Milestones

DIED. RUBéN GONZÁLEZ, 84, pianist and patriarch of Cuba's music scene who found late-life stardom after his appearance on the Grammy Award-winning 1997 album Buena Vista Social Club and in the subsequent documentary; in Havana. González, who was rediscovered by guitarist Ry Cooder, was initially nervous about playing on the album: he suffered from arthritis and didn't have a piano (his was ruined by termites). But he welcomed the attention and happily began performing again. "If I can't take a piano with me to heaven," he said in 2000, "then I don't want to go."

DIED. PAUL SIMON, 75, liberal Democratic congressman and two-term senator from Illinois who ran unsuccessfully for President in 1988; in Springfield, Illinois. Simon, who wore a trademark bow tie and large glasses, argued for shifting spending from the military to social programs, but favored balanced budgets. The son of American missionaries to China, he was a key congressional backer of Taiwan.

WOUNDED. MICHAEL WEISSKOPF, 57, senior correspondent for TIME, and JAMES NACHTWEY, 55, TIME photographer, in a grenade attack as they were traveling with two soldiers in a Humvee; in Baghdad. Weisskopf, a Washington-based correspondent on assignment in Iraq, picked up the grenade and threw it out of the vehicle, losing his right hand.

DIED. KO (BLACKY) SHOU-LIANG, 50, Taiwanese actor and stuntman famous for jumping across the Yellow River and the Great Wall on motorcycles and in cars; in Shanghai. A police spokeswoman said Ko, known for playing triad goons, may have died of an "alcohol-induced asthma attack" after attending three banquets, the Xinhua news agency reported.

SENTENCED. WANG XUEBING, 51, former Bank of China president, to 12 years' jail for accepting bribes; in Beijing. Wang, once a protégé of former Premier Zhu Rongji and a proponent of Chinese banking reform, ran the bank's New York branch during a period when a borrower defaulted on $34 million in fraudulent loans. The bank had to pay $20 million in fines to U.S. and Chinese regulators, but won $106.4 million in a lawsuit against the client.

		LATEST COVER STORY Saddam Captured December 22, 2003 Issue Past Covers The Insurgents Dec. 15, 2003 ----------------- 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  Indonesia: JI still going strong  Afghanistan: Intelligence failures RELIGION  The lost Gospels ARTS  Movies: HK's film godfather  Review: One sequel too many? NOTEBOOK  Taiwan: Stuck in the middle  Japan: Searching for the stork  Milestones  Verbatim  Letters GLOBAL ADVISOR  Holidays: Champagne supernova  Kyrgyzstan: R and R in Bishkek  Malaysia: Hip hotels in Langkawi CNN.com: Top Headlines

ABANDONED. NOZOMI, a Mars probe that was Japan's first interplanetary mission, after scientists determined it wouldn't be able to properly orbit the red planet because of an electrical failure. The craft, whose name means hope in Japanese, will be steered away from Mars to prevent it from crashing into the planet.

INJURED. OZZY OSBOURNE, 55, heavy metal icon and star of a reality TV show featuring his family life, in a quad bike accident; on his estate in Buckinghamshire, England. Osbourne broke his collarbone and ribs, and cracked a neck vertebra.

Numbers

750,000 Number of fans who packed London's streets last week to celebrate England's World Cup rugby victory. The same day, the team had tea with the Queen and joined the Prime Minister for a champagne reception

65 million Number of girls worldwide who don't attend school, according to a new UNICEF report. The U.N. unit is battling the perception in many societies that education is a luxury rather than a basic right

3,600 tons Estimated amount of opium poppies harvested this year in Afghanistan, worth $2.5 billion, or half the country's GDP

21 Number of rats competing in the 19th annual Xtreme Rat Challenge in Lincoln, Nebraska. There are five events: hurdles, long jump, rope climb, tightrope walking and weightlifting

30,000 Years since the last ice age, when ice covered much of the northern hemisphere

77 Years until the North Polar ice cap could disappear, according to British meteorologists

10,000 Number of Malaysian shoppers who looted a mall south of Kuala Lumpur. More than $26,000 worth of goods was stolen