columbia and Rivington streets after an explosion had rocked apartment 21H, firefighters were unaware of the grisly murder scene that awaited them upstairs. Once they got into the burning apartment, firefighters recovered the body of Lun Bao Zheng, 44, and in another room, they found his stepson Jin Jie Ya, 18, and his niece Xao Ying Chan, 27.

The motive behind the murders still baffled police yesterday, though investigators indicated that there might have been a history of domestic violence in the family.

Police said around 8 p.m. Wednesday, Zheng and his wife had a loud argument that prompted several neighbors to call building security. Shortly afterward, Zheng opened fire on his family with a .22 caliber pistol and ran after them with a knife in hand.

Ms. Chan and her nephew, Cheng Da Chan, 27, managed to escape, but not unharmed. Ms. Chan suffered a slash to her forehead and a gunshot wound to her left side. Her nephew was stabbed in the back several times. Both were taken to Bellevue hospital where they were listed in stable condition yesterday.

– Special to the Sun

RAPPER LIL’ KIM CONVICTED OF PERJURY

Rap diva Lil’ Kim was convicted yesterday of lying to a federal grand jury to protect friends who were involved in a shootout outside a SoHo radio station.

Lil’ Kim was convicted of three counts of perjury and one of conspiracy, but acquitted of obstruction of justice. She is likely to be sentenced to several years in prison – a maximum of five years for each count – at her June 24 sentencing.

The former sidekick and mistress of the late Notorious B.I.G., known for her revealing outfits and raunchy raps, testified that she didn’t notice two close friends at the scene of the 2001 gun battle – her manager, Damion Butler, and Suif “Gutta” Jackson. Both men have since pleaded guilty to gun charges.

While many rappers have gone to prison, Lil’ Kim, 29, a Brooklyn native whose real name is Kimberly Jones, would be the first big-name female to do time.

Asked outside court whether she had any comment, Lil’ Kim, wearing a beige pantsuit and a pink jacket, shook her head and said no. “We love you,” a bystander shouted.

She later issued a statement saying she was “disappointed” in the verdict. She has an album scheduled for release later this year.

The shootout occurred outside WQHT, known as Hot 97, when Lil’ Kim’s entourage crossed paths with a rival rap group, Capone-N-Noreaga. Kim’s entourage confronted them about the song “Bang, Bang” from a Capone-N-Noreaga album, which contained a scathing insult to Lil’ Kim from her longtime rival, Foxy Brown. A shootout erupted, leaving one man injured and more than two dozen rounds fired.

– Associated Press

THE BRONX

EX-CON HELD IN BRONX CUT-UP MURDER

A recently released ex-convict was arrested yesterday in the grisly murder of a woman whose dismembered body was found in a Dumpster in the Bronx earlier this week, police said.

The suspect, Marvin Byer, 48, who served six years of a 10-year sentence in state prison for attempted murder and was released in 2003, had recently broken up with a woman whose identity was not released, police said.

Looking to get back together, Byer, who is on parole, according to prison records, had become enraged with the woman’s close friend, Eleanore Jackson, 53, who police said was trying to keep the two apart.

It is still unclear where, when, and how Byer allegedly killed the woman, police said. Jackson’s body parts – her upper torso cut at the shoulder, and her lower torso cut at the knees – were discovered inside two garbage bags found in a Dumpster outside a Bronx building on Monday. An autopsy conducted by the medical examiner revealed that Jackson had initially died from stab and puncture wounds to her neck. Byer had yet to be arraigned on the murder charges as of last night, and he had yet to have a lawyer appointed to represent him. If convicted, he stands to face a prison sentence of 25 years to life.

In 1996, then living on Staten Island, Byer pled guilty to attempted murder charges after breaking into an apartment of a woman living in his building, robbing her, and then stabbing her.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun