In joining Pimco, Neel Kashkari, the former Treasury bailout chief, settled on a financial company that didn’t need a government rescue but may be strengthening its federal ties.

Neel Kashkari’s Quiet Path to Pimco

What might knit us together in 2010? Prominent New Yorkers muse aloud on some collective goals for the city.

New York’s Resolutions

The deaths of seven C.I.A. operatives in Afghanistan have highlighted the agency’s transformation to a paramilitary organization at the vanguard of America’s wars.

C.I.A. Takes On Bigger and Riskier Role on Front Lines

Educators and parents are re-examining the role of honor societies, which started out as an academic distinction but have become routine on college résumés.

As Honor Students Multiply, Who Really Is One?

With the possibility of hefty profits and bonuses at banks, rarely has the divide been so deep between Wall Street and Main Street.

Doubts on Regulation and Renewal Hang Over Wall St.

In a village organizing to resist the Taliban, a suicide bomber targeted civilian families, killing at least 89 people.

Bomb Takes Heavy Toll at Pakistan Sports Event

Helmets, once used exclusively by competitive skiers and snowboarders, have become far more common, even for novices.

Helmets Becoming More Common on the Ski Slopes

With diversification and regular contributions, many investors could have doubled their account balances in the last decade.

For Savers, It Was Hardly a Lost Decade

Michael R. Bloomberg struck a humble tone at a ceremony on Friday to inaugurate his third term as New York City mayor.

For Bloomberg’s 3rd Term, a Humbler Start

The Metropolitan Opera presented a gripping new production of Bizet’s “Carmen” on Thursday night, ringing out 2009 with a solid success.

That Daring Gypsy Strikes Again, and Anew

If off-track betting collided with Broadway, the combination might sound like being inside the TKTS booth in Times Square, where discounted theater seats are sold.

It Might Be Your Ticket, if the Show’s in New York

The N.H.L.’s third Winter Classic ended with the Boston Bruins beating the Philadelphia Flyers in a wild overtime outdoors at Fenway Park.

Spectacle Trumps Skill as Bruins Beat Flyers in Winter Classic

An obituary last Friday about the sportscaster George Michael, using information from a family member, omitted three survivors. They are his daughter Cindi Howson, of Sparta, N.J., a third grandson and a granddaughter. (As the obituary noted, he is also survived by his wife, Pat Lackman; a brother, Earl Gimpel, of Escondido, Calif.; a sister, Jane Lettich, of Florida; two children from his first marriage, Michelle Allen, of Darnestown, Md., and Brad Michael, of Pompano Beach, Fla.; and two grandsons.)

Corrections

The global recession had a greater impact than all the diplomatic efforts that ended in the Copenhagen flop: energy production had not declined on such a scale since 1981.

The Copenhagen Call to Arms

Hours before a contract over retransmission rights for Fox stations was set to expire, the F.C.C. asked the companies to keep talking.

Time Warner and Fox Extend Talks Overnight

The Digital Domain column last Sunday, about states where Amazon.com does and does not collect sales taxes, referred incorrectly to Delaware tax law. Although Delaware imposes a gross receipts tax on sellers of goods and services, it does not have a sales tax.

Ten days before the start of practice, Zach Spiker took over an Army program that has not had a winning season in 25 years.

Army Feels the Energy of a Youthful New Coach

Washington law authorities are investigating whether Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas presented a gun during a locker room argument.

Wizards Gun Inquiry Focuses on Dispute

The Australian actress Cate Blanchett and her husband, Andrew Upton have announced that they will extend their term as joint artistic directors of the Sydney Theater Company.

Blanchett and Upton Extend Term of Sydney Job

The Musée du Luxembourg in Paris will close when its current exhibition, a display of Tiffany glass works, ends on Jan. 17, the French government has announced. The museum, housed in the Luxembourg Palace, has drawn more than 5.5 million visitors since its administration was turned over to a private company in 2000; its exhibitions have included shows focusing on Modigliani, Botticelli and the holdings of the Phillips Collection in Washington. But according to the Paris daily Le Monde, museum administrators and the French Senate, which controls the museum building, have quarreled over administrative and financial issues, and the Senate has decided to reassert its control. Two planned exhibitions, including one on Impressionism, have been canceled, and 100 full- and part-time employees are to be laid off.

Dispute Will Shut Luxembourg Museum

Sandra Bullock, who appears in the hit films “The Blind Side” and “The Proposal,” has been named the top box office draw of 2009 in a survey of theater owners and executives.

Survey Shows Bullock Is All the Way Back

Poland officially began commemorations of the bicentennial of the birth of its most celebrated composer, Frédéric Chopin, on Friday with a ceremony at his birthplace, Zelazowa Wola, about 50 miles west of Warsaw, and a concert in the capital featuring the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. More than 2,000 events, nearly half outside Poland, are planned during the bicentennial, including films, jazz performances, exhibitions and the 16th annual Chopin International Competition. Warsaw will also host a Chopin festival that begins next week with a performance by the popular Chinese pianist Lang Lang and is also scheduled to feature Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich later in the year.

Poland Begins Chopin Celebration

The police in Marseille on Friday released a night watchman who had been detained for questioning the day before.

Marseille Police Let Watchman Go in Degas Theft

Queen Elizabeth’s annual honors list, announced at midnight on the last day of each year to recognize distinguished service to Britain, includes a knighthood for the actor Patrick Stewart.

Knighthood for Stewart

Lhasa de Sela, also known by the mononym Lhasa, was an American-Canadian singer-songwriter who was raised in Mexico and the United States and divided her adult life between Canada and France. Her first album, La Llorona, went Platinum in Canada and brought Lhasa a Félix Award and a Juno Award.

Lhasa de Sela, American-Mexican singer-songwriter (born 1972)

Lhasa_de_Sela

The 2010 Lakki Marwat suicide bombing occurred on 1 January 2010, in the village of Shah Hassan Khel, Lakki Marwat District, in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. At least 105 people died and over 100 were injured, many of them critically, when the suicide bomber blew up his sport utility vehicle filled with explosives in the middle of a crowd that had gathered to watch a volleyball game.

A suicide car bomber detonates at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, killing 105 and injuring 100 more.

January 1, 2010

Headlines from January 1, 2010

Neel Kashkari’s Quiet Path to Pimco

New York’s Resolutions

C.I.A. Takes On Bigger and Riskier Role on Front Lines

As Honor Students Multiply, Who Really Is One?

Doubts on Regulation and Renewal Hang Over Wall St.

Billboard 200

I Dreamed A Dream

The Element Of Freedom

My Christmas

Fearless

Play On

Notable Deaths

Historical Events

Historical Context for January 1, 2010