MANHATTAN

TRAIN DERAILS OUTSIDE PENN STATION; DELAYS BUT NO INJURIES

A train without passengers derailed early yesterday outside a tunnel leading to Pennsylvania Station, causing delays and service cancellations at the height of morning rush hour. One car of the six-car Long Island Rail Road train came off the tracks around 2:30 a.m. at one end of a rail yard on Manhattan’s West Side. The car did not tip over, but it was jackknifed across several tracks, blocking access to some trains parked in the yard,an LIRR spokesman,Sam Zambuto,said.The derailment caused scattered delays of up to 30 minutes on parts of the LIRR system. Service on some lines also was canceled while crews worked to move the train car.

— Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

MAN RELEASED AFTER WRONGFUL RAPE CONVICTION

A man who spent more than two decades in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a brutal rape was freed yesterday after being cleared by DNA evidence. Alan Newton stood quietly in Bronx Criminal Court as Judge John Byrne signed the order declaring him a free man. Earlier, his family whooped loudly as he arrived in the crowded courtroom.

— Associated Press

COURT: STATE CAN DENY DRIVER’S LICENSES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

A state appeals court ruled yesterday that New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles can require immigrants to prove they are in this country legally before they are allowed to have driver’s licenses.

— Associated Press

STATEWIDE

SPITZER CAMPAIGN WILL NOT COMMENT ON POSITION ON LIEBERMAN

Aides to the Democratic candidate for governor, Eliot Spitzer, refused to comment on whether the New York attorney general would support Senator Lieberman’s re-election campaign if Mr. Lieberman loses the Democratic primary in Connecticut and runs as an independent candidate instead. A spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer’s campaign, Christine Anderson, said there was no comment from the campaign about Mr. Spitzer’s position regarding Mr. Lieberman.

— Staff Reporter of the Sun

TRISTATE

FORMER TALIBAN AMBASSADOR DENIED YALE ADMISSION

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A former Taliban ambassador who sparked controversy by enrolling as a nontraditional student last year at Yale University was denied admission to a program that would have put him on track to receive a Yale degree, a supporter said. Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, who had been studying in a special program that does not award degrees, became the topic of debate after a New York Times Magazine story in February described his life at the Ivy League school.

— Associated Press

POLICE BLOTTER

DECOMPOSED BODY FOUND AT HOMELESS SHELTER

The badly decomposed body of a homeless woman was found inside a Bronx shelter Wednesday, police said. After responding to a 911 call reporting a foul odor at the Stebbins Avenue homeless shelter in Tremont, police found the body of the 47-year-old woman, which was tied up and placed inside a closet in the woman’s room. As of last night, police did not identify the woman, pending family notification.

— Special to the Sun

MAN POSING AS VETERINARIAN CHARGED WITH FRAUD

Charges against a man accused of operating on an animal without a veterinary license were upgraded yesterday after investigators learned he operated on more animals than they initially thought, prosecutors said. Steven Vassal was charged with treating 14 animals and performing numerous surgeries without a license or training, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office announced.He was arrested in February when he was caught attempting to treat a 9-month-old kitten employed by investigators. Initially,prosecutors believed he only treated one animal, but subsequent investigation indicated he worked on more than 12 in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

— Special to the Sun

EX-HAITIAN STRONGMAN ARRESTED IN MORTGAGE FRAUD CASE

An elusive former strongman from Haiti, Emmanuel Constant, 49 — accused in a federal lawsuit of sanctioning systematic rape to silence dissent — has been arrested in a mortgage fraud scheme on Long Island, authorities said yesterday.

— Associated Press