December 26, 2004

Jennifer Conlin travel article on 'hip family hotels' that are cropping up around world that, unlike those that cater exclusively to children and their needs, pamper both parents and children in sophisticated, fashionable environment; amenities at Cowley Manor in Gloucestershire and Charlotte Street Hotel in London, Delano in Miami Beach, Hotel Costes and La Tremoille in Paris, Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, Calif, and W San Francisco described; photos; drawing (L)

Iraq, the presidential election, the siege of a middle school in Beslan, Russia: photos from these and other events large and small.

BEFORE the Mustang gave birth to the automotive genre known as ''pony cars,'' Ford's out-of-the-box compact was classified as a personal car -- a bit of four-wheel fashion that was sporty, affordable and easy to individualize. There was a Mustang for everyone: secretaries and retirees bought saucy convertibles with 6-cylinder engines; lead-footed teenagers cruised in V-8 coupes; weekend racecar drivers opted for hot fastbacks.

AFTER hemming and hawing and bobbing and weaving, the board of directors of Fannie Mae finally jettisoned Franklin D. Raines, the mortgage finance giant's former chief executive, and Timothy Howard, its former chief financial officer, last week. They appear to have done so only under duress from Fannie's chief regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which in September put the company on notice that its improper accounting had vastly overstated profits and misrepresented its financial position. The board's reluctance to defenestrate Mr. Raines and Mr. Howard, who appear to have misstated their company's financial statements to the tune of around $9 billion, fed suspicions that Fannie Mae's directors were loyal to management first, and shareholders second.

BEFORE the Mustang gave birth to the automotive genre known as ''pony cars,'' Ford's out-of-the-box compact was classified as a personal car -- a bit of four-wheel fashion that was sporty, affordable and easy to individualize. There was a Mustang for everyone: secretaries and retirees bought saucy convertibles with 6-cylinder engines; lead-footed teenagers cruised in V-8 coupes; weekend racecar drivers opted for hot fastbacks.