December 29, 2001

Several family members of victims have become ubiquitous advocates for all, as well as unpaid experts on cable news talk show circuit, getting their message of pain across, as well as knowledge about air safety, federal aid and charities; brief profiles of Lisa Beamer, whose husband Todd was aboard flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, Stephen J Push, whose wife Lisa J Raines was on flight that hit Pentagon, and Tom Roger, whose daughter Jean was flight attendant on plane that hit World Trade Center; photo (M)

Mayor-elect Michael R Bloomberg announces another bevy of appointments, including Daniel L Doctoroff, who headed effort to bring 2012 Olympics to New York, as deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding; names Verna Eggleston as commissioner of Human Resources Administration; appoints Gretchen Dykstra, who was president of Times Square Business Improvement District, as commissioner of Consumer Affairs Dept (M)

Pakistan Pres Pervez Musharraf, moving to defuse threat of war with India, orders arrest of about 50 leading Islamic militants accused by India of mounting suicide attack on parliament; photo; map; India has dismissed Musharraf's earlier steps as cosmetic; Pres Bush, at news conference in Texas, hopes India will take note of arrests and pull back; targets of Pakistani action are Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, groups that have come to dominate Pakistani attacks in Kashmir (M)

Baseball official says that David Wells is close to returning to New York Yankees, team he never wanted to leave; he is negotiating directly with George Steinbrenner; photo (M)

Article on US military campaign in Afghanistan as striking success for new style of warfare, in which American commandos took center stage, playing vital role in organizing Afghan resistance and directing punishing airstrikes; novel strategy toppled Taliban, installed friendly government and ensured that Al Qaeda cannot use Afghanistan as base for terrorism, achieving these ends with small number of American ground troops and little political backlash in Muslim world; drawback is that proxy forces may have allowed top Taliban and Qaeda leaders to escape; US intelligence finds low-level militia may have smuggled Arab fighters out of Tora Bora area for up to $5,000 a head; strategy in most unorthodox war reviewed; chronology of US actions since Sept 11 terrorist attacks; maps (L)