December 29, 2005

Supreme Court Is Asked To Rule on Terror Trial The administration asked the Supreme Court to allow the immediate transfer of Jose Padilla from a military brig to stand trial on terrorism charges. The Justice Department said a lower court order blocking the move was an ''unwarranted attack'' on presidential discretion. PAGE A16 Muslim Women: Quiet Revolt Young European Muslim women are claiming the same rights as Western women, but upholding Islamic values. PAGE A3 Texas-Oklahoma Fires Kill 5 Grass fires in Oklahoma and Texas destroyed more than 100 houses, many of them in Cross Plains, Tex., a town of 1,000. PAGE A14 Baby Makes Three A top expert, Dr. Richard Ferber, has eased his stance against parents' sleeping with babies, and parents are pleased. THURSDAY STYLES, PAGE G1 2005's 10 Best Gadget Ideas This year had its big high-tech developments, and some tiny touches of brilliance. BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1 Broadway Box Office Ovation Led by blockbusters, paid attendance to Broadway theaters this year was the highest it has been since 1985. THE ARTS, PAGE E1

Nickelodeon's popular Kid's Choice Awards program was recently introduced to China, but modifications were necessary to make show less crude for Chinese audience; even with censorship, Chinese children still found show to be wonderfully outrageous; despite restrictions of state-run television, parent company Viacom continues to aggressively court Chinese youngsters with its brand of anti-authoritarian programming; photos (M)

He was excoriated on tabloid front pages and by the mayor and governor. As thousands streamed across the Brooklyn Bridge on a frigid night during last week's transit strike, someone in a car yelled out his name, prefacing it with a curse. But now, a day after details of an agreement between the transit workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority were spelled out, Roger Toussaint, the union's president, seems to have emerged in a far better position than seemed likely just a few days ago.

THE other greatest story ever told is where everything in Bruce Feiler's and Linda Rottenberg's Brooklyn Heights apartment comes from. By his estimate, Mr. Feiler, 41, the author of several best-selling books, including ''Walking the Bible,'' which is now also a PBS series starting on Wednesday, has shopped in over 60 countries. His wife, Ms. Rottenberg, 37, a founder of Endeavor, a nonprofit organization that helps innovative entrepreneurs in Latin America and Africa, doesn't buy her rugs locally either.

JIM HASKIN and Amy Husten fell in love fast, and within four months of meeting in late 1999, they were looking for a house together. They were both artists with busy professional lives in separate cities: She is a ceramicist and a project director for the department that looks into overseas ventures for the Guggenheim Museum; he paints portraits and is a partner at R&F Handmade Paints, a fine-art paint company in Kingston, N.Y. If their relationship was to work, they reasoned, they needed a home base. But there was a problem: Ms. Husten liked stone farmhouses, and to Mr. Haskin, that meant small rooms and low ceilings, which held no appeal for him. ''I'm claustrophobic,'' he explained recently.