Milestones

INDICTED. ROBERT TSAO, 58, and JOHN HSUAN, 53, former chairman and vice-chairman of Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), the world's second largest maker of custom computer chips; for allegedly transferring technology, funds and personnel to Chinese start-up He Jian Technology, in violation of laws prohibiting the establishment of high-tech semiconductor plants on the mainland without special approval; in Taipei. The two are also charged with "breach of trust" for allegedly acting against the interests of UMC shareholders. The company has denied the allegations, calling the indictments "purely political."

CONFESSED. WICHAI SOMKHAOYAI, 24, and BUALOI POSIT, 23, Thai fishermen; to the Jan. 1 murder of British tourist Katherine Horton, a crime that could carry the death penalty; on the resort island of Koh Samui, Thailand. The two admitted to abducting Horton as she was walking on the beach, and to beating and raping the 21-year-old before dumping her body in the sea. Thai officials, concerned that the crime has hurt the country's image as a tourist destination, have fast-tracked Wichai and Bualoi's trial; their sentence is expected to be delivered this week.

RELEASED. MEHMET ALI AGCA, 48, Turkish assailant who spent almost 20 years in jail in Italy for shooting and wounding Pope John Paul II in 1981, then served five more in a Turkish jail for the 1979 murder of a journalist; in Istanbul. The Pontiff, who was shot by Agca while riding in an open car through Rome's St. Peter's Square, forgave his would-be assassin and visited him in prison. But after the Turkish press railed at his release, Justice Minister Cernil Cicek ordered a review of whether Agca had been credited correctly for time served. Cicek said Agca was apparently jailed for only 19 years and one month in Italy—not 20 full years—and may be required to serve another 11 months.

SENTENCED. VLADIMIR ARUTYUNIAN, 27, to life in prison for the attempted assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili; in Tbilisi, Georgia. Arutyunian, a Georgian citizen of Armenian descent, hurled a live hand grenade at the two leaders during a rally last May, but it fell short and failed to detonate. Arutyunian later killed a policeman in a shootout during his arrest. He was shown on television admitting that he threw the grenade, but his lawyer said he will appeal the sentence.

DIED. SIDNEY FRANK, 86, eccentric beverage-marketing guru who in 1999 introduced the "superpremium" Grey Goose vodka—with its frosted bottle, Cézanne-inspired label and $30-per-bottle price tag—and seven years later sold it to Bacardi for more than $2 billion; in San Diego, California. In the 1970s, Frank sensed an unquenched niche in the rambunctious U.S. college-student market and began importing the near-unknown German liqueur Jagermeister, sometimes compared to cough syrup. With the help of a cadre of pretty "Jagerettes," who poured free shots in bars, the brand soared in sales from some 500 cases in 1974 to more than 2 million last year.

DIED. BIRGIT NILSSON, 87, international opera star whose voice, dramatic talent and stamina made her the finest Wagnerian soprano of her generation; on Christmas Day, in Vastra Karup, Sweden. Level-headed and sharp-witted, Nilsson thrilled audiences from New York to Milan in a variety of operas, but won her most enthusiastic fans with dynamic lead performances in such Wagner works as Ring of the Nibelung and Tristan und Isolde. Asked to name the primary requirement for playing Isolde, a punishing role she performed some 200 times, she said: "Comfortable shoes."

Numbers
7,486 Performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera as of last week, making it the longest-running Broadway show of all time

10 million Number of female fetuses that may have been aborted over the past two decades in India by parents hoping for sons
927 Number of females per 1,000 males in India

14 million iPods sold from October to December 2005—triple the sales in the same period in 2004
850 million Songs bought online through Apple's iTunes service since its 2003 launch

2 million Number of seeds, representing all of the world's known crop varieties, to be safeguarded in a "doomsday vault" on a remote Arctic island
75% Estimated proportion of crop species believed to have been lost since 1900