September 22, 2005

Splitting With Leader, Democrat Backs Roberts Democratic divisions over Judge John G. Roberts Jr. spilled out into the open as the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, said that he would vote to confirm Judge Roberts as chief justice, putting himself at odds with the Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. PAGE A22 Senator's Timely Stock Sale Senator Bill Frist sold his stake in the giant hospital company that his family founded as its shares peaked in June. An aide said he sold them so he could avoid a conflict of interest on health care legislation. PAGE A29 A Doll With 'Muslim Values' Barbie dolls have all but disappeared from the shelves of many toy stores in the Middle East. In their place is Fulla, a dark-eyed doll with, as her creator puts it, ''Muslim values.'' Fulla roughly shares Barbie's size and proportions, but comes out of her shiny pink box wearing a black abaya and matching head scarf. PAGE A4 For 140 Passengers, a Fiery but Safe Landing A JetBlue plane whose front landing gear became stuck at a 90-degree angle landed safely in Los Angeles after circling over the city for nearly three hours. Many of the 140 passengers watched live coverage of their plight on television monitors at their seats. Passengers erupted in cheers when the plane, which had taken off from Burbank bound for Kennedy Airport in New York, stopped safely at Los Angeles International Airport. PAGE A14 Diet Doctors Test Boundaries Medical weight loss has no recognized certification board. But the field does seem to have more than its share of complaints leveled at doctors who sell products to their patients THURSDAY STYLES, PAGE G1 Flu Treatments Questioned Flu treatments are far less effective than earlier thought, two new papers say, even as millions of doses of vaccine and drugs are being stockpiled around the world. PAGE A12 Stewart Wields Gentler Ax Martha Stewart was a much sweeter boss on her version of ''The Apprentice'' than Donald Trump was on his, or than she ever seemed to be as founder and chief executive of Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Even the firing was rather tame. ''You just don't fit in,'' she told the first person let go. THE TV WATCH, PAGE B2 Aid Arrives, Farmers Suffer Heart-wrenching images of Niger's hungry population a few months ago prompted a torrent of foreign donations. But now that the nation's farmers are having a bumper season, the aid that was intended to save lives could ruin the farmers by driving prices down. PAGE A3 Yankees Slip Into First With a 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles and Boston's 7-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the Yankees climbed back atop the American League East standings. The Red Sox are a half-game behind. SPORTSTHURSDAY, PAGE D1

Lawyer David Boies' ties to Amici, document management company, has resulted in attacks on other aspects of Boies' conduct; lawyers for L Dennis Kozlowski and Mark H Swartz, former top executives of Tyco International who face years of prison time, have accused Boies, Tyco's lawyer, of engaging in 'rank gamesmanship to the defendants' disadvantage' by withholding million potentially subpoenaed documents from defense until trial of two men was nearly over, and millions more until after their conviction; Boies says one net of issues is worthy of concern--concerns about ties to Amici--but dismisses rest as overzealous advocacy; photo (M)

For many Hurricane Katrina evacuees, who expected to be in shelters for only few days, there is creeping sense of dread that they will not get out of shelters for weeks, perhaps months; what was supposed to be transitory phase in their lives is beginning to take on awful feeling of permanency; federal emergency officials say there are still 71,280 evacuees from Katrina in more than 650 shelters scattered across nation; more than 40 percent of them are in 317 shelters still operating in Louisiana; food and dailh necessities are plentiful, but promised money from federal government and Red Cross has been very slow to arrive; almost everywhere, greatest need is for places to live--houses, apartments, mobile homes, anything to get out of shelters; Katrina evacuees in some shelters in Louisiana will be moved to other shelters to be safe as Hurricane Rita approaches; photo; map (M)

The Fulton Fish Market's long-awaited move to the Bronx, which was scheduled to take place over the coming weekend, has been delayed again, this time by a lawsuit that seeks to prevent the fish wholesalers from unloading their own shrimp, porgies and cod. The move to a tailor-made $85 million refrigerated behemoth in the Hunts Point section has been eagerly sought by the market's 40 wholesale fishmongers, many of whom have been operating along the cobblestone waterfront of Lower Manhattan for generations.

A FEW years ago, in the midst of a fairly active midlife, Robert Hicks, a rotund man who wears red dotted glasses, set about to write a novel. Plenty of people embark on this quest all the time of course, believing that they have something profound to say about the human condition, or certain that they will make lots of money with which to buy a nice house. But Mr. Hicks was someone with no pronouncements to make, someone who owned a nice house. It was another house, though, that drove him to the joyful tortures of composing fiction. Carnton is a historic home here -- a former plantation house near the site where the Battle of Franklin virtually secured Union victory. In 1987, Mr. Hicks, then working as a music publisher in Nashville, was asked to join its board and spearhead a restoration, in large part because of his interest in 19th-century American architecture and design. Because that effort has relied on private funding, Carnton's renewal took years to proceed, reaching completion only in recent months. ''The Widow of the South'' (Warner Books) is Mr. Hicks's 404-page advertisement for it. And so far, it seems to be a very successful one. Since the book's publication a few weeks ago, it has taken a place on the best-seller lists of The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and, most recently, The New York Times, where this Sunday it will reach No. 8. But this feat, as it happens, is almost incidental to the author's larger ambitions.