Milestones

DIED. UTA HAGEN, 84, German-born American stage actress and acting teacher who originated the role of the savage and self-deluding Martha in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; in New York City. After moving to the U.S. in 1926, Hagen's first professional role was as a teenage Ophelia, and five years later she played Desdemona in Paul Robeson's 1942 Othello. She won a Tony Award in 1951 for her performance as the wife of an alcoholic husband in The Country Girl. Asked what it took to play the venomous Martha, a role that in 1962 won her a second Tony, Hagen said, "You need to have the courage to be disliked, and a lot of actresses don't have that."

DIED. HAROLD SHIPMAN, 57, British physician and serial killer known as "Dr. Death"; of an apparent suicide by hanging; in a prison cell where he was serving 15 consecutive life sentences, one for each patient he was convicted of murdering; in West Yorkshire, England. An investigation later revealed that he had killed as many as 260 patients over 23 years, most of them women living alone whom he gave lethal injections while making house calls.

		THIS WEEK'S COVER STORY Mission to Mars January 26, 2004 Issue Past Covers Mind & Body Jan. 19, 2004 ----------------- Howard Dean Jan. 12, 2004 ----------------- Person of the Year Dec. 29, 2003 ----------------- Saddam Captured Dec. 22, 2003 ----------------- 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   ASIA  Avian Flu: Asia on High Alert  India: The BJP's New Look  Viewpoint: Moderate Victory?  Timeline: History of the BJP  Pakistan: The Monster Within ARTS  Books: India's Glorious Parasites BUSINESS  China IPOs: Get'em While They're Hot NOTEBOOK  Philippines: The Fire Next Time  Cambodia: Court Intrigue  Milestones  Verbatim  Letters GLOBAL ADVISOR  Tokyo: Hipster Hotel  Sicily: Market Research  Bangkok: Undiscovered Temples CNN.com: Top Headlines

PERFORMED. CUI JIAN, 42, godfather of mainland Chinese rock; in an officially approved concert in Beijing, after an 11-year prohibition attributed to his politically provocative lyrics; before 10,000 fans in Beijing. Prior to the concert, Cui told the Beijing News that he didn't plan to censor himself: "I think I will start to push myself to criticize those I didn't dare criticize before," he said. His five-song set concluded with Nothing to My Name, which was an anthem of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

RETURNED. GENERAL NGUYEN CAO KY, 73, Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam from 1965-67; to Vietnam for the first time since he fled in 1975 by flying a helicopter onto a U.S. aircraft carrier; in Ho Chi Minh City. Ky, then a fighter pilot and staunch anticommunist, has plans to visit his hometown of Son Tay, 70 kilometers north of Hanoi, after the Lunar New Year holiday. "It's the right time to put the past behind us," he told reporters on his arrival.

BROADCAST. SALMA, Afghan musician; singing a traditional song on national television, the first TV performance by a woman since such appearances were banned in Afghanistan in 1992; in Kabul. The prerecorded broadcast angered the country's Supreme Court, which attempted to restore the ban days after it was lifted.

SIGNED. DONG FANGZHOU, 18, one of China's top soccer players; to Manchester United Football Club; in Manchester. The team paid $900,000 to Dong's Chinese team, Dalian Shide, a price that could rise to $6 million depending on the young striker's performances. He will initially play for the Belgian feeder club Royal Antwerp, pending a work visa that will permit him to play in Britain.

Numbers

$12,750 Fine paid by American Airlines pilot Dale Hersh for raising his middle finger while being fingerprinted and photographed during a security check in São Paulo. Brazil is reciprocating tough new checks imposed on foreigners arriving at U.S. airports

65¢ Monthly bonus paid to each policeman in northern India wearing a mustache. Research has shown that whiskered officers are taken more seriously by the public

50% Percentage by which attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq have declined since the capture of Saddam Hussein

26 Number of members of the opposition National League for Democracy released from jail, according to the Burmese military junta. The U.S. State Department called for the release of hundreds of other political prisoners

167.2 million Acres worldwide of farmland on which genetically engineered crops were grown in 2003, up 15% from 2002

$139 Price of the Dream Factory, a Japanese machine that purportedly induces sweet dreams by emitting music and key words and exuding fragrances