ACROSS THE BOARD : THE WEEK AHEAD.(BUSINESS)

MONDAY: Memorial Day, U.S. financial markets, government offices and most businesses are closed.

TUESDAY: Commerce Department reports on construction spending for April.

Treasury bill auction.

The Conference Board releases Leading Economic Indicators for April.

Phoenix, Ariz., hearing on bankruptcy for trucking firm owned by Jerry McMorris, co-owner of Colorado Rockies.

VentureNet99 in Los Angeles. Technology venture capitalists meet with executives from software and Internet companies.

WEDNESDAY: Commerce Department reports on new home sales for April.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan speaks on ``Trade and Technology'' at the World Trade Center in Boston.

BIZ BYTES

DOWN IN FRONT: Pirated copies of the ``Star Wars'' prequel - with washed out desert scenes and noise from a theater's audience - have hit stores in Asia, after the film opened in the United States and before its Asia debut. Pirated video CDs of ``Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace'' are widely available in shopping malls in Hong Kong for between $3 and $4, a fraction of the cost of movie tickets. In Beijing, street vendors were sold out. All copies sold in Hong Kong appeared to be from the same source: a home video recorded in a U.S. movie theater. ``It is a very bad copy. You can see the back of people's heads moving and hear them talking and shouting,'' said Sam Ho, the director of the Motion Pictures Association's Hong Kong and Macau anti-piracy operation unit.

- Associated Press

SITE OF THE WEEK

COMPUTER VIRUSES: With summer around the corner, many people are considering trips abroad. But few consider the maladies that potentially await them, until of course it's too late. Luckily, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has a huge database on the wild and sometimes whacky maladies awaiting tourists, plus updates on any recent outbreaks. The useful site can be accessed at www.cdc.gov/travel/index.htm.

- Daily News