Briefly . . . NATION/WORLD

Costly college loans will hurt kids & the economy for years

The near doubling in the cost of a college degree the past decade has produced an explosion in high-priced student loans that could haunt the U.S. economy for years.

While scholarships, grant money and government-backed student loans - whose interest rates are capped - have taken up some of the slack, many families and individual students have turned to private loans, which carry fees and interest rates up to 20 percent.

Many in the next generation of workers will be so debt-burdened they will have to delay home purchases, limit vacations, even eat out less to pay loans off on time.

"This is literally a new form of indenture . . . something that every American parent should be scared of," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

More than $17 billion in private student loans was issued last year, up from $4 billion a year in 2001. Outstanding student borrowing jumped from $38 billion in 1995 to $85 billion last year, according to experts and lawmakers.

'Wonderful' woman chokes

to death in airport lockup

NEW YORK - A traveler who may have accidentally choked herself to death while handcuffed in an airport holding cell was a "wonderful" woman and mother, according to New York City's public advocate, who is her relative.

Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, was arrested Friday at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix after she became irate when gate crews refused to let her board a flight for which she was late, officials said.

"She was a wonderful mother; she was sweet and kind and loving," said public advocate Betsy Gotbaum, the woman's stepmother-in-law. "It's obviously very, very difficult for us; we are dealing with it as best we can. My No. 1 focus is those children and my stepson."

It appears Gotbaum may have tried to get out of her handcuffs, which ended up around her neck, Hill said.

Man with kid-porn tape held;

3-year-old's attacker sought

LAS VEGAS - A man accused of holding and showing off a tape depicting the sexual assault of a 3-year-old girl was taken into custody yesterday on a probation violation, authorities said.

Prosecutors are set to formally charge Darren Tuck, 26, with possession of child pornography and possibly promoting child pornography.

Tuck has told authorities he found the tape in the desert, but authorities said he possessed it for as long as five months before turning it in. He was arrested earlier this month in the case and released without bail pending a court appearance.

The girl in the tape was located after authorities on Friday released information they would not normally disclose, including a picture, DeMeo said. The media attention led someone to call the girl's mother, who contacted police but did not know about the assault, authorities said.

Authorities are still searching for Chester "Chet" Arthur Stiles, 34, suspected of sexually abusing the girl.

What's O.J. memorabilia

worth? Not much, it seems

LAS VEGAS - Kathleen McCarthy of Maple Springs, N.Y., thought it might be time to make some money off an autographed book about the football Hall of Famer that her father had found years ago.

Yet more than a week has passed since she posted the 33-year-old paperback biography on eBay with a minimum charge of $150, and nobody has bid on it.

McCarthy believed the timing was right to unload the book because Simpson has been accused of bursting into a Las Vegas hotel room to reclaim what he said was memorabilia stolen from him. "I figured there must be a market for his stuff if they say he's stealing it," McCarthy said. "But maybe not."

One of the most intriguing twists in Simpson's most recent brush with the law is that the items police say he went to retrieve actually are of little interest to most legitimate sports memorabilia collectors.

The police report states that Simpson's group left with boxes and pillowcases stuffed with $100,000 in merchandise, but much of that value came from items unrelated to Simpson, including signed lithographs of Joe Montana, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback.

Hubby begged cops to search for wife trapped 8 days in SUV

SEATTLE - A woman who spent more than a week trapped in the wreckage of her vehicle has been upgraded to serious condition.

Tanya Rider, 33, was admitted in critical condition Thursday with kidney failure and other injuries after her mangled SUV was found in a ravine off a highway in suburban Seattle.

She remained in intensive care yesterday, said Susan Gregg-Hanson of Harborview Medical Center.

Rider's kidneys failed because of toxins from a muscle injury and dehydration. Doctors say her brain function is normal. She also broke her collar bone and dislocated her shoulder and has pressure sores from being held by the seat belt, probably upside down.

Her husband, Tom Rider, has expressed outrage that he had to fight to get authorities to launch a search. He said he was told at first that his wife couldn't be categorized as a missing person because she wasn't a minor, suicidal or mentally ill. *

- Daily News wire services