December 29, 2002

William Hamilton describes Urban Loft Party he gave in his one-bedroom apartment based on book Cocktail Parties With a Twist by Alexandra and Eliot Angle; photos; drawing (M)

Penelope Green article describes holiday reunion party she gave based on book Katie Brown Entertains: 16 Menus, 16 Occasions, 16 Tables; photos; drawing (M)

Corporate executives and board members continue to cash in stock options they were awarded as part of their pay, making millions of dollars even while their companies have most much of their value; compensation experts say sales suggest that measures enacted by Congress and New York Stock Exchange will not end entrenched disconnect between pay and performance; says reining in stock options -- chief culprit -- will fall to corporate boards, only a few of which have adopted rules to prevent executives from turning quick profits on temporary jumps in stock prices; table shows insider stock sales for 2002 at companies in bottom fifth of Standard & Poor's 500-stock index (L)

A title and a byline were omitted last Sunday on a column about people who hate the frustrations of their jobs, but would never willingly give the jobs up. The column was Life's Work, by Lisa Belkin.

Senior US officials say Saudi Arabia has given them assurances that kingdom will make its airspace, air bases and important operations center at Prince Sultan Air Base outside Riyadh available to US in event of war with Iraq; are confident that Saudis will ultimately allow attack missions, which are more politically sensitive, to be flown from their soil; Saudis remain publicly noncommittal; uncertainty about Saudi cooperation led Pentagon to build alternative air command post in Qatar, where overall American command for Iraqi operations will be headquartered (M)

Abu Kishek, boxer and Palestine's brightest hope for 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, trains as best he can in Nablus amid Palestinian uprising and Israeli occupation; his dream of Olympic achievement and his struggle to attain it are as animated and stunted by politics as every other aspect of life on West Bank; he has lost training partner to conflict and worries that his neighbors have come to regard his Olympic dream as selfish; clings to vision of athletic patriotism that promotes understand; photos; map (L)

First article in series on Raul M Grijalva and Candice Miller, newly elected members of House of Representatives; Grijalva, liberal Democrat from poorest district in Arizona, and Miller, 'George W Bush Republican' from middle-class suburbs of Detroit, spend two months since Election Day immersing themselves in kind of minutiae most voters never see -- renting apartments, hiring staff, selecting office space, angling for committee assigments and even planning their campaigns for re-election; are both entranced by wonder of world they are about to enter; photos; series, Freshman Year, will periodically observe Grijalva and Miller as they take on their new roles (M)

Opposition Winning in Kenya Returns in Kenya's presidential election indicated that Mwai Kibaki, an economist who quit Daniel arap Moi's government a decade ago, was winning a landslide victory for the opposition party. PAGE 12 Concessions at United Leaders of the pilots' and flight attendants' unions at United Airlines are supporting short-term wage cuts to keep United executives from asking a bankruptcy court to void its union contracts. PAGE 20

Profile of Chris Albrecht, chairman of HBO, and his effort to inject creativity in business side of network, which produced string of hit original series when he was programmer in chief; photos (M)

Two posters created by John Wagner show detailed view of Manhattan skyline, one from across East River and other from across Hudson River; detailed posters depict 7,400 buildings; photos (M)

Anemona Hartcollis Coping column on civility and manners that seem to elude some New Yorkers, even during holiday season; drawing (M)

Ranchers and environmentalists in Rocky Mountain West protest coal-bed methane extraction, which can turn ranches and prairies into sprawling industrial zones, laced with wells, access roads, power lines, compressor stations and wastewater pits; primary waste product -- and environmental threat -- is huge amount of water companies pump out of aquifers in order to reach gas trapped in shallow coal seams beneath them; local outrage is stoked by fact that ranchers, who own only surface rights, cannot prevent energy companies with mineral rights from operating on their land; environmentalists question whether companies can actually remove -- in way that is profitable and ecologically sound -- enormous amounts of methane that federal experts say is available in Western coal seams; photos; map; drawing (L)