Milestones

SENTENCED. TRUONG VAN CAM, a.k.a. Nam Cam, 56, Vietnam's most notorious crime lord; to death for charges ranging from bribery to murder; in Ho Chi Minh City. Cam's gambling, prostitution and racketeering empire was reportedly pulling in about $2 million a month when he was arrested in December 2001. The case exposed the link between organized crime and the ruling Communist Party. At the trial the 155 defendants included 18 officials, most on Cam's payroll. Three were senior Party cadres who have been sentenced to four to 10 years in jail.

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SENTENCED. DONALD PARFITT, 44, a forklift operator; to 180 hours of community service for stealing the fifth installment of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series; in Suffolk, England. Parfitt tried to sell the pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which he claimed he found in a parking lot, to a newspaper for £25,000 (about $41,550). The book launches on June 21.

CHARGED. MARTHA STEWART, 61, American lifestyle icon; with securities fraud and obstruction of justice; in New York City. Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, is also being prosecuted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading of shares in ImClone Systems a day before the biotech company announced that its application to market a cancer drug was rejected. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges for which she could face up to 30 years in prison.

CHARGED. LIU TAI-YING, 67, former Kuomintang treasurer; with perjury, graft, insider trading, and other offenses relating to several financial scandals; in Taipei. Liu, chairman of China Development Financial Holding Corp., was one of the most powerful figures in Taiwan's former ruling party during the 1990s. If convicted, he faces up to 16 years in jail. Liu's indictment is being taken as evidence that President Chen Shui-bian's administration is serious about its pledge to crack down on corruption.

SIGNED. STEPHEN CHOW, 40, Hong Kong's king of comedy; a deal with Hollywood studio Columbia Pictures to co-produce a movie set in China; in Los Angeles. Tentatively titled Kung Fu Hustle, the film is scripted by Chow, who will also play the lead and direct. Chow's 2001 Shaolin Soccer, Hong Kong's biggest box-office hit ever, is scheduled to be released in the U.S. in August by Miramax.

APPOINTED. SURYA BAHADUR THAPA, 75, of Nepal's National Democratic Party (NDP); as Prime Minister, by King Gyanendra; in Kathmandu. Thapa replaces Lokendra Bahadur Chapa, also of the NDP, who was unable to negotiate an end to a seven-year uprising by Maoist rebels. Thapa might not be able to do so, either, given the pressure to produce results fast. Since ascending the throne in June 2001, Gyanendra has shown little patience with his Prime Ministers, firing not just Chapa but his predecessor Sher Bahadur Deuba.

KILLED. LOTHAR HEINRICH ALBERT, 54, a German tourist; by government troops; in Aceh province, Indonesia. Albert and his wife, Elizabeth Engel, arrived in Aceh for a cycling tour in late April, before hostilities between the military and separatist rebels resumed. The army says soldiers shot at the couple's campsite thinking they were guerrilla fighters. Engel was hit in the knee, and is in stable condition. The military has come under fire for being trigger-happy and killing noncombatants.

Numbers

$30,000 Amount officials are offering each household to move from the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, Italy's deadliest volcano

$80 million Total that Shanghai entrepreneur Ye Lipei wagered during 19 visits to a casino in Melbourne

7,800 Number of gallons of Evian water consumed during last week's G-8 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France

0 Number of worldwide SARS-related deaths on June 4, the first day without a fatality since the epidemic started

80 Percentage of Palestinians who believe that peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians is impossible

$762 Average yearly income in North Korea in 2002

$10,013 Average yearly income in South Korea in 2002

$1 billion Annual revenue in Mexico from smuggling people into the U.S.

8.5 million Number of copies of the new Harry Potter book printed in the U.S.

235,000 Total tonnage of supplies needed to avert a severe food shortage in Ethiopia

200 How many more daily calories women pregnant with boys eat than those carrying girls

5¢ Cost of a kilogram of crickets in Cambodia