October 18, 2005

A new opera, the latest creation of John Adams, proves there are still new things to say about the atomic bomb.

Nicolai Ouroussoff Critic's Notebook column on possibility that New Orleans's architectural history, particularly its shotgun, double shotgun, Camelback and Creole houses, will be irrevocably lost in rebuilding; Mayor C Ray Nagin has contemplated suspending city's historic preservation laws to make city more inviting to developers; recent forum on Gulf coast renewal was dominated by champions of New Urbanism; differences in older houses in Mid City and Ninth Ward districts and newer ones they are modeled after in Lower Garden District described; photos (M)

The player who prides himself on finishing his blocks was struggling to finish his sentence. Jets center Kevin Mawae became emotional Monday as he addressed the imminent end of his ironman streak of 177 consecutive starts in the National Football League. Mawae, who has not missed a game since his rookie year in 1994, was lost for the remainder of the season with a torn left triceps.

ABC News president David Westin announces that Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden and Martin Bashir will succeed Ted Koppel as hosts of Nightline; says move is aimed at building on its 'great legacy' even as it ushers in what he calls 'new era' for program; photos (M)

THEY are all gone now, everyone Isiah Thomas inherited not yet two years ago when he stepped into the pressure chamber at Madison Square Garden to remake the Knicks. When the inevitable occurred yesterday, when Allan Houston gave up the tortured chase of his career on incurably arthritic knees, there were no Knicks remaining from the Scott Layden years, or the Dave Checketts days. No players who could wax nostalgic about the Ernie Grunfeld-Jeff Van Gundy wars. No Knicks who ever suited up with old No. 33, who lobbed the ball into the post to Patrick Ewing's hungry hands.

Jennifer Garden has a tumor inside her head -- this much she understands. It will not kill her, she knows, but it has the power to make her miserable and steal her sight. Ms. Garden, 24, also has Medicaid -- sometimes, anyway. And there is much about it that she has just never understood -- the paperwork she gets in the mail, or why the system sometimes insures her and sometimes rejects her, or why she can see some doctors and not others.

Special report, The Incumbent, recalls Mayor Michael R Bloomberg's first term in office as he seeks re-election to second term; says businessman-turned-politician Bloomberg has reshaped way mayor's office runs New York, applying results-based approach to most areas of city government, largely appointing commissioners based on expertise and giving them nearly free rein to determine policy regardless of political consequences; says even his critics give him credit for nursing city back to health from devastation of 9/11 attack, while risking his own popularity in process; recalls his list of accomplishments; says he is openly disdainful of public brinkmanship that is so much a part of New York's political culture, and that by paying for his campaigns with his own money, he can operate without usual pressures that afflict politicians; detailed examination of his first term; photos (L)

Iraqi election officials say they are investigating 'unusually high' vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many as 99 percent of ballots cast favor new constitution; probe raises possibility that results of referendum could be called into question; 12 provinces where 'yes' votes exceed 90 percent are all said to have populations that are majority Shiite or Kurd; none of provinces cited for closer look have Sunni majorities, although similarly lopsided votes against constitution are reported in some Sunni areas; results of referendum are coming into focus; about 10 million Iraqis cast ballots, about 64 percent of registered voters, and preliminary results show constitution has been approved by 65 percent of those voting (M)

Shanghai and other Chinese cities are in midst of frenzied building boom that began in early 1990's; Shanghai already has 4,000 skyscrapers, almost double number in New York; there are designs to build 1,000 more by end of decade; this year, nation expects to lay down finishing blocks on 4.7 billion square feet or more of construction; big developers are acquiring huge swaths of prime land in largest cities to build huge residential campuses that dwarf anything being built today in West; prices are soaring; luxury apartments in Shangahi and Beijing sell for prices comparable to some high-end properties in New York; real estate fairs are mobbed and land speculation is rampant; rate at which China's real estate market is growing raises concern about huge property bubble; photos; charts (M)

They seem almost alive: snapshots of the living human brain. Not long ago, scientists predicted that these images, produced by sophisticated brain-scanning techniques, would help cut through the mystery of mental illness, revealing clear brain abnormalities and allowing doctors to better diagnose and treat a wide variety of disorders. And nearly every week, it seems, imaging researchers announce another finding, a potential key to understanding depression, attention deficit disorder, anxiety.

Israel Curbs Palestinian Travel in the West Bank Israel imposed new travel restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank and suspended contacts with the Palestinian Authority in response to two drive-by shootings that killed three young Israelis and wounded several other people a day earlier. Two stretches of the main north-south artery of the West Bank will now be closed to private Palestinian vehicles. PAGE A9 Tobacco Case Appeal Denied The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a decision that sharply limited the monetary damages the tobacco industry could be required to pay in the government's suit against it. PAGE A18 N.L. Series Lives On With Houston one out away from the first pennant in its history, Albert Pujols's three-run homer gave the Cardinals a 5-4 victory and sent their series back to St. Louis. PAGE D1 Watch Out, Harry Potter Encyclopedia Brown, one of the literary world's best-known children's characters, may be headed to the big screen. Two producers are offering studios a package that includes the movie and merchandising rights and a script. THE ARTS, PAGE E1 Scrutiny for Chief of Staff With Karl Rove distracted by the C.I.A. leak inquiry, some of the Bush administration's other recent challenges have cast a longer shadow on Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff. PAGE A24 Refco Files for Bankruptcy Refco Inc., the giant commodities trading house, sold its futures brokerage business to an investor group and filed for bankruptcy protection. BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C3 KPMG Tax Case Is Widened Federal prosecutors widened the criminal case against executives at KPMG over the sale of questionable tax shelters, filing charges against 19 defendants. BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1 New Anchors for 'Nightline' A lineup of three anchors, Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden and Martin Bashir, will replace Ted Koppel on ''Nightline,'' ABC announced. THE ARTS, PAGE E1

Did Archimedes really produce a death ray 2,200 years ago? According to Greek and Roman historians, he set Roman warships afire with a polished mirror that focused the sun's rays from afar during the siege of Syracuse. Last year the Discovery Channel program ''MythBusters'' declared the story a myth after failing to reproduce the feat. The program intrigued David Wallace, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When he presented the death ray as an offbeat project for his class in product development, he said, ''only a small number thought it was technically possible.''