RETIRED. STEVE WAUGH, 38, Australia's most successful cricket-test captain, who said he wanted to leave the sport while still at the top of his game; in Sydney. Waugh, who was once dropped from the squad early in his career to make room for his twin brother, Mark, became known for a gritty, attacking style that led the Australians to 40 wins in 53 tests, including an unparalleled 16 straight victories from October 1999 to March 2001. During his 18-year career, Waugh scored 10,660 runs, second only to countryman Allan Border. Waugh's exit from the pitch will be delayed until January, at the close of a series against India.
APPROVED. TAIWAN REFERENDUM LAW, passed by the island's legislature, which for the first time will allow Taiwanwide referendums, a gesture of sovereignty that could rile Beijing, which maintains that Taiwan is part of China; in Taipei. President Chen Shui-bian had supported a broad measure that would have allowed a plebiscite on any constitutional changes, but the opposition Kuomintang managed to pass a law that prohibits a vote on constitutional issues and independence (unless Taiwan is attacked by the mainland).
DIED. W. FRED TURNER, 81, attorney who successfully defended Clarence Earl Gideon, a Florida inmate whose 1963 Supreme Court case was a major test of the right to legal representation; in Panama City, Florida. Gideon had no lawyer during a trial in which he was found guilty of stealing change and cases of beer, wine and Coke from a pool hall. He filed his own appeal to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the poor must be provided free counsel in serious criminal cases. During the retrial, Turner undermined previous testimony and presented an alternative culprit, winning Gideon's release. "When I die, they'll probably put over my grave, 'Here lies Gideon's lawyer,'" Turner said earlier this year.
DIED. HAL WALKER, 70, first African-American correspondent for CBS News; in Reston, Virginia. Hired by cbs in 1963, Walker covered the riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the funeral of Robert F. Kennedy and the Iranian hostage crisis.
DIED. EUGENE KLEINER, 80, engineer and Silicon Valley pioneer whose venture-capital firm helped establish Sun Microsystems, Compaq and Amazon.com; in Los Altos Hills, California. Kleiner, who fled his native Austria in 1938, co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957, which developed a technique for mass producing silicon transistors. Fifteen years later, he helped establish the venture-capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, which gave seed money to more than 300 companies, including many tech powerhouses.
Numbers
68 Number of years that Prahlad Jani, a 76-year-old ascetic in India, claims to have lived without eating, drinking or relieving himself. He was partly vindicated after spending 10 days under 24-hour closed circuit-TV surveillance by 400 medics
2,540 Number of people killed by land mines and unexploded ordnance in Vietnam's most heavily bombed province, Quang Tri, since the war ended in 1975
$401.3 billion Size of the record-breaking U.S. defense budget signed by President George W. Bush last week
$4.3 billion Amount generated annually by the Thai sex industry—an estimated 3% of the country's economy. Last week, the justice ministry debated legalizing prostitution
$37 Average amount spent monthly by Shanghai pet owners on their dogs
$35 Maximum average monthly income per person for Shanghai families receiving welfare. Some districts refuse welfare to dog owners
83 Age of former Italian Prime Minister Emilio Columbo, who admits using cocaine habitually "for therapeutic purposes"