Milestones

RESIGNED. TSANG YOK-SING, 56, leader and co-founder of Hong Kong's largest pro-China party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB); as the party's chairman, after the DAB won just 30% of the seats it contested in last month's District Council elections; in Hong Kong. Tsang and the DAB have been tainted by their close association with Hong Kong's Beijing-appointed Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, who has been strongly criticized by the public for his handling of, among other issues, the economy and the SARS crisis. Tsang underestimated the growing desire of many Hong Kongers for more democracy: last week he admitted that "my behavior and performance have contributed to the DAB's negative image." The DAB's decline could lead to big gains for democratic parties in next year's legislative elections—a troubling prospect for Beijing.

RESIGNED. PHILIP CONDIT, 62, chairman and CEO of U.S. aviation-and-aerospace giant Boeing; following revelations that top executives breached the company's ethics policies to secure Pentagon contracts; in Chicago. A week earlier, two Boeing executives had been fired in connection with the case. Condit's seven-year tenure had weathered several other scandals involving accounting improprieties and corporate espionage.

DIED. GERTRUDE EDERLE, 98, American swimmer who was briefly a national icon after she became the first woman to swim the English Channel; in Wyckoff, New Jersey. Ederle accomplished the feat in 1926 in a then world-record time of 14 hr. 31 min.

		LATEST COVER STORY The Insurgents December 8, 2003 Issue Past Covers Kids and Drugs Dec. 8, 2003 ----------------- America and Bush Dec. 1, 2003 ----------------- Russell Crowe Nov. 24, 2003 ----------------- Jessica Lynch Nov. 17, 2003 ----------------- Tortured Minds Nov. 10, 2003 ----------------- Eating Smart Nov. 3, 2003 ----------------- Bollywood Oct. 27, 2003 ----------------- Tomb Raiders Oct. 20, 2003 ----------------- Bali Remembered Oct. 13, 2003 ----------------- What Went Wrong? Oct. 6, 2003 ----------------- What's Next Sept. 29, 2003 ----------------- Japan's Koizumi Sept. 22, 2003 -----------------   ASIA  Taiwan: Fanning the flames TIME IN DEPTH  AIDS: China's Secret Plague BUSINESS  Nintendo: The Console Wars ARTS  Books: The Lust of Exploration  Books: Family Phantoms NOTEBOOK  Korea: More woes for Roh  Indonesia: Upping the Heat  Milestones  Verbatim  Letters GLOBAL ADVISOR  Magical Xmas markets  Gifts that stand out  A visit to Santa's town CNN.com: Top Headlines

DIED. DAVID HEMMINGS, 62, British actor best remembered for playing a swinging photographer in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 classic Blowup; while filming a movie in Romania. In the 1980s, Hemmings turned to directing TV shows before he returned to movie acting. One of his recent film roles was in the Oscar-winning Gladiator.

ARRESTED. YASUO TAKEI, 73, founder and chairman of Japan's largest consumer-credit firm, Takefuji, and the country's second richest man; for breaching Japan's telecommunications laws when he allegedly ordered his staff to wiretap the phone of a freelance journalist who published articles critical of him; in Tokyo. Takei's family fortune is estimated to be worth about $5.3 billion. His company Takefuji has also come under legal scrutiny for its alleged hardball debt-collection methods and for overworking its employees.

WANTED. CHARLES TAYLOR, 55, former President of Liberia; after being indicted by a U.N.-backed court in Sierra Leone on charges that include crimes against humanity; by Interpol in Lyon, France. Taylor, whose rule was characterized by civil war and ethnic conflict, was forced to step down in August under international pressure. He currently lives in exile in Nigeria. The charges stem from Taylor's alleged training of rebels in Sierra Leone who engaged in the torture and murder of civilians.

Numbers

3,000 Total of monkeys attending a feast last week in Lopburi, central Thailand. The nine-course meal included Jell-O and cola. The banquet is hosted annually by a local businessman who believes the monkeys have brought him good fortune

10 Number of cosmetic-surgery procedures, worth a total of $10,000, constituting the prize in a "beauty" contest in Shanghai for aesthetically challenged women

200 Number of ancient artifacts, including two mummies, returned to Egypt after being discovered in a customs warehouse in Switzerland

9 Number of Burmese, including a sports-magazine editor, sentenced to death last week by a special court in Rangoon for plotting to overthrow the military junta

$2.30 Average pay earned per hour by textile workers in Mexico

64¢ Average hourly wage of textile workers in China, whose cheaper goods are displacing Mexican products in the U.S., Mexico's biggest export market

$803,000 Sum each spammer will be fined per day of mass mailings, under a new Australian law