Milestones

FILED. A $100 MILLION LAWSUIT, by J.K. ROWLING, 37, author, and by SCHOLASTIC, U.S. publisher; against the New York Daily News, after the tabloid published details about the plot of the new, fifth Harry Potter book; in New York City. The suit claims that the newspaper damaged Rowling's intellectual-property rights and harmed Scholastic's $3 million global marketing campaign. Booksellers worldwide had to sign an agreement with the publisher, forbidding them from selling any copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix until 12:01 a.m. Greenwich mean time on June 21.

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RESIGNED. RICHARD LI, 36; as chief executive officer of Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd. (PCCW); in Hong Kong. Li will be replaced by Jack So, currently chairman of Hong Kong's subway operator MTR Corp. PCCW acquired the city's former phone monopoly Cable & Wireless HKT for $28.5 billion in 2000. Li, son of Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, will remain chairman of PCCW, which has debts of $4 billion.

DIED. HUME CRONYN, 91, legendary actor of American stage and screen; in Fairfield, Connecticut. The Canadian-born star got his big break on Broadway in 1935 in the Three Men on a Horse, and made his film debut in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt in 1943. Cronyn and his wife and longtime stage partner, Jessica Tandy, were inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 1979, and each won a Tony for special lifetime theatrical achievement in 1994; Tandy died later that year. Cronyn once said he found film easier than the stage, but less satisfying: "My heart belongs to theater, which is really home and mother."

ACQUITTED. JEAN-CLAUDE TRICHET, 60, governor of the Bank of France; in Paris. Trichet had been charged with complicity in falsifying accounts to hide losses of then state-owned bank Crédit Lyonnais in the early 1990s when he headed the French Treasury. The verdict clears the way for Trichet to become the next president of the European Central Bank after current head Wim Duisenberg steps down in October.

SENTENCED. PHAM HONG SON, 34, Vietnamese doctor and cyberdissident; to 13 years in jail on espionage charges; in Hanoi. Son was convicted of spying for e-mailing other dissidents and Vietnamese in exile, as well as for posting an essay titled "What Is Democracy" translated from a U.S. State Department website. He is one of at least five cyberdissidents imprisoned in Vietnam in the past two years.

GRANTED. SILVIO BERLUSCONI, 66, Italian Prime Minister; immunity from prosecution; in Rome. Berlusconi, Italy's richest man, is accused by Milan prosecutors of bribing judges in the 1980s to prevent a business rival taking over a state-owned food group— a charge he denies. The new immunity law bans any court proceedings against Italy's five most senior government figures during their time in office. Berlusconi's term expires in 2006, but he has the option of running for re-election.

CAPTURED. ANDREW LUSTER, 39, great-grandson of cosmetics magnate Max Factor; by bounty hunters; in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Luster fled the U.S. in January, when he jumped bail of $1 million. He had been sentenced in absentia to 124 years in jail on more than 80 charges, including date raping three women. Luster lived off a trust fund and investments believed to total about $31 million. He has been deported to Los Angeles to begin his prison term. —By Carmen Lee, with bureau reports

Numbers
97.4 Percentage of Japanese participants in a government survey who recognized the English word stress, making it the most identified foreign-word entry in the poll

151 Number of women in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu that have been commissioned to be the country's first all-female police commando unit

$1.3 billion Total tourism revenue Beijing is estimated to have lost through May because of fears in the city over SARS

8.3% Record unemployment rate for Hong Kong, for the three months ending in May

18 Number of children reported to have died in an outbreak of encephalitis in the Chinese province of Guangdong

54¢ Sum that two 16-year-old boys in Beijing were convicted of stealing from a classmate. The teenagers have been sentenced to jail terms of four years and two-and-a-half years

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A Boeing 727 plane that disappeared from an airfield in Luanda, Angola, on May 25 has still not been found. Investigators are concerned that it might be used in a 9/11-style suicide attack