Jazz at Lincoln Center at Time Warner Center, in year since opening, has garnered praise for its acoustics and aesthetics and for having raised profile of jazz as art form, but also criticism for hewing to overly classical jazz canon; officials express pride over accomplishments, but critics accuse them of catering to upscale clientele that favors conservative fare instead of promoting alternative styles and artists; photos (M)

New Home for Jazz Gets Mixed Reviews

Reporters from The Times and The International Herald Tribune will offer news and views in a blog from the World Economic Forum meeting that begins tomorrow in Davos, Switzerland. Previews can be found at blogs.iht.com/davos.  

Delving Into Davos

Arbitrator Says Skeleton Coach Should Be Reinstated

Controversy continues to swirl around veracity of James Frey book A Million Little Pieces, memoir of drug abuse and recovery that was launched to best-selling status after being selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club; Debra Jay, Hazelden Foundation addiction counselor, warned producers in advance of Frey's appearance on Winfrey's television program that depiction of rehab clinic in book grossly distorted reality and several other Hazeldon counselors have come forward to dispute Frey's claims; producers decline to comment and Frey says he was not acquainted with any of people who are disputing his account (M)

Treatment Description in Memoir Is Disputed

Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief yesterday: Super Bowl tickets, it seems, are still fair game.      Under revised rules issued yesterday by NASD and the New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street firms will be able to take their most valued clients to the Super Bowl, even if they cannot fly them there on private jets, entertain them at the fanciest restaurants and house them at the best hotels.  

Wall Street Is Relieved at New Rules on Gifts

Dennis Frantz first started to feel uneasy about the future of his plant about two years ago, and that was when Wixom Assembly still had more than one shift and Mr. Frantz still had a job to do.     But workers like Mr. Frantz said they saw the writing on the wall. Ford has since significantly reduced production at the plant, and Mr. Frantz, 61, has gone into the jobs bank, a program that requires Ford to pay workers out of a special fund even if there are no cars for them to build.  

Many Workers, Few Shifts

German court established to provide compensation for Jewish-owned property seized by Nazis validates claims of about 25 heirs of A Wertheim department store chain to real estate properties in Berlin that are now valued at about $350 million; properties will be sold, and proceeds distributed to Wertheim heirs, including 73-year-old Barbara Principe of Newfield, NJ; ruling follows decision by KarlstadtQuelle, Germany's largest retailer, to withdraw its claim to properties; photos (M)

A Holocaust Reparations Settlement Makes Its Way to South Jersey

Col R Michael Mullane, former space shuttle astronaut and author of Riding Rockets: The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut, speaks out on lessons he learned at National Aeronautics and Space Administration and toughness he maintains was built from life of surviving challenging situations; discusses how environment at NASA during his time there allowed safety issues to become less important than getting mission off ground; photos (L)

A Wide-Eyed Astronaut Becomes a NASA Critic

Gov Jon S Corzine's nominee to become New Jersey attorney general, Zulima V Farber, wins approval of Senate Judiciary Committee despite questions about her driving record; photo (M)

Nearing Confirmation, a Corzine Nominee Hears Tough Questions

Roger Federer defeats Tommy Haas in fourth round of Australian Open; photos (M)0

Federer Raises Voice, Then Game

The Walt Disney Company is planning to announce as early as Tuesday the acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in a stock transaction valued at about $7 billion, people briefed on the negotiations said Monday night.     Disney's board voted to give the chief executive, Robert A. Iger, the authority to offer the chief executive of Pixar, Steven P. Jobs, about $59 a share for the company, these people said. The price would be at a slight premium over Monday's closing of $58.27 a share, which gave Pixar a market value of about $6.93 billion.  

Disney Bid for Pixar Is Imminent

Harvey Araton Sports of The Times column discusses Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who seems to have relieved tension with his mentor and Lakers coach Phil Jackson; Bryant scored 81 points in game against Toronto Raptors; column discusses Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein's equally stormy relationship with his mentor and Red Sox president Larry Lucchino (M)

Sports of The Times; Theo and Kobe Leave Mentors Behind

Nearly 20 months after the United Nations arrived to stabilize the hemisphere's poorest country and avert a civil war, there is still no cease-fire in this violent city on the sea.     Blasts from tanks and machine guns go on for hours almost every day around Cité Soleil, a steamy slum of concrete hovels and canals of raw sewage at the capital's northern edge. No one knows for sure how many civilians have been killed inside because the bodies of the slum-dwellers and local gangsters rarely make it to morgues.  

Fear and Death Ensnare U.N.'s Soldiers in Haiti

The Ford Motor Company said Monday that it would close as many as 14 factories and cut up to 30,000 jobs over the next six years. It was the latest move in a fundamental restructuring of Detroit's traditional auto companies, hit hard by foreign competitors, who have taken more than 40 percent of the American market.     The moves by Ford, the second-largest automaker in the United States, come two months after General Motors, the industry leader, said it would close all or part of a dozen factories and eliminate a similar number of jobs.  

Ford Eliminating Up to 30,000 Jobs and 14 Factories

Atty Gen Eliot Spitzer chooses State Sen David A Paterson of Harlem as his running mate in 2006 governor's race; selection stuns and angers some influential black Democrats who favored Leecia Eve of Buffalo for lieutenant governor; increases possibility that Democratic ticket will be dominated by New York City politicians; photo (M)

Spitzer Names Harlem Senator to His Ticket

Seattle Seahawks, perhaps unlikely football power, prepare for Super Bowl against Pittsburgh Steelers; Seahawks owner Paul Allen helped found Microsoft, adding 'geek-chic' element to team and its fans; photos (M)

A New Breed of Pocket Protector

Pittsburgh Steelers and fans celebrate Steelers' victory over Denver Broncos, which will send team to Super Bowl against Seattle Seahawks; photos (M)ÿ

Party Hasn't Ended for Hoarse Steelers Fans

A prominent surgeon in Wisconsin was paid $400,000 a year by Medtronic for a consulting contract requiring him to work just eight days. Another doctor in Virginia received nearly $700,000 in consulting fees from Medtronic for the first nine months of 2005.      These doctors work in a growing field, complex back surgery, and this makes them particularly valuable to the spinal-implant division of Medtronic. In recent years, the company has spent tens of millions of dollars on consulting contracts and other types of payments to them and numerous other prominent surgeons, according to papers filed as part of a whistle-blower lawsuit. The suit contends that some of these payments were made to attract or retain the doctors' business.  

Whistle-Blower Suit Says Device Maker Generously Rewards Doctors

Indian artist Tyeb Mehta, after decades of struggle, at age 80 sees one of his paintings fetch $1.58 million at Christie's auction, highest price ever by Indian artist; his career has reflected changing fortunes of contemporary art from India over last six decades, from intellectual fervor of its birth, to lifetime of struggle, to improbable rise of market in last few years; photos (M)

Indian Artist Enjoys His World Audience

 Justices Allow Challenges to Campaign Finance Law  The Supreme Court opened the door to a new round of legal challenges to the limits in the McCain-Feingold law on election advertisements paid for by corporations and broadcast in the weeks before federal elections. Two years ago the court had appeared to foreclose further challenges.   PAGE A16    African Union Split on Leader  African leaders are divided over whether President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, who is blamed for much of the violence in his country, deserves to become the next chairman of the African Union, a group that advocates peace.    PAGE A3    A Few More Little Pieces  Addiction counselors have questioned the writer James Frey's description of his treatment in rehab. Similar concerns were shared months ago with ''The Oprah Winfrey Show.''    THE ARTS, PAGE E1    Spitzer Fills Out Ticket  Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has chosen David A. Paterson, a powerful state senator from Harlem, to be his running mate in the 2006 New York governor's race, advisers said. But the selection angered some influential black Democrats, who had favored another candidate.    PAGE B1    Fees to Doctors Questioned  Documents in a lawsuit involving Medtronic, the medical device maker, raise questions about large payments made to doctors for consulting work.   BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1    Russia Accuses Britain of Spying  Russia accused four British diplomats of spying, and state television broadcast a video that was said to show a British diplomat picking up a fake rock that was said to conceal a communications device.   PAGE A3

INSIDE

Anthony Tommasini reviews performance of Osvaldo Golijov opera Ainadamar at Rose Theater; photo (M)

Seeing Life as Passion Play, in García Lorca's Shadow

Documents in a lawsuit involving Medtronic, the medical device maker, raise questions about large payments made to doctors for consulting work.

Edward Rothstein reviews exhibition Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust at Museum of Jewish Heritage; photos (M)

Holocaust Children's Objects: Ordinary but Powerful

Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party defeated the long entrenched Liberal Party in Canadian elections on Monday. A Conservative victory is a striking turn in the country's politics and is likely to improve Canada's strained relations with the Bush administration.     Prime Minister Paul Martin had hoped to build on a string of four consecutive Liberal national election victories in the past 13 years, but his campaign was damaged by two years of investigations into party scandals that spurred a backlash and a desire for change.  

Canadian Voters Oust Incumbent for Conservative

Stung by their own scandals, lawmakers in many states have outpaced Washington in enacting new laws intended to curb the cozy and at times corrupt relationships between lobbyists and politicians.      Measures are under consideration in state legislatures from New England to California, designed to eliminate privately financed junkets, require the disclosure of spending on lobbying, ban gift-giving by private interests and curb the hiring of lawmakers' relatives as an under-the-table kickback scheme.  

Amid Scandals, States Overhaul Lobbying Laws

Schafik Jorge Hándal Hándal was a Salvadoran politician.

January 24, 2006

Headlines from January 24, 2006

New Home for Jazz Gets Mixed Reviews

Delving Into Davos

Arbitrator Says Skeleton Coach Should Be Reinstated

Treatment Description in Memoir Is Disputed

Wall Street Is Relieved at New Rules on Gifts

Billboard 200

Unpredictable

The Breakthrough

Curtain Call: The Hits

First Impressions Of Earth

Some Hearts

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for January 24, 2006