Milestones

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INAUGURATED. Joseph Kabila, 35, as the Democratic Republic of Congo's first freely elected President in more than 40 years; in the capital, Kinshasa. Kabila—who has served as the country's leader since the assassination of his father, President Laurent Kabila, in 2001—defeated Jean-Pierre Bemba in an electoral runoff in October. Addressing dignitaries alongside the Congo River, Kabila vowed to end the corruption and violence that have ravaged the mineral-rich country: "I can see the Congo of tomorrow carrying the hopes of a renascent Africa," he said.

OUSTED. Laisenia Qarase, 65, Fijian Prime Minister; in a coup—the island nation's fourth in 19 years—led by Fiji's top military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama; in the capital, Suva. The bloodless coup, prefaced by weeks of rumors and military movements, is widely attributed to a feud between Qarase and Bainimarama over amnesty for the leaders of a 2000 coup, which Bainimarama had helped quell. Bainimarama placed Qarase under house arrest, dissolved Parliament, imposed a state of emergency and installed Jona Senilagakali as interim Prime Minister. Senilagakali, a military doctor with no political experience, told reporters that democratic elections could be as far as two years off.

SENTENCED. Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, 21, U.S. Marine; to 40 years in prison; for raping a 22-year-old Filipino woman in the back of a van in November 2005; in Makati City, the Philippines. Three U.S. soldiers and a Filipino driver were cleared of complicity in the attack on the woman, who testified she was too drunk on the evening of the assault to consent to sex. Smith is the first American marine to be convicted of rape in the country since 1998, when the two countries signed the Visiting Forces Agreement, which in part governs the treatment of U.S. servicemen in criminal cases. Smith's lawyers have appealed the verdict.

DIED. Claude Jade, 58, French actress who shot to fame as the heroine of three of François Truffaut's best-loved films, the bittersweet, semi-autobiographical trilogy Stolen Kisses, Bed & Board and Love on the Run; of eye cancer; in Boulogne-Billancourt, France.

DIED. Perry Henzell, 70, Jamaican director whose 1972 movie The Harder They Come, the first-ever Jamaican-produced feature film, introduced reggae to a global audience; in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica. The movie, featuring songs like You Can Get It If You Really Want and Many Rivers to Cross, helped pave the way for Bob Marley's international breakthrough and launched the career of singer Jimmy Cliff.

DIED. Kenneth Taylor, 86, who, with squadron mate George Welch, became the first U.S. Army Air Force pilots to get airborne—and, under fire, shoot down at least six enemy planes—immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; in Tucson, Arizona. Taylor, then 21, was on his first assignment at Hawaii's Wheeler Field on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Hearing machine-gun fire, he grabbed Welch and drove to their planes. "I wasn't in the least bit terrified," he later said. "I was too young and too stupid to realize that I was in a lot of danger."

Numbers
52 Number of times reconciliation was used in the Iraq Study Group's report
1 Number of times civil war appeared in the document
0 Times war on terror was used

50 Number of endangered white-flag dolphins Chinese researchers believe may still survive in China's Yangtze River
26 days Time scientists spent unsuccessfully searching the river for any sign of the dolphins last month. The last reliable sighting was nearly a decade ago

$12 million Price an Auto Union D-Type, a rare 1939 German race car, is expected to sell for at a February auction in Paris
$100,000 Amount Adolf Hitler paid to commission the car's design in 1933

$1 billion Amount Israeli businessman Avi Shaked has offered to pay Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya if he reaches a peace accord with Israel
$100 million Amount Shaked says he would give if the Palestinian and Israeli Premiers simply sit down to talk

40% Proportion of the world's wealth possessed by the richest 1% of the population, according to a recent U.N. study
1% Proportion of global wealth possessed by the poorest half of the world's population