Fallon’s new hours

NBC execs may finally be ready to send Jay Leno on his last Jaywalk.

The network plans to replace him on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Hollywood Reporter says, citing “high-level industry sources.”

Fallon will move into the 11:30 p.m. slot next year, after Leno’s contract expires, the Reporter says. NBC brass reportedly believe Fallon is better positioned to draw younger TV viewers sought by advertisers.

Insiders say Fallon is better suited to compete against ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, who in January called Leno a “sellout” whose comedy is unfunny. The network denied Leno’s departure.

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Shel biz as usual

ALBANY — Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver yesterday defended his decision to be featured as the “honored guest” at a fund-raiser for the chairman of a legislative ethics panel reviewing Silver’s hush settlement of Vito Lopez’s alleged sexual harassment of young staffers.

“The speaker, as leader of the Democratic conference, routinely allows members to use his name for fund-raising purposes,” his spokesman, Michael Whyland, told The Post.

The fund-raiser next week is for Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D-LI), who notes on the invite that he chairs the Assembly Ethics Committee, one of two legislative committees weighing possible sanctions against Lopez and Silver.

NY Post: Chad Rachman

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver

The same committee must also decide whether to release a report by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, the state’s ethics watchdog, on the case.

Staten Island DA Dan Donovan, the appointed special prosecutor for the case, has asked the committees not to release JCOPE’s report until his team concludes its criminal investigations.

Silver approved a $103,800 “confidential” Assembly payment to settle harassment claims that two female staffers had brought against Lopez.

Silver later stripped Lopez of his leadership duties and called for him to resign after a separate ethics probe concluded that Lopez groped and abused two other female staffers.

Government-watchdog groups say the timing of the fund-raiser is suspect and gives the appearance that Lavine, rather than being an independent monitor, is beholden to Silver.

“The fact that it’s just business as usual is not the standard we want applied,” said Susan Lerner of Common Cause New York. “There is a pervasive culture in Albany that upsets most New Yorkers, that their elected representatives don’t see this as a problem.”

Lerner said her group is closely watching the Lopez case to see if the creation of JCOPE was an adequate measure for enforcing government ethics.

“We have concern that it’s not sufficiently removed from [Silver’s] appointed control,” she said.

Silver’s spokesman insisted the fund-raising has nothing to do with the investigation.

“We’re confident that the commission has found no legal or ethical violation by Speaker Silver or his staff,” Whyland said.

Silver said he hadn’t seen the report. By law, it would have been released to him had he been the target of the investigation, sources told The Post.

bdefalco@nypost.com

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Suit over ‘Office Face’

The actor who played an obnoxious waiter in the workplace comedy “Office Space” has sued the makers of “The Office Space Box of Flair” for using his image.

Todd Duffey, who was Jennifer Aniston’s peppy co-worker in the movie, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court yesterday that claims the publishing company Perseus used his picture to sell novelty pins without permission.

“They’re using his flair to sell their flair,” said Duffey’s lawyer, Randall Newman.

In the ’90s cult favorite, Duffey’s character Brian wears various pins and ephemera he refers to as “flair.”

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Qns. mall jumper

A man stunned shoppers yesterday when he leaped to his death at a Queens mall, authorities said.

The 28-year-old man jumped at about 12:35 p.m., in an apparent suicide, from the third floor to the sub-level near Macy’s of the Queens Center mall in Elmhurst, cops said. He died at Elmhurst Hospital.

A kiosk worker told The Post that the man jumped after losing his job at the mall, but a Queens Center spokeswoman would not comment on whether he was employed there.

A witness said he was dressed in black, possibly in a uniform, and had been listening to headphones.

“It sounded like a tire popping, or a gun shot. Then we saw people running out,” said Connie Poonai, 45, the manager at Natural Looks Salon and Spa. “Everyone down here was running around, freaking out, screaming. It’s very upsetting, we’re all shaking.”

mabrahams@nypost.com

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Horror as hot air balloon catches fire in Egypt, killing 19 foreigners

LUXOR, Egypt — A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 19 foreign tourists, a security official said.

It was one of the worst crashes involving tourists in the country already struggling with a decimated tourism industry, two years after the 2011 uprising that ousted former leader Hosni Mubarak.

According to an Egyptian security official, the balloon carrying 21 tourists caught fire, which triggered an explosion in its gas canister, then plunged at least 300 meters (1,000 feet) from the sky. It crashed into a sugar cane field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of the city of Luxor, 510 kilometers (320 miles) south of Cairo, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The casualties included French, British, Chinese and Japanese nationals, the official said. Two survivors of the crash were taken to a local hospital with critical injuries.

Bodies of the slain tourists were scattered across the field around the remnants of the balloon. An Associated Press reporter at the crash site counted eight bodies as they were put into body bags and taken away.

Hot air ballooning, usually at sunrise over the Karnak and Luxor temples as well as the Valley of the Kings, is a popular pastime for tourists visiting Luxor.

Tourism is one of Egypt's economic pillars and main revenue of foreign currency.

The site of the accident has seen accidents in the past. In 2009, 16 tourists were injured when their balloon stuck a cellphone transmission. A year earlier, seven tourists were injured in a similar crash.

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NYPD Daily Blotter

Manhattan

***

A burglar was busted as he brazenly tried to saw his way into an East Village bar after closing time, authorities said.

Michael Baxter, 53, was dressed as a construction worker as he lay on the ground outside the Bowery Bar at 2:10 a.m. Feb. 5 and tried to saw through the front door’s lock, court papers state.

Cops spotted him, and he was charged with attempted burglary and possession of burglar tools.

Brooklyn

***

A hallway argument loud enough to get neighbors’ attention ended with a 37-year-old man shot dead in his Brownsville building yesterday afternoon, cops said.

The victim’s wife called 911 in a panic after he was shot four times outside their Lott Avenue home, police said.

He was declared dead on arrival at Brookdale Hospital.

There had been no arrest as of last night.

***

Two men spitefully cut off the power to a Carroll Gardens gas station after a clerk refused to let them into an adjacent convenience store, authorities said.

Christopher Edwards, 26, and an unidentified accomplice sought to open the door to the shop on Hamilton Avenue at 2:10 a.m. Feb. 12, but the cashier continued to conduct business through a window, court documents state.

They pounded on the door but were again refused entrance, so they walked over to the outdoor fuse box, broke its glass and cut the power, the papers say.

Edwards was charged with criminal mischief and criminal tampering, police said.

His accomplice was still at large last night.

***

A serial burglar with a soft spot for coin laundries was caught on surveillance video in Canarsie and later arrested, court documents state.

Tristan Murray, 20, took $250 from a change machine in a closed Laundromat on Flatlands Avenue near East 81st Street after prying open a window at 3:50 a.m. on New Year’s Day, the papers claim.

He returned the next day and did the same thing, walking away with chunks of change, the records say, then victimized another laundry about a block away.

He was charged with burglary, grand larceny, criminal mischief, petit larceny and trespass, authorities said.

Staten Island

***

Put down that curling iron!

A steaming-mad Jennine Stuto, 35, threatened a 50-year-old co-worker during a hot dispute at the Cris-Thomas Hair Salon, on Johnson Street near Arthur Kill Road, at about 10 a.m. Feb. 16, according to court papers.

The co-worker, who was was not identified, was not injured, police said.

Stuto was taken into custody and charged with menacing, the documents reveal.

***

A 19-year-old suspect is under arrest in connection with the stickup of a 15-year-old boy last week in Port Richmond, authorities said.

Tyrone McNeil allegedly snarled, “Gimme everything you got!” as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handgun on Hylan Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue at about 11 a.m. Thursday.

He snatched the younger teen’s iPhone and wallet but soon found himself in handcuffs and charged with three counts of robbery, according to court documents.

***

A man who admitted he was high on drugs ransacked a Port Richmond apartment, according to authorities.

Terrance Overton, 43, allegedly broke into the home on Taylor and Paris courts at about 5:30 p.m. Feb. 18 and hid in the bedroom closet — later giving the tenant the scare of his life when he opened the closet door.

Overton initially terrified the man and went room to room in a search for valuables, court documents say.

But the brave tenant got a hold of his nerves, then got a hold of Overton and held him for the police, the papers state.

“I was drinking and running,” Overton explained to the responding officers. “I was smoking PCP earlier in the day.”

He was charged with burglary, police said.

***

A Randall Manor man allegedly claimed unemployment benefits while working, authorities said.

David Matthias, 59, collected more than $3,000 worth of benefits while claiming to be unemployed from May 11, 2009 to Sept. 27, 2009, court documents state.

He was busted Thursday on charges of grand larceny and falsifying business records, sources said.

Queens

***

A man was in critical condition after being shot in the neck yesterday in Jackson Heights, cops said.

He was wounded in an 80th Street building near Northern Boulevard at about 7 a.m. and was at Elmhurst Hospital last night, police said.

A suspect was questioned but had not been charged as of last night, cops said, adding that the motive was not immediately clear.

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Oscar Pistorius's brother Carl faces homicide charges in 2010 car crash: report

Getty Images

Carl Pistorius, older brother of tarnished athlete Oscar, faces homicide charges in a 2010 car crash, according to reports.

Oscar Pistorius’s older brother Carl also faces homicide charges in South Africa over a 2010 car crash, it was reported today.

Carl Pistorius allegedly struck and killed a female biker in the daytime crash, his lawyer told eNCA news, a South African TV channel.

Prosecutors accused Carl Pistorius of driving recklessly in the accident.

But his lawyer, Kenneth Oldwage, denies the charges and told the TV channel that Carl Pistorius was not drunk.

Oldwage says the woman died because she drove into Carl Pistorius’s car.

Carl Pistorius is charged with culpable homicide, a lesser charge than the premeditated murder case against his brother.

The charge carries a possible 15-year prison term.

Carl’s trial was supposed to begin on Thursday, the same day his Olympian brother was freed on bail.

But the case was postponed until next month.

Word of another Pistorius homicide case shocked South Africa.

“Looks like Carl & Oscar will keep each company in jail,” tweeted Johannesburg resident Rebecca Chiedza Goba.

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NBC v. ESPN for Big East

Espn has matched NBC’s offer to buy the Big East Conference’s television rights for about $20 million per year over a period of six years, according to media reports.

The Big East, a college athletic conference encompassing universities in the eastern half of the country, was working on a deal with NBC that would have put most of its football and men’s basketball games on NBC Sports Network.

According to Sports Business Journal and ESPN.com, the deal also gave NBC the right to sublicense games, allowing them to be aired by other networks.

ESPN had the right to match the deal by Thursday.

Sports Business Journal and ESPN.com, citing unidentified sources, reported that ESPN had matched but all of the details were still being worked out.

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All ‘hail’ the Oscar winners

And the Oscar goes to “Lincoln” . . . at least according to city taxi riders.

The historical drama won Best Picture in a monthlong survey of New York City taxi riders, officials said yesterday.

“Lincoln” — heavily favored for Sunday night’s Oscars — scored 25 percent of the votes for Best Picture.

The other winners were:

* Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis (inset top right), “Lincoln,” 43 percent.

* Best Actress: Jessica Chastain (pictured), “Zero Dark Thirty,” 33 percent.

* Best Director: Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln,” 42 percent.

* Best Animated Feature Film: “Brave” (inset below), 35 percent.

Tony DiMaio/startraksphoto.com

Jessica Chastain

This is the first year the Taxi and Limousine Commission has asked riders to weigh in with their picks for the Oscars.

Commissioner David Yassky said it was done to engage passengers during rides.

“There are few things that New York City loves more than its movies and its taxicabs,” he said.“People really enjoyed the combination of the two in this survey.”

Yassky, a known movie buff, said he agrees with the survey’s winners.

“The customer is always right!” he tweeted after the results were announced.

Almost 100,000 taxi riders took part in the survey, which popped up on TV screens in the backs of yellow cabs.

That’s far more than the nearly 6,000 people who vote for the real winners.

However, not all of the taxi-survey respondents answered every question. For Best Picture, 27,681 people voted.

jennifer.fermino@nypost.com

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5 dead after small jet crashes in Georgia

AP

Ambulances gather in Thomson, Ga., near the scene of a Wednesday plane crash that killed five people.

THOMSON, Ga. — Five people were killed and two injured when a small jet crashed off the end of a runway in eastern Georgia, an official confirmed early Thursday.

Thomson-McDuffie County Sheriff Logan Marshall said the jet crashed after 8 p.m. Wednesday. He said the two survivors were taken to area hospitals but did not have information on their conditions. He said the identities of those killed were being withheld pending notification of family members.

The Hawker Beechcraft 390/Premier I en route from Nashville, Tenn., crashed around 8:30 p.m. at the Thomson-McDuffie County Airport, about 30 miles west of Augusta, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said in an email.

Seven people were aboard, she told The Associated Press in the email. She added that she had no immediate details about a possible cause.

The Augusta Chronicle cited Assistant County Fire Chief Stephen Sewell as saying there were at least two survivors identified as a pilot and a passenger. But he provided no additional information about those aboard in that account.

The newspaper said a brush fire flared near the crash scene, quoting witnesses who reported local power outages that prompted a utility to send workers to the site. A photograph posted on the newspaper's online site showed ambulances with lights flashing.

The plane was on a flight from John Tune Airport in Nashville, Tenn., to the Thomson-McDuffie airport, Bergen said in her email, adding the aircraft is registered to a company based in Wilmington, Del.

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A ‘climb time’ act at Coney

Thrill seekers rejoice — there’s real “action” heading to Coney Island this summer.

A 50-foot rock-climbing wall, a skydiving simulator and a rope-climbing obstacle course are among the features at a new adrenaline-laden fun zone called “Big Mark’s Action Park” set to open in Coney Island on Memorial Day weekend.

“This park is geared for today’s active lifestyle, so it won’t have the type of traditional rides that would go head-to-head with our neighbors,” said operator Mark Zientek, who owns an amusement rental company in New Jersey.

The park is slated for a one-acre tract on Stillwell Avenue near the boardwalk that was previously used by Cha Cha’s Steeplechase Fun Park, which was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy last October and shuttered after one season.

A spokesman for the site’s landlord Thor Equities said, “We don’t have a lease signed with anyone at this point and are reviewing our options.”

But Zientek said, “Closing the deal is a formality” that will be completed once he makes a March payment.

Although the park will serve a healthy menu, it will also serve booze.

Zientek said he’s turning an abandoned ride called the Mega Whirl that was damaged during Sandy into an elevated bar.

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NYPD sarge cuffed in child-porn case

An NYPD sergeant was arrested yesterday for watching child pornography online, cops said.

Alberto Randazzo, 36, of Queens, was charged with use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting sexual performance by a child and possessing a sexual performance by a child.

Cops wouldn’t say if the arrest came after an ongoing probe.

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Gramps ‘killed’ granny

A churchgoing Guyanese grandmother was allegedly slaughtered in Brooklyn yesterday by her husband — who nearly sliced her head off before the horrified eyes of their 4-year-old grandson, sources said.

Hazel Robinson, 51, was butchered shortly before noon in her family’s Canarsie home by her husband, Ian, who allegedly stabbed her in the neck with a kitchen knife so many time he was left covered in blood, police sources said.

The whole grisly scene unfolded right in front of the couple’s grandson, according to the distraught brother of the victim.

“He witnessed everything,” Arthur Laing, 60, said about the grandson. “He did it in front of him. It was gruesome.”

Benny J. Stumbo

Hazel Robinson

The grandmother was found partially decapitated and lying on her bedroom floor at her 102nd Street home.

Ian Robinson, 58, was promptly taken into custody, the sources said. The JFK Airport worker was later charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon.

Family said that, before yesterday’s attack, the couple had seemed close.

They had been married for 12 years. Kin said they never saw anything to predict such violence and cops had no record of previous calls for assistance to their home.

“She was a very hard-working person, very charitable,” Laing said of his sister. “She took care of her family.”

Hazel was one of eight siblings who immigrated to the United States from Guyana years ago, kin said.

She spent 10 years working at a Salvation Army center in The Bronx and was very active at the Christian Cultural Center in East New York, her family said.

“She was a very quiet person, into her church. She loved the Lord,” said cousin stunned Claire Hodge, 65. “It was shocking when we got the news.”

Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Kenneth Gargerand Natasha Velez

reuven.fenton@nypost.com

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Weird but true

This Bud’s for me.

A Colorado brewery worker was nabbed for allegedly stealing 570 rare and expensive beers from his employers at Avery Brewing Company, police said.

Adam James Dickinson, 26, worked at the Boulder business for a few months last year, and is accused of stealing beers worth $200 to $300, including brands like Duck Duck Gooze, Rogue Old Crustacean, and a case of Isabelle Proximus.

***

Maybe there’s something in the water.

For the third time in six months, Seattle police have caught a naked man swimming in the city’s Green Lake.

The latest incident involved guy clinging to a dock after he threatened to harm himself.

In November, a man yelled he wanted to drown himself before shedding his clothes and taking the plunge.

In September, a guy wanted on an assault charge escaped capture by swimming in the lake for hours — in the nude, of course.

***

It’s like the yule log, on steroids.

A public-television station in Norway is scheduling 12 hours of programming that will feature nothing but a burning fireplace.

But the telecast will include color commentary from firewood specialists, along with “expert advice” tv producers said.

“We’ll talk about the very nerdy subjects like burning, slicing and stacking the wood, but we’ll also have cultural segments with music and poems,” producer Rune Moeklebust said.

***

These boobs are bummed out.

Two sisters in England who wanted to look like Jennifer Lopez so much that they badgered their mother into spending $30,000 on plastic surgery now regret the work they’ve had done.

Karen, 20, and Jennifer Lopez (yes, she does have J.Lo’s name), 23, had their breasts and buttocks enhanced in their teens, but now say their curves are a curse.

“Men beep their horns and whistle at me, even come up and touch my bum,” Jennifer said.

***

Think you’ve been smoking too long to give it up? Meet Briton Clara Cowell, who finally quit the habit at age 102.

Cowell, who had been lighting up for more than 80 years, gave up cigarettes at the urging of her family.

But a dissident daughter claims smoking and a daily shot of whisky are what keep Cowell going.

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‘Blade Gunner’ tear gusher as he’s hit with gal-pal slay rap

“Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius bawled his eyes out yesterday in a South Africa courtroom, where he appeared on murder charges for allegedly gunning down his terrified gal pal through a locked bathroom door.

Pistorius, 26, “repeatedly and intentionally” shot cover-girl model Reeva Steenkamp, 29, as she cowered in fear from the Olympic star, according to Great Britain’s Independent newspaper.

“The door had bullet holes right through it,” said a neighbor, who noted that security guards found the athlete alongside the slain beauty in his bathroom at around 4 a.m. Thursday.

Photos: EPA

SUPPORTERS: Oscar Pistorius’ father, Henke (left), talks with daughter Aimee yesterday in court, where a photo of the gun that the Olympian allegedly used to kill his gal pal was shown.

OSCAR PISTORIUS


Cries in court yesterday.

The gun-loving Pistorius cried throughout his first court appearance yesterday. The tears started in his holding cell and continued as he was brought before a judge.

“Take it easy,” Chief Magistrate Desmond Nasir told Pistorius, who faces life in prison as prosecutors plan to argue premeditated murder in the death of Steenkamp, a law-school grad he’d been dating a few months.

His bail hearing was delayed until Tuesday at the request of his lawyers, who will argue the shooting was the result of mistaken identity, the double-amputee runner’s friends told the Independent.

The legless track star, who runs using carbon-fiber blades, will spend the long weekend at a handicapped-friendly lockup instead of the dangerously cramped Pretoria jail known as New Lock.

“[He] will be treated the same as all the other detainees in our holding cells,” the station commander said. “We will accommodate his disability, but he will eat the same food and be put in the same cells as the rest of the detainees.”

Pistorius’ relatives and defense team visited him in jail yesterday and brought him a pillow.

In a statement, the family said, “The alleged murder is disputed in the strongest terms. He has made it very clear that he would like to send his deepest sympathies to the family of Reeva. He would also like to express his thanks through us today for all the messages of support he has received — but, as stated, our thoughts and prayers today should be for Reeva and her family — regardless of the circumstances of this terrible, terrible tragedy.”

Pistorius’ lawyer, Barry Roux, said, “There are some facts that we need to present to court that have not been made public yet.”

An autopsy was performed on Steenkamp, but cops said results would not be released.

Pistorius was a well-known gun lover who kept an arsenal in his house — as well as a cricket club and baseball bat — and bragged on Twitter about his shooting prowess.

He comes across as paranoid in his online posts, including one last November that said he got into “combat recon mode” when he heard a noise that turned out to be a washing machine.

Pistorius was particularly on edge in recent weeks, a close friend told The Post.

“He was paranoid the last few weeks. He was threatened,” said the pal, who would not explain further.

The runner has a history of violence and was once arrested for slamming a door on a woman, though the charges were dropped. He also allegedly threatened to break the legs of a man he accused of sleeping with a former girlfriend.

There were previous incidents of “a domestic nature” at Pistorius’ house, said Police Brig. Denise Beukes.

Neighbors had reported “screaming and fighting” at the house in Pretoria just before the shooting.

Pistorius’ arrest could completely derail the rising track star’s career.

He won three Paralympic medals and reached the 400-meter semifinals in last summer’s London Games when he became the first double-leg amputee to compete in the Olympics.

He earned between $5 million and $6 million a year from endorsements and appearances, including for Nike.

His sponsors have not said if they are dropping him.

“Given the ongoing legal proceedings, it would be inappropriate for us to give any further comment at present. Our thoughts are with all those affected,” a spokesperson for British Telecom said.

Nike South Africa spokeswoman Seruscka Naidoo said, “At this moment, it’s a matter that’s being investigated. We’re not speaking about the sponsorship.”

With

dan.macleod@nypost.com

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WATCH: 400 injured after meteorite streaks across the sky in Russia

AFP/Getty Images

The trail of a falling object is seen above a residential apartment complex in Russia Friday.

MOSCOW — A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring more than 400 people, including many hurt by broken glass.

Fragments of the meteor fell in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region, the Emergency Ministry said in a statement.

Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said hundreds of people called for medical assistance following the incident, and at least three had been hospitalized in serious condition. Many of the injuries were from glass broken by the explosions.

Kolsenikov also said about 6,000 square feet of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed.

Amateur video posted on YouTube showed an object speeding across the sky, leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

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South African track star Oscar Pistorius questioned in girlfriend's shooting death: reports

REUTERS

South Africa's Oscar Pistorius was one of the most inspirational athletes in the 2012 London Olympics.

South African track star Oscar Pistorius — who became an Olympic legend by becoming the first person to race on prosthetic legs — was being questioned today by South African police for allegedly shooting his girlfriend dead at his home in Pretoria, according to reports.

Pistorius apparently shot his girlfriend in the head and arm, although the circumstances surrounding the incident were unclear, Johannesburg’s Talk Radio 702 reported. He may have mistaken her for a burglar.

Lt. Col. Katlego Mogale says the woman died at the home.

Officers found a 9-mm pistol at the scene and took the 26-year-old Pistorius into custody. He is expected to appear in court later Thursday.

Pistorius, who races wearing carbon fiber prosthetic blades after he was born without a fibula in both legs, was the first double amputee to run in the Olympics and reached the semifinals of the 400 meters in the 2012 London Games.

Known by the nickname “Blade Runner,” Pistorius was one of the most heart-warming stories of the London Olympics.

South Africa's Sports Confederation and Olympic committee released a statement saying they had been "inundated" with requests for comment, but were not in a position to give out any details of the shooting.

"SASCOC, like the rest of the public, knows no more than what is in the public domain, which is there has been an alleged fatal shooting on the basis of a mistaken identity and an apparent assumption of a burglary," the South African Olympic committee said. "The organization is in no position to comment on the incident other than to say our deepest sympathy and condolences have been expressed to the families of all concerned."

SACOC said it would be inappropriate to comment because of the ongoing police investigation.

South Africa has some of the world’s highest rates of violent crime and some home-owners carry weapons to defend themselves against intruders.

With AP and Reuters

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Welcome to fantasy world of gov’t as cure-all

John Podhoretz

Last night, Barack Obama told Congress that “The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem.”

They might not expect it, but don’t worry, he’s got a plan for every problem — and in every case, the solution is more government.

Kids aren’t learning? Try universal preschool, because study after study shows it works — except for the study after study that shows its gains are fleeting.

Manufacturing in trouble? It will be renewed through 15 government-funded “hubs.”

Say, do you keep your lights on when you should turn them off? He’s got a solution: “I’m also issuing a new goal for America: Let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next 20 years.”

Infrastructure? “I propose a ‘Fix-It-First’ program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs, like the nearly 70,000 structurally deficient bridges across the country.”

OK, if that sounds a little too much like the New Deal to you, don’t worry — the president will “make sure taxpayers don’t shoulder the whole burden.”

How? Simple: “I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children.”

And speaking of schools worthy of our children, the federal government is apparently going to get into the architecture business, too: “I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers.”

Innovation is what we need, and while history suggests the most profound innovations come from the profit motive, the president thinks the incubator of innovation is the federal government: “Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race.”

You might think manufacturing hubs and a Partnership to Rebuild America and a Fix-It- First program are kind of a lot to do, but wait, there’s more: “I propose we use some of our oil and gas revenues to fund an Energy Security Trust that will drive new research and technology to shift our cars and trucks off oil for good.”

So we’ve got hubs and a partnership and a program and a trust — a trust that “use[s] some of our oil and gas revenues.” Which is a way of saying “tax increase” without saying tax increase.

The president, as ever, loves euphemisms for tax hikes —wealthy seniors “should pay a little more,” and there should be a “balanced approach,” and we should “close loopholes,” and the like.

He also loves to speak rather loosely about the cost of his programs. Four years ago, he said his health-care plan to provide insurance to 30 million people would not add “a dime” to the deficit — a claim that did great harm to his effort to win people over to his side.

Last night, in the course of this liberal fantasy of a State of the Union straight out of “The West Wing,” the president went back to his old decimal-coinage bit by asserting that “nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime.”

He’s either lying through his teeth or believes every word of it. Hard to say which would be worse. Too bad he didn’t propose a Hub on Dimes and Deficits last night to figure it out.

jpodhoretz@gmail.com

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Cops pop gun-toting teen after rooftop firefight

Cops shot an armed teenager and apprehended another man after a gunfight erupted on a Brooklyn rooftop last night, sources said.

Police said a 16-year-old male opened fire on a Brownsville rooftop at 10:13 last night. When the officers returned fire they shot him three times.

The teenager was shot once in each arm and once in the leg.

“They were just shooting blanks,” said Hennesy Mark. “They were just shooting up in the air. It’s like a cap gun.”

Cops said the gun, which was retrieved at the scene, was real. Two men were arrested.

“They took a Spanish kid out on a stretcher,” said Tina Brown, 30. “ He was alive, but he didn’t look happy.”

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Bloomy the pill pusher

Andrea Peyser

They’ve gone too far.

City schools routinely provide mandatory lessons in deviant sex to 11-year-olds. But kids can forget about wrapping their little fingers on a fattening, contraband brownie.

Now schools are tinkering with young girls’ bodies at an alarming rate.

With the stealth of a school of sharks, your local education palaces have been promiscuously handing out powerful contraceptives to girls in the early throes of puberty.

We reported in September that members of the Bloomberg administration lie awake at night, worried that girls, especially minority girls, are getting knocked up. (The rate of teen pregnancy in the city has dropped more than 25 percent in a decade.)

So officials took it upon themselves to nip female breeding in the bud, handing out doses of so-called Plan B — the morning-after pill — to young ladies too young to understand what they’re doing to their bodies.

Getting Plan B requires no parental consent.

One mom told me this social tinkering amounted to “child abuse.” Yet as it turns out, The Post’s Susan Edelman reported, the anti-pregnancy scheme is bigger, riskier, more intrusive and secretive than previously known.

Officials don’t want you to know this about Plan B, which can block a pregnancy up to 72 hours after sex:

Some 12,721 (!) doses of the drug were dispensed during the 2011-12 school year by Health Department doctors and school nurses. That number grew like a baby bump from the previous year, when 10,720 girls swallowed Plan B. It gets worse.

Between January 2009 and last school year, an unimaginable 22,400 students waltzed into 40 health centers, mostly in poor neighborhoods, to stock up on birth-control pills, intrauterine devices and tablets that knock out pregnancies before it’s too late.

These incredible numbers are many times higher than educrats admitted. Last fall, officials said a mere 567 girls received Plan B, which they claimed was available in 13 schools.

Hogwash.

Educrats now refuse to discuss the drug.

“This is an outrageous infringement on the rights of parents to care for their children,’’ said Lisa Schiffren, senior fellow at the Independent Women’s forum, and mom of three girls.

“At worst, it allows for sexual abuse of young girls, with no consequence to the males involved. We live in a culture that sexualizes girls ridiculously early, which is a boon to boys, but wreaks havoc with their ability to plan their lives and exert control.”

As a mother, I resent the intrusion.

My worry is that by removing potential consequences from rampant premarital sex, schools will serve to increase it, not to mention the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

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