When the subject is long, the "new" icon forces it to a new line (see attachment).
I did some experiments, and the only way I found to fix it is move the icon inside the h4:
<div class="topic_name" ', (!empty($topic['quick_mod']['modify']) ? 'id="topic_' . $topic['first_post']['id'] . '" ondblclick="oQuickModifyTopic.modify_topic(\'' . $topic['id'] . '\', \'' . $topic['first_post']['id'] . '\');"' : ''), '>
<h4>';
// Is this topic new? (assuming they are logged in!)
if ($topic['new'] && $context['user']['is_logged'])
echo '
<a class="new_posts" href="', $topic['new_href'], '" id="newicon' . $topic['first_post']['id'] . '">' . $txt['new'] . '</a>';
echo '
', $topic['is_sticky'] ? '<strong>' : '', '<span class="preview" title="', $topic[(!empty($settings['message_index_preview']) && $settings['message_index_preview'] == 2 ? 'last_post' : 'first_post')]['preview'], '"><span id="msg_' . $topic['first_post']['id'] . '">', $topic['first_post']['link'], ($context['can_approve_posts'] && !$topic['approved'] ? ' <em><img src="' . $settings['images_url'] . '/admin/post_moderation_moderate.png" style="width:16px" alt="' . $txt['awaiting_approval'] . '" title="' . $txt['awaiting_approval'] . '" />(' . $txt['awaiting_approval'] . ')</em>' : ''), '</span></span>', $topic['is_sticky'] ? '</strong>' : '', '
</h4>
Is it acceptable?