Milestones

DETAINED. Khaleel Aziz Sheikh, 24, Kamal Ahmed Ansari, 32, and Mumtaz Ahmed Chowdhury, 38, in connection with the July 11 Bombay train bombings that killed more than 180 commuters; in Bombay and Bihar. The three suspects are the first to be arrested by police investigators, who after the blasts rounded up as many as 350 people—most of them Muslim—for questioning. A fourth man, Abdulkadir Karim Tunda, 64, a suspected member of Kashmir-based militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, was also detained last Thursday in Kenya. Officials say more arrests are forthcoming.

DIED. Robert Brooks, 69, canny businessman who, as chairman of Hooters, turned the bar-restaurant chain, famed for buxom waitresses in orange hot pants, into an international success; of unspecified natural causes; in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A marketing guru who placed the Hooters name on a magazine, an airline and a pro-golf tour, he expanded the chain to 46 states and 20 countries. "Good food, cold beer and pretty girls never go out of style," he said.

DIED. Sam Myers, 70, Delta bluesman and master harmonica player whose 1956 single Sleeping in the Ground was later covered by musicians from Robert Cray to Eric Clapton; of throat cancer; in East Dallas, Texas. In 1986, Myers revived his career as front man for Dallas-based Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets, considered among the U.S.'s best blues ensembles and the winner of nine W.C. Handy awards—the blues' Grammys.

DIED. Ta Mok, 80, last chief of the Khmer Rouge, nicknamed "the Butcher" for his role in the death of nearly 2 million Cambodians during the communist group's rule in the late 1970s; in Phnom Penh. The only Khmer Rouge leader who refused to strike a deal to defect or surrender to the government, Ta Mok was facing trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity when he died.

DIED. Gérard Oury, 87, writer and director of some of France's most beloved comic films; in St.-Tropez. Originally trained as an actor, Oury's modest success in stage roles led him to embrace film direction in 1959. His 1966 smash, the World War II-set La Grande Vadrouille (Don't Look Now, We're Being Shot At), sold over 17 million cinema tickets and reigned as France's most popular film until the Hollywood blockbuster Titanic surpassed it in 1998.

DIED. Raja Rao, 97, Indian novelist and professor of philosophy whose intellectual works explored the clashes between East and West; in Austin, Texas. One of the first Indian authors to write in English, Rao's most famous work, 1938's Kanthapura, told the story of India's turbulent independence movement from the perspective of an elderly village woman. British novelist E.M. Forster called it the best book in English by an Indian writer.

DIED. Mickey Spillane, 88, scribe behind the gory, hard-boiled Mike Hammer detective novels , which appalled critics with their stilted prose ("Her eyes were a symphony of incredulity," Spillane wrote of a victim whom Hammer had romanced, then shot) but enthralled readers, who bought more than 100 million copies over six decades; in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Spillane's anticommunist bent and good-vs.-evil plots in such yarns as My Gun Is Quick, One Lonely Night and I, the Jury resonated with weary postwar Americans. He also built a multimedia juggernaut: the hard-drinking, gleefully sadistic Hammer inspired film noir (Kiss Me, Deadly), made-for-TV movies and three TV series. The author, who got his start in comic books, bore similarities to his cavalier hero ("I don't give a hoot about ... reviews. What I want to read are royalty checks," he liked to say) but revealed a softer, subtler side in the '70s and '80s, writing two well-received children's books and parodying his macho image in TV ads for Miller Lite beer.

Numbers
576,582 tons Amount of cross-border food aid donated by China last year, the third most in the world behind the U.S. and E.U.
90% Amount of this aid that went to North Korea

100 Average number of Iraqi civilians killed per day last month, the highest tally of violent deaths since the fall of Baghdad
14,338 Number of Iraqi civilian casualties since the beginning of the year

59 seconds Length of the inaugural flight of a one-man, battery-powered aircraft in Tokyo last week, the first flight of its kind
160 Number of conventional AA batteries used to power the plane

$100,000 Average net salary for senior executives in Turkey, the world's highest according to a new study
$78,600 U.S. executives' average pay, ranked 13th behind India, Russia and Japan

45% Proportion of the $420 million charged to government-issued credit cards by U.S. Homeland Security staff in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that wasn't authorized in advance, according to a government audit
$68,000 Charge for 8,000 dog booties—which went unused