NEW TOWN PARK A GIFT TO FUTURE GENERATIONS.(MAIN)

Byline: JOSEPH N. BASILE Colonie

Sure, it has miles of bike trails. Yes, it has running paths and picnic areas. We know it has its own lake, recreation building and gazebo for concerts. But its real value and true purpose, perhaps, may not be felt for 75 to 100 years, when Colonie is the center of a huge megalopolis (and I believe it will be just that) and the Crossings Park will be sitting like a brilliant green gem in the midst of a sea of cement buildings, bricks and blacktop. Then and only then will people appreciate the forward thinking and careful planning of that …

CHENEY WON'T RELEASE MEMO.(Main)

Byline: Chicago Tribune

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has refused to obey a congressional subpoena demanding a key document that explains why he allowed contractors two years to repay $1.3 billion for work they did not complete on a cancelled aircraft program.

The subpoenaed Feb. 4 memorandum from senior Pentagon officials to Cheney provided the analytical justification for allowing the contractors, McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics, up to two years to pay back money originally paid to them under a contract on the A-12 jet.

Congressional investigators said the document could provide embarrassing details about the actions that senior Pentagon …

French president shakes up Cabinet after vote loss

President Nicolas Sarkozy dismissed his labor minister and reshuffled several other Cabinet posts after leftists walloped his conservatives in France's regional elections _ a defeat that exposed his inability to convince the public on his economic reforms.

Labor Minister Xavier Darcos lost his job Monday after being soundly defeated in his election bid in the western Aquitaine region. Twenty of Sarkozy's Cabinet members ran for regional posts, and all lost. Budget Minister Eric Woerth was to step in for Darcos on Tuesday.

The election blowout Sunday could hand a new opening to Sarkozy's potential presidential rivals _ from IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn …

France Tries Experiment: Free Museums

PARIS - A number of French museums will temporarily stop charging entrance fees as an experiment: If museums are free, will they draw a wider, more varied audience?

Starting Jan. 1, 14 French museums and monuments will open to visitors free of charge for six months, Culture Minister Christine Albanel said Tuesday.

Three of the museums are in Paris - Guimet, home to Asian art; Cluny, which features medieval treasures; and Arts et Metiers, dedicated to scientific inventions. Their full-price tickets range from around $9 to $11.

President Nicolas Sarkozy campaigned for free museums before his May election, and France's culture world has since debated the idea, with …

Miramax.(Brief Article)

KID CLASSIC Miramax has optioned The Cricket in Times Square, along with six sequels, based on George Selden's children's book series about a cricket who lives in a subway-station newsstand. No decision has been made yet on what form the feature will take, but …

BioAlliance Pharma SA, of Paris, announced that Loramyc was launched simultaneously on the British, German and Danish markets.(Other News To Note)

BioAlliance Pharma SA, of Paris, announced that Loramyc was launched simultaneously on the British, German and Danish markets. Loramyc is its 50-mg, once-a-day topical formulation of miconazole for oropharyngeal candidiasis in immunodepressed patients. It was launched in France last September, and BioAlliance said "prescriptions in France were 35 percent up at the end of March, relative to the end of December 2007, and June's rate was 60 percent above the …

THERE ARE SOME SERIOUS FLAWS IN THE FOREVER PLAN.(MAIN)

Byline: JESSICA MATHEWS

For more than 40 years, this country has single-mindedly pursued a nuclear waste disposal plan that is not going to work. In all that time, only one person in a position to change it has perceived its inescapable flaw.

The plan is to dispose of nuclear wastes once and forever in a deep hole in the ground. A repository would be built, filled and sealed.

This difficult, new technology must work perfectly the first time, protecting the wastes for 10,000 years.

There can be no pilot project, no improving of the technology, no learning curve; yet there must be public confidence that it will work.

It was former defense and energy secretary James Schlesinger who saw that this strategy violates every principle of sound engineering and also may be a political contradiction in …