Milestones

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DIAGNOSED. UNNAMED INDONESIAN, 17, with a mysterious lung infection; after she inhaled saltwater, sand and mud during last December's tsunami; in Indonesia. The teenager's ailment, identified in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is thought to be caused by ingestion of bacteria in saltwater and mud. Dubbed "tsunami lung," it can quickly spread to the brain, causing abscesses and possible paralysis. Although the authors of the study say the disease may be widespread, the World Health Organization believes cases are rare. The study did not name the teenager, who has recovered from the illness.

APPOINTED. PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA, 49, Deputy President of South Africa; by President Thabo Mbeki; in Johannesburg. The former Minerals and Energy Minister, Mlambo-Ngcuka succeeds Jacob Zuma, who was dismissed earlier this month amid a corruption scandal involving his financial advisor. As a top government official, Mlambo-Ngcuka, an anti-apartheid activist, promoted black ownership in the white-dominated mining industry. She now assumes the highest political office ever held by a woman in South Africa.

SUSPENDED. MOHAMAD ISA ABDUL SAMAD, 55, Federal Territories Minister of Malaysia and one of the country's three party vice presidents; from membership in the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party; in Kuala Lumpur. Isa was suspended for six years after an internal party investigation found that he bought votes during UMNO elections last year. The most senior casualty so far in Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's anti-corruption campaign, Isa has 14 days to appeal the suspension. If it is upheld, he will be forced to resign from his ministership.

DIED. SHANA ALEXANDER, 79, witty, trailblazing journalist and author; in Hermosa Beach, California. The first female staff writer at Life, Alexander, a liberal, became a household name for her verbal sparring with conservative James Kilpatrick on Point-Counterpoint, a segment on TV's 60 Minutes in the 1970s that was often parodied on Saturday Night Live, with Dan Aykroyd's snarly retort to Jane Curtin, "Jane, you ignorant slut."

DIED. CHARLES KEELING, 77, tenacious climate scientist and conservationist whose precise measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over five decades became the undisputed basis for global warming concerns; in Hamilton, Montana. Although many had once assumed that the oceans and plants would absorb all the gas emissions from cars and factories, his so-called Keeling Curve has charted consistent annual increases in carbon dioxide in different locations since the mid-1950s—a pattern clearly linked to humans' increased consumption of fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide when burned.

DIED. CARDINAL JAIME SIN, 76, powerful Philippine Roman Catholic leader and political figure; in Manila. Named Archbishop of Manila in 1973, a year after former Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, Cardinal Sin became an outspoken critic of the authoritarian government. His influence over the Philippines' devoutly Catholic population helped spark the People Power protests that toppled two presidents—Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001. "Politics without Christ is the greatest scourge of our nation," Cardinal Sin said at his 2003 retirement ceremony.

Numbers

22.04 seconds New world record in the 100-m dash for 95- to 99-year-olds, set by Japan's Kozo Haraguchi, 95

4,000 Number of new "web watchdogs" the Beijing government hopes to recruit, in addition to its current 40,000 observers, to screen China's cybercafés and Internet service providers

47,000 Number of illegal Internet cafés shut down by the Chinese government between February and December of 2004

640,000 Number of female domestic workers, as young as 12, at risk of potentially fatal sexual and physical abuse in Indonesia, according to a new Human Rights Watch report

$26,352 Winning bid for three paintings (one shown above) by a chimpanzee named Congo who died in 1964

$18,000 Price at a London auction last week for a bar of soap purportedly crafted out of fat extracted from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi during liposuction

Sitegeist When it comes to venomous invective, North Korea's propaganda machine is unsurpassed. Check out its verbal missiles at NK News (www.nk-news.net), a database of past articles from the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA). The site boasts "over 50 megabytes of hard-core Stalinist propaganda," plus the KCNA Random Insult Generator. Hit a button labeled INSULT ME AGAIN and it unleashes vitriolic phrases like "You extra-large aggressor!" and "You swollen-headed warmonger!"