Quotes of the Day
FOUND. Remains of CHARLES DEAN, younger brother of U.S. presidential candidate Howard Dean, 29 years after he disappeared while traveling in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War; buried in a rice paddy in central Laos. Charlie Dean, then 24, and Australian companion Neil Sharman were arrested by communist Pathet Lao guerrillas in September 1974 while traveling along the Mekong River. They were apparently executed three months later as suspected spies, although the U.S. and Australian governments maintain they were tourists. The remains have not been officially identified, but members of the Dean family say they recognize items found with the corpse, including a bracelet inscribed with the name of a missing American serviceman. For 20 years, Howard Dean has worn a black belt that belonged to his brother.
DIED. ROBERTO YAP, Philippine-Chinese former medical doctor who became one of the Philippines' most wanted kidnappers; after being shot by police; in Dinalupihan, Bataan. Yap has been connected to at least six kidnappings this year, and victims included his own neighbors and former business partners. There have been more than 100 kidnappings in the Philippines this year; last week a local Coca-Cola executive bled to death after being abducted.
DIED. DON GIBSON, 75, second-grade dropout who went on to write classic country ballads about loneliness and heartache; in Nashville, Tennessee. Gibson was a pioneer of the Nashville Sound, a spare style without fiddles or pedal steel guitars, and wrote two of his most famous songs—Oh Lonesome Me and I Can't Stop Loving You, a Ray Charles hit in 1962—on the day his television and vacuum cleaner were repossessed. "When I wrote those songs, I couldn't have been any closer to the bottom," he said.
DIED, GORDON ONSLOW FORD, 90, last surviving member of the Surrealist school of painters; in Inverness, California. The British-born painter studied in Paris during the 1930s, where he met Chilean painter Roberto Matta, who introduced him to the Surrealist group lead by André Breton.
Numbers
11 TONS Weight of the satellite-guided Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed the "Mother of All Bombs," tested in Florida last week. After impact, a plume of smoke 3,100 meters high was visible for 64 kilometers
70,000 Number of Australian sheep fed pork by an animal-rights group, an act that prevented export of the sheep to the Middle East
526% Current inflation rate in Zimbabwe—predicted to rise to 700% next year.
50% Proportion of all e-mail that will be unsolicited spam by the end of 2003, according to a U.N. report. In January, spam accounted for only 25% of e-mail
631 Number of Chinese gangs disbursed in a three-year crackdown by security forces. The government says it arrested 100,000 people, confiscated 15,000 firearms and $64 million in illegal assets
579 KM/H Speed reached by an experimental Japanese maglev train, which floats above its track on a magnetic field, setting a new world record.
$8.5 MILLION Amount set aside in Washington's $87.5 billion Iraq-aid package to help the city of Miami plan security during international trade talks held there last week
- Austin Ramzy
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