Milestones

CELEBRATED. BOB HOPE, legendary funnyman of stage and screen; his 100th birthday; in Los Angeles. British-born Hope, who began his career in vaudeville, has acted in more than 50 movies, anchored scores of TV shows and entertained millions of American troops posted overseas. In the U.S., Hope's becoming a centenarian will be commemorated over an entire year with exhibitions, stage performances and TV and movie specials. Ahead of his May 29 birthday, the comedian was reported to have quipped, "I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type."

ARRESTED. SAIFULLAH (MUKLIS) YUNOS, alleged head of special operations for the Philippine separatist group the Moro National Liberation Front and said to be its liaison with the regional terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiah (JI); while trying to board a flight for Manila; in Cagayan de Oro, the Philippines. Yunos was caught with an Egyptian who is on international terrorist-watch lists. Meanwhile, in Cambodia the authorities detained three men—one Egyptian and two Thais—for being JI members. Although the arrests signify progress in the war on terror, they also show the resilience and reach of JI, which is widely regarded as al-Qaeda's Asian proxy.

SENTENCED. JIN HAIKE, 26, XU WEI, 28, YANG ZILIN, 32, and ZHANG HONGHAI, 29, members of a Chinese study group; to extended prison terms for "subverting state power"; in Beijing. The four men were arrested in 2001 after they formed the New Youth Study Group to discuss sociopolitical issues and to write essays, some of which were posted online. Given that Communist Party organs have begun publicly discussing once taboo subjects such as political reform, the severity of the sentences—Jin and Xu have each been handed 10 years in prison and the others eight—has shocked human-rights activists.

RETIRED. CONCORDE, the sleek, chic, supersonic passenger jet; on May 31, after 27 years of service, by Air France; in Roissy, France. Despite stratospheric ticket prices—more than $10,000 for some flights—the jet's profitability nose-dived following a July 2000 crash in which 113 people were killed. Increasing maintenance expenses and a slumping aviation industry compounded Concorde's woes. British Airways, the only other airline flying the jet, plans to ground its fleet on Oct. 31.

DIED. RACHEL KEMPSON, 92, British theater, film and TV actress and matriarch of the Redgrave family of actors; in New York City. Kempson, who started her stage life in 1933, achieved wide acclaim for her TV role as Lady Manners in the 1980s hit drama The Jewel in the Crown. During her career she also acted alongside various family members and made her film debut opposite her husband, Michael Redgrave, in the 1941 comedy Jeannie.

DETAINED. AUNG SAN SUU KYI, 57, Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of Burma's National League of Democracy (NLD) party; by Burma's military junta after riots occurred last Friday during her trip to the northern town of Yaway Oo. Govern-ment spokesmen stated that Suu Kyi, who had been released from house arrest in May 2002, was in "protective custody" along with 17 other NLD leaders. Police also sealed off the NLD headquarters in Rangoon.

Numbers

1.1 billion Number of people worldwide who lack access to safe drinking water

6 Average number of kilograms gained by each detainee released from the Guantánamo Bay camp

27 Total number of suicide attempts by detainees at the Guantánamo Bay camp since it opened in January 2002

$26,000 Amount that the manufacturer of Vitagin, a drink developed to fight SARS, promise to pay any of its consumers who contracts the disease

10 Number of excess lions a zoo in Bangladesh plans to release into the country's rain forest, which has no native lion population

20 Number of years that Jawad Amir hid inside the walls of his parents' house in Iraq to escape an execution order

$590,000 Amount the Danish Parliament allocates each year for Crown Prince Frederik's household

3 million Number of years scientists believe it might take for a new planet to form

80 Number of days that Brad Hauter plans to take to drive across the U.S. on a lawn mower

637 Number of deaths caused over 17 days by a heat wave in southern India, where temperatures reached 47°C