Milestones

AFFIRMED. A gold medal for PAUL HAMM, 22, U.S. gymnast; by a sports tribunal; in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, in a case brought by South Korean gymnast Yang Tae Young, decided that it would set a dangerous precedent to withdraw Hamm's medal, won at the Summer Olympics in Athens, despite a scoring error that cost bronze medalist Yang a crucial one-tenth of a point, which would have been enough to earn him the gold.

AWARDED. to ALAN HOLLINGHURST, 50, British author; the Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty, the first novel with an overtly gay theme to win the literary award; in London. Of Hollinghurst's evocative tale of a young hedonist in Thatcherite London, Man Booker panel chairman Chris Smith said, "The fact it can be considered as a perfectly valid part of contemporary fiction without regarding [gay relationships] as unique shows how much times have changed."

SENTENCED. STAFF SGT. IVAN L. FREDERICK II, 38, highest ranking U.S. Army reservist accused in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal; to eight years in prison; at a court martial in Baghdad. The sentence also includes a reduction in rank, to private; a forfeiture of pay; and a dishonorable discharge. Frederick, who pleaded guilty to five of eight charges, is one of seven charged in the scandal; his sentence is the longest of the three imposed thus far.

DIED. KOOSE MUNISWAMY VEERAPPAN, 60, India's most-wanted bandit; in a jungle shootout with police; near Chennai, India. Regarded by the poor as a Robin Hood who fought the ruling classes on their behalf, he was accused of murdering 130 police officers, slaughtering elephants and smuggling millions of dollars of illegal sandalwood and ivory. The outlaw, who lived in the forest, was reportedly lured to his death by his doctor, who talked him into an ambulance by telling him he needed eye surgery.

DIED. PIERRE SALINGER, 79, White House press secretary for U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson; in Cavaillon, France. Kennedy called Salinger, a hard-living onetime investigative reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, "the voice of the White House." After serving in the two administrations, Salinger went on to become ABC News' chief correspondent in Europe ; he won the prestigious George Polk journalism award in 1981 for his scoop on the U.S. government's secret negotiations to free American hostages held in Iran.

DIED. BETTY HILL, 85, who claimed that she and her husband were abducted by aliens in 1961; in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Driving in the White Mountains one night, the Hills said they saw strange lights but then blanked out. Later, under hypnosis, they described being probed by aliens aboard a spacecraft; a tale that inspired a book, a TV movie and a wave of popular fascination with alien encounters.

DIED. PAUL H. NITZE, 97, formidable diplomat and negotiator who was one of the principal architects of American's cold war policies toward the Soviet Union; in Washington, D.C. Erudite, brash and sometimes irritable, he worked for Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt through to Ronald Reagan, helping to instigate the postwar Marshall Plan and, in 1950, writing a key paper that urged a U.S. economic and military buildup to "frustrate the Kremlin design of a world dominated by its will." Yet this early cold warrior became better known for his later efforts at conciliation, most notably a famous "walk in the woods" with his Soviet counterpart in Geneva in 1982, in an attempt to break an arms deadlock. The agreement they reached failed to win approval, but his efforts paved the way for an arms deal between the U.S. and the Soviets in 1987. Though regarded as a godfather of the neoconservative movement, Nitze in recent months had become a critic of U.S. war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.