Monday, May. 09, 2005

Milestones

By Charles Gillig

SWORN IN. IBRAHIM AL-JAAFARI, 58, Shi'ite Muslim and chosen candidate of the United Iraqi Alliance; as Prime Minister of the first-ever democratically elected government of Iraq; in Baghdad. Against a backdrop of violence—more than 250 people have been killed since the new government was announced in late April—al-Jaafari was inaugurated along with 30 other members of his government, although he has yet to permanently fill certain key posts in his Cabinet, including Oil and Defense Ministers. Al-Jaafari faces the tough job of quelling the insurgency and rebuilding the country while a new constitution is drafted for approval by Oct. 15.

SWORN IN. FAURE GNASSINGBÉ, 39, son of Eyadema Gnassingbé, Togo's kleptocratic dictator for 38 years before his death in February; as President of Togo; in Togo's capital, Lomé. Gnassingbé's election, in polls marred by violence that prompted more than 20,000 citizens to flee the tiny West African nation, has raised concerns that he will adopt his father's oppressive style of governance. Opposition leader Emmanuel Bob Akitani rejected the results, claiming the vote was rigged, and declared himself President. He promised last week that he and his supporters will "fight with [their] lives if necessary."

DIED. RENE RIVKIN, 61, disgraced Australian stockbroker whose investment tip sheet The Rivkin Report brought market advice to the masses before his conviction for insider trading in 2003; of an apparent suicide; in Sydney. Rivkin, whose lavish lifestyle included raucous parties aboard his $4 million yacht, more than 100 exotic cars and a fondness for Cuban cigars, was sentenced to nine months' periodic detention over a purchase of shares in Qantas Airways made after receiving a tip-off about a possible merger. Rarely seen in public since his release, Rivkin had admitted to depression and in recent years suffered from health problems, including brain tumors, gall-bladder problems and bipolar disorder.

DIED. BOB HUNTER, 63, Greenpeace's media-savvy co-founder, who coined the term Rainbow Warriors to describe the environmental group's hard-charging activists; of prostate cancer; in Toronto. The brusque former journalist deftly manipulated the media with clever, spectacular events and slogans that inspired maximum TV coverage and generated public support for such Greenpeace campaigns as stopping whale hunting, protecting baby seals and reforming logging practices.

DIED. EDWARD VON KLOBERG, 63, defiant Washington lobbyist who, espousing the motto "Shame is for sissies," specialized in improving the public image of despots; of an apparent suicide; in Rome. Always flamboyant—he added the "Von" to his name and regularly appeared at formal events in a black cape—his clients included Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu, Laurent Kabila of Congo and Saddam Hussein.

DIED. JACK NICHOLS, 67, pioneering U.S. gay-rights activist who helped organize the movement's first rally outside the White House, in 1965, and successfully lobbied the American Psychiatric Association to rescind its classification of homosexuality as a mental illness, which it did in 1973; of leukemia; in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

DIED. WEE KIM WEE, 89, well-loved Singaporean statesman who as President from 1985 to 1993 used his common touch to increase the accessibility of the office; in Singapore. A former journalist who scored an international exclusive with an interview of then General Suharto following Indonesia's bloody coup of 1966, Wee went into politics in 1973 and served as high commissioner to Malaysia and ambassador to South Korea and Japan before being tapped to become the city-state's fourth President. Wee "took to diplomacy like a duck to water," said Deputy Prime Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar, and was eulogized by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as a "true Singaporean."

Numbers
33% Increase in U.S. federal spending during President George W. Bush's first term
27% Rise in spending over the past decade for the 101 biggest domestic programs that the Republican-led Congress had vowed in 1995 to eliminate

$56.3 million Estimated cost of an international tribunal to try surviving leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime, which was responsible for the deaths of some 1.7 million people from 1975 to 1979
$1.5 million Amount the Cambodian government says it can afford to contribute

$89.4 million Total of Iraqi money disbursed by U.S. officials for Iraq reconstruction efforts that auditors say cannot be sufficiently accounted for
$7.2 million Additional Iraqi funds disbursed there that cannot be accounted for at all

$244,000 Winning bid for a 1999 Volkswagen Golf IV once owned by Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, in an Internet auction