Milestones

• Share

DIED. LONNIE DONEGAN, 71, godfather of British pop who burst onto the U.K. music scene in the 1950s with "skiffle," his unique rendition of American folk music; after collapsing midway through a tour; in Peterborough, England. Described by Paul McCartney as "The Man," Donegan swept the charts between 1956 and 1962 with 26 hits such as Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor (on the Bedpost Overnight), and Rock Island Line. Although his glory days ended with the Beatles, Donegan inspired generations of musicians including the Rolling Stones, and later continued performing in comedy and cabaret.

CONVICTED. WINONA RYDER, 31, doe-eyed star of The Age of Innocence and The Crucible; for vandalism and shoplifting more than $5,000 worth of merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue; in Beverly Hills. Ryder pleaded not guilty, claiming she was under instruction from a director to research a role in an upcoming movie, although which director and film remains unclear. Prosecutors said they would not ask for a jail sentence.

RESIGNED. SOUTH KOREAN JUSTICE MINISTER KIM JUNG KIL, 65, and prosecutor-General Lee Myung Jae, 59, taking responsibility for the death of a murder suspect who was fatally beaten while in police custody; in Seoul.

RELEASED. ASIF ALI ZARDARI, 46, husband of self-exiled Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto who has been in jail on corruption charges since 1996, to visit his ailing mother for three days; in Karachi. The temporary freedom may be a show of leniency as President Pervez Musharraf's government attempts to deter Bhutto's powerful Pakistan People's Party from allying with Islamic fundamentalists to form a coalition government.

SENTENCED. LE CHI QUANG, 32, to four years in prison after being convicted of "circulating information opposing the government" via the Internet; in Hanoi. Quang is one of three "Internet dissidents" jailed this year.

DIED. LO LIEH, 59, Chinese action star of Five Fingers of Death, the first Hong Kong martial arts film to make an impact beyond Chinese-language theaters; of a heart attack; in Shenzhen. Lieh later played reliably fierce villains in kung fu bone crackers such as Dirty Ho and Ninja Massacre, and co-starred with Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat.

DIED. ALFONSO MARTINEZ DOMINGUEZ, 80, former Mayor of Mexico City who was under investigation for alleged involvement in a 1971 student massacre; in Monterrey, Mexico.

DIED. LORD HASLAM, 79, working class mining engineer who rose to the top of his profession as chairman of state-run monoliths British Coal and British Steel; in Virginia Water, England. Admired by miners for his self-deprecatory manner, Haslam was made a life peer in 1990.

DIED. LARRY DOBKIN, 83, Emmy-nominated character actor who appeared in more than 65 feature films and whose small-screen credits read like a history of television; in Los Angeles. Dobkin had guest spots on shows ranging from Adventures of Superman and I Love Lucy in the 1950s to The Practice in the 1990s.

Numbers
85 years is how long a centenarian Taiwanese couple have been married—taking the Guinness record from a U.S. couple married 83 years

$11 billion is how much South Korean companies will spend to offer broadband Internet access to every residence by 2005

58% of U.S. women would prefer a high-definition digital TV to a 1-carat diamond ring, says a Consumer Electronics Association survey

8.3 million Taiwanese lotto tickets were recalled after a local man revealed a way to pick winning tickets by studying their numbers and barcodes

3 million Indonesians could drop below the poverty line due to the economic fallout from the Bali bombings, according to the World Bank

30,000 police are engaged in monitoring Chinese citizens' web usage, according to a U.S. congressional panel

3 huge military cargo ships left the U.S. for the Indian Ocean in the last fortnight

omen
British researchers have found that a positive mental attitude has no effect on cancer survival rates. After reviewing 28 studies, they found little scientific evidence for the power of a fighting spirit