Quotes of the Day

The death of FRANCIS CRICK deprives the world of a remarkable scientist and conversationalist whose forceful voice and overpowering laugh made him the focal point of any room that he chose to occupy. From the morning of Feb. 28, 1953, when he and I discovered the double-helical structure of DNA—and showed that the secret of life was a large molecule—he held court over the new field of research that this discovery unleashed. Exuding an Edwardian elegance of logic as well as dress, he instantly brought to mind the good-natured arrogance of Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. From early adolescence, Crick had no truck with truths arrived at by religious revelation as opposed to observation and experimentation. Upon learning that Cambridge University's science-dominated new college was planning to build a Christian chapel, he resigned from the rank of its Fellows. "Perpetuating mistakes from the past" was not Crick's way to move forward.
—By James D. Watson

WITHDRAWN. MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES (Doctors Without Borders), medical-aid group; from Afghanistan, after 24 years of work in the country, citing the Afghan government's refusal to investigate the shooting deaths of five aid workers in northwest Badghis province in June. A written statement issued in Kabul also blamed increased safety risks and the U.S. military's "co-opting" of relief efforts. The Nobel-prizewinning organization, which sends doctors and nurses into conflict zones, has withdrawn from only two other countries in its 33-year history, Ethiopia and North Korea; this is the first time they have withdrawn for security reasons. Kenny Gluck, the group's operational director, called the withdrawal "a very painful decision."

CAPTURED. AHMED KHALFAN GHAILANI, suspect in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; following an estimated 16-hour gun battle with Pakistan security forces; in Gujarat, Pakistan. One of America's 22 most-wanted terrorists, the Tanzania-born Ghailani (whose aliases include Ahmed the Tanzanian and Foopie) evaded capture for almost six years and is believed to be the most senior al-Qaeda official caught in Pakistan since the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, last year.

DIVORCED. PATRICK HOLLAND, 14, from his father, Daniel Holland, becoming the first child to divorce a parent on his own (without the assistance of a ward or guardian); in Canton in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Daniel Holland shot his wife Elizabeth in their Quincy, Massachusetts, home in 1998 and is serving a life sentence. Patrick discovered his mother's body. "No one should ever have to go through what I went through," he said last week.

RELEASED. KEVIN DOYLE, editor of the Cambodia Daily and reporter for TIME, by Cambodian officials after being detained for more than 36 hours for alleged "human trafficking" while reporting on Montagnard refugees; in Ratanakiri province. Doyle, along with another journalist and a human-rights worker, was held by military authorities in northeast Cambodia, where hundreds of Montagnards fleeing Vietnam are attempting to reach the safety of a shelter provided by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

DIED. WILTON MKWAYI, 81, antiapartheid fighter who served more than 20 years of a life sentence with Nelson Mandela in prison on Robben Island; in King Williams Town, South Africa. Mkwayi helped found an armed-resistance movement called Spear of the Nation in the 1950s. Convicted of treason in 1964, he was released as the apartheid system was being dismantled in 1989.

DIED. FREDERICK LARUE, 75, former aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, who was rumored to be "Deep Throat," the Washington Post's Watergate source (he denied this); in Biloxi in the U.S. state of Mississippi. LaRue, a successful political financier who served in Nixon's Administration without pay, was present at a 1972 meeting at Nixon's Florida vacation home where the Watergate break-in was planned. His role in the cover-up earned him 4 1/2 months in federal prison for obstruction of justice.

DIED. TIZIANO TERZANI, 65, best-selling author and veteran foreign correspondent for Der Speigel, who covered Vietnam, Cambodia and China in the early Deng Xiaoping era; in Florence, Italy. In his book A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East, the Italian-born Terzani detailed his adventures in 1993, when he traveled Asia by land and sea after receiving a warning from a Hong Kong mystic that he might die in an airplane crash that year.

Numbers

25% Proportion of male travelers who think an attractive cabin crew is more important than good in-flight food or movies, according to a poll

46% Proportion of Chinese who describe themselves as middle class, according to a nationwide survey

16% Proportion of Chinese actually holding middle-class jobs, according to the same study

20,531 Number of items, including trucks, computers and office equipment, that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root was responsible for managing in Iraq

6,975 Number of these items that the subsidiary has lost or misplaced, according to a government audit

500 million Number of rural Chinese who have never brushed their teeth, according to a government survey of dental health

7 Number of hours Germans spend working on an average day—the fewest of 10 European countries in a recent survey

3 Number of hours the French spend daily on "meals and personal care," including eating, drinking and sex

• Sarah M. Broom
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