Milestones

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RELEASED. THOMAS CHOLMONDELEY, 37, aristocratic scion of one of Kenya's most famous colonial families; after a High Court judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to try him for the killing of Kenya Wildlife Service warden Simon Ole Sisina; in Nakuru. Cholmondeley told police he thought the warden, who was investigating allegations of illegal bush meat trading on his 400,000-hectare ranch, was an armed robber in an increasingly violent region. Cholmondeley's great-grandfather, Lord Delamere, was among the first whites to settle in the then-British colony in the early 20th century, and established a reputation for decadence chronicled in the 1982 book White Mischief, later made into a movie of the same name.

LIFTED. STATE OF EMERGENCY, in Indonesia's restive Aceh province, where a decades-long insurgency has cost more than 12,000 lives; in Jakarta. The expiration of the year-old state of emergency comes as the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (G.A.M.) negotiate a peace deal in the wake of the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed more than 100,000 Acehnese. Although 38,000 government troops will remain on the ground, Bivitri Susanti, executive director of the Centre for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies, called the move "a very significant step for the reconstruction process."

DIAGNOSED. KYLIE MINOGUE, 36, pop diva famous for her slinky dresses and sexy dance moves; with breast cancer; in Melbourne. A former teen star of the Australian soap opera Neighbours, Minogue became one of the biggest-selling pop sensations in the world with hits like 2001's Can't Get You Out of My Head. Scheduled to begin therapy this week, Minogue announced she would cancel her coming Showgirl concert tour of Australia and Asia, saying, "I ... am sorry to have to disappoint my fans."

CHARGED. LUIS POSADA CARRILES, 77, anti-Castro Cuban exile wanted by Venezuela, Cuba's close ally, for his alleged role in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 people, a charge Posada denies; with illegal entry into the U.S.; by immigration officials; in Washington, D.C. A former CIA operative trained by the U.S. military, he has admitted his role in other terrorist bombings in Havana, and his widely publicized presence in the U.S. over the last two months led to criticism that the U.S. has a double standard on terror suspects. Though the Bush Administration has said it would not extradite anyone to Cuba or its allies, the charge may indicate a first step towards deporting him.

CHARGED. MAZAL AMAR, 58, and MEIR AMAR, 31, the wife and son of Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, one of two leaders of the state religious establishment; with abducting the Rabbi's daughter's 17-year-old boyfriend; in Jerusalem. Meir has admitted to kidnapping the teenager at knifepoint and holding him overnight in an Arab village and later at the Rabbi's home, where he was allegedly beaten. But police suspect that it was done at the behest of his mother—something the family denies—who allegedly disapproved of the relationship. The Rabbi has not been implicated in the attack.

DIED. FRANK GORSHIN, 72, rubbery-faced impressionist-actor who channeled his passion for film idols, nourished as a teenage cinema usher in Pittsburgh, into a 54-year career in Las Vegas clubs, on TV and in more than 80 movies; in Burbank, California. With his aping of Al Jolson, James Cagney and Marlon Brando, Gorshin was a regular on the Ed Sullivan Show, where he was a guest the night the Beatles made their U.S. TV debut. ("Look at all these kids that came to see me!" he said backstage.) But he gained his greatest fame playing the Riddler, the cackling, green-clad villain on the campy 1960s TV series Batman. Most recently, he won critical acclaim for his dead-on impersonation of actor-comedian George Burns in the one-man Broadway show Say Goodnight, Gracie.

Numbers

26,130 sq km Area of Amazon rain forest destroyed from August 2003 to August 2004—the second largest figure since data was first compiled in 1988

$92,000 Budget of the Philippines' new Press Freedom Fund, set up to help combat violence against journalists
68 Number of journalists killed in the Philippines since 1986

162 Number of koi carp in Tokyo's Imperial Palace moats that have died of carp herpes this month. Officials suspect that fish carrying the disease were released into the moats

$1 billion Damages specified in a class action brought against a California-based microbrewery on behalf of the world's Hindus, for featuring an image of the god Ganesh holding a beer on one of its labels

1,255 km Length of a fault rupture created by the Dec. 26 earthquake off Indonesia, the longest ever recorded according to a study released last week