CITYWIDE

MAYOR DID NOT WANT WTC FOUNDATION HEAD TO RESIGN

Mayor Bloomberg advised the former head of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, Gretchen Dykstra, not to step down from her position in the days before her resignation last Friday, he said yesterday. “She had said to me that she felt that people were trying to push her out, and she was thinking about leaving, and my advice to her was, ‘Don’t,'” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters in Queens yesterday. Saying Ms. Dykstra was someone who “could have done the job,” the mayor said her departure wouldn’t solve any problems. Ms. Dykstra’s decision to resign after little more than a year on the job came amid new concerns over the memorial’s cost and design, as well as criticism that the foundation had not been fund-raising aggressively enough. The foundation’s general counsel, Joseph Daniels, was named acting president.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

SEARCHERS FIND TEENAGER’S BODY IN HUDSON RIVER

COHOES – Divers recovered the body of a 14-year-old boy who disappeared Sunday afternoon after jumping off a 60-foot ledge into the Hudson River, police said yesterday. The boy was with a group of seven young people who split off from a supervised trip to Peebles Island State Park. He was reported missing about 4 p.m. after he jumped in and did not surface. His body was recovered about 10:30 yesterday morning a few hundreds yards upstream from the ledge, about 10 miles north of Albany. Police would not identify the boy until they had notified his family. The teenager, who was from the Bronx and staying at a group home in Troy, was at a picnic at the park.

– Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

FATAL FIRE ON UPPER WEST SIDE

A 62-year-old Manhattan woman died Sunday after a fire broke out inside her apartment on the Upper West Side, police said. The blaze – which may have been started by a cigarette – began at about 10:15 p.m. inside the woman’s West 92nd Street apartment, police said. The woman, who was not identified, was brought to St. Luke’s Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said. Police do not suspect arson, and said fire marshals will determine the cause of the fire.

– Special to the Sun

BROOKLYN MAN SHOT AND KILLED

A Brooklyn man was shot twice in front of his home and the perpetrator fled, police said. Marlon Bagot, 21, was shot twice in front of Hampton Place in Crown Heights around 11:30 p.m. on Sunday. Police said Mr. Bagot’s father found him collapsed on the doorstep of their home after he managed to ring the doorbell. He was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

– Special to the Sun

WOMAN DIES, BABY INJURED IN FIRE

A Brooklyn woman died and a 1-year-old baby was injured yesterday as a result of a residential fire, police said. The blaze started around 5 p.m. inside a 10th-floor apartment in the Howard Houses on East New York Avenue, police said. A 61-year-old woman, who was not immediately identified, was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police reported. Police also said a 1-year-old girl was brought to Brookdale in critical condition.

– Special to the Sun

IN THE COURTS

FRANCE’S NATIONAL LIBRARY SUES BROOKLYN DEALER OVER MANUSCRIPT

France’s national library has filed suit against a Brooklyn artifact dealer, demanding the return of a centuries-old book that was stolen before he purchased it at a New York auction, a library official said. “The purpose of the lawsuit … is to maintain the integrity of our large and important collection of Hebrew books, manuscripts and other documents,” the library’s president, Jean-Noel Jeanneney, said in a statement. According to the suit, the French government obtained the 13th-century religious manuscript in 1668. It is unclear when it vanished from the National Library of France.

– Associated Press