Milestones

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EXECUTED. MIR AIMAL KASI, 38, Pakistani man jailed since 1997 for gunning down two CIA officers and injuring three others during a bloody shooting spree outside the agency's Virginia headquarters in 1993; by lethal injection; at the Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia. Warning of a global backlash against Americans if Kasi was executed, Pakistani politicians lobbied U.S. authorities to spare Kasi's life. In his hometown of Quetta, protesters demonstrating against Kasi's execution took to the streets, chanting "Aimal is our hero." Before losing consciousness, Kasi's final words were "There is no god but Allah."

RELEASED. KIM HONG GUL, 40, Korean President Kim Dae Jung's youngest son, after serving less than six months of a two-year jail term on charges of bribery and tax evasion; in Seoul. Hong Gul was instead fined $167,000. In freeing him, the court said it took into account Hong Gul's "passive" involvement and this month's conviction of his older brother Kim Hong Up on similar charges.

DIED. WOLFIE KODESH, 84, veteran South African Communist Party activist who played a leading role in the fight against apartheid; in Cape Town. Kodesh was known for providing refuge to those on the run from the apartheid regime, and once safeguarded Nelson Mandela for two months in his one-room flat in the east coast town of Berea. In 1964, Kodesh was detained without trial, then exiled to Britain where he continued to work for Mandela's African National Congress. Kodesh returned to South Africa in 1991 as the apartheid system began to crumble. Believing that the cloak-and-dagger life he led would be unfair to any wife and family, Kodesh never married.

DIED. BILQUEES ZARDARI, 70, mother-in-law of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto; after quickly deteriorating from a chest infection; in Karachi. Bhutto lives in self-exile in London. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, jailed since 1996 on corruption charges, was temporarily released last week to visit his ailing mother, and is being allowed to attend her funeral.

DIED. JOHNNY GRIFFITH, 66, classically trained musician and pioneering keyboard wizard for the 1960s Motown band Funk Brothers, who played on legendary hits such as the Supremes' Stop in the Name of Love and Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through the Grapevine; in Detroit. As one of the pioneers of the Motown sound, a fusion of soul, gospel and pop, Griffith and the Funk Brothers have had a lasting impact on popular music trends through the past four decades.

DIED. JUAN SCHIAFFINO, 77, Uruguayan soccer legend who helped steer his country to a momentous 1950 World Cup final victory against favorites Brazil; in Montevideo. After his World Cup triumph, Schiaffino was poached by Italian club AC Milan for what was then a princely sum of $300,000.

DIED. MYRA HINDLEY, 60, Britain's longest-serving female prisoner who was sentenced to life in 1966 for her part in the notorious child killings known as the Moors murders; in Suffolk, England. Jailed along with lover and accomplice Ian Brady, she was convicted of murdering two of the five children they had abducted, tortured and sexually abused before burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester. Hindley had made a number of legal bids for freedom but a succession of Home Secretaries had ruled against her release. Brady has been force-fed while on hunger strike since 1999 and continues to fight for the right to die.

Numbers
4% is how much less likely it is for either white or yellow colored vehicles to be struck by another car, compared with those painted other colors, according to Spanish researchers

600 cobras are now in the care of Hong Kong authorities after a dramatic sea chase in which smugglers heading for China hurled the snakes at pursuing police before their boats collided

300 people will pay to watch a German doctor-artist perform Britain's first public autopsy in 170 years

31% of Americans change e-mail addresses every year, half of them to reduce the amount of spam they receive, according to a recent survey

1.6 kg of fossil fuels must be burned to manufacture 2 grams of microchips. Also needed: 72 grams of chemicals and 32 liters of water, according to Japanese researchers

3.06 gigahertz is the clock speed of Intel's new microprocessor, the speediest commercially available chip ever

Omen
A U.S. study has found that men from rural areas have lower sperm counts than those from urban areas, prompting fears that ex-posure to agricultural chemicals may carry long-term health risks