Milestones

SOLD. “BLACKIE,” Eric Clapton’s favorite guitar; to an undisclosed buyer; for a record $959,500; in New York. The legendary rocker auctioned the Fender Stratocaster, his sole studio and stage guitar from 1970 to 1985, along with 56 others, at a charity auction to raise money for the Crossroads Center Antigua, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in the West Indies.

DIVORCED. Pakistani cricketer and politician IMRAN KHAN, 51, and his wife, British socialite JEMIMA, 30; in London. Jemima, daughter of late billionaire Sir James Goldsmith, converted from Judaism to Islam and went to live modestly with her husband in Pakistan while he pursued his political career. Jemima’s return to London with their two sons last year and her recent appearances at celebrity events sparked rumors that she’d had difficulty adjusting to her new life and that the marriage was in trouble. Imran called the divorce a “mutual decision,” and said, “my home and my future is in Pakistan.”

SENTENCED. SOMCHAI KHUNPLEUM, also known as Kamnan Poh, reputedly Thailand’s most powerful crime boss; to 25 years in prison for ordering the murder of a rival; in Bangkok. A former mayor who was courted by politicians and feared by criminals and cops alike, Somchai was long thought to be beyond the reach of the law. “I used to have rivals,” he once told an interviewer, “but they all died.” Freed on $250,000 bail, Somchai plans to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.

FORCED TO RESIGN. ZAFARAULLAH KHAN JAMALI, 60, Prime Minister of Pakistan, after 19 months in office; in Islamabad. The country’s strongman President Pervez Musharraf was displeased with Jamali for failing to endorse his policies and shield him from an increasingly restive Parliament. Jamali will be replaced by ruling Pakistan Muslim League party president Chaudry Shujat Hussain, regarded as more obedient to Musharraf.

KILLED. FRANCISCO ORTIZ FRANCO, 48, editor and co-founder of the Mexican newsweekly Zeta, famed for its reporting campaigns against the country’s drug cartels; by a masked gunman; in Tijuana. The killing is the latest in a series of attacks against Zeta: another of the newspaper’s co-founders was murdered in 1988 and its publisher was wounded in a 1997 attack.

KILLED. CHAROEN WATTAKSORN, 37, Thai environmental activist; by an unknown assailant; in Thailand’s Prachuab Khiri Khan province. The leader of massive demonstrations that successfully pressured the government into scrapping plans for a power plant in Prachuab Khiri Khan in May 2002, Charoen was shot hours after testifying at an anticorruption hearing in Bangkok. Supporters claim that his testimony, in which he accused local businessmen of corruption in a land deal, was a motive in the murder.

DIED. AL LAPIN JR., 76, entrepreneurial coffee-cart operator who, with younger brother Jerry, co-founded the chalet-style International House of Pancakes chain of restaurants; in Los Angeles. Lapin built the first blue-roofed IHOP in Los Angeles in 1958 and turned it into a $40 million conglomerate by 1970. But three years later, a recession and tightened credit forced him to sell his stake for a mere $50,000.

Numbers

17 Number of words legible in Saddam Hussein’s first letter home, after U.S. censors blacked out nine of 14 lines

$1,818 Monthly bonus British defense firm BAE Systems will pay expatriate employees in Saudi Arabia if they stay on despite recent al-Qaeda attacks

92 million Number of screen names in AOL’s subscription list, which was allegedly stolen by an employee and sold to spammers

120,000 Number of officers on Iraqi police payrolls

30,000 Number of Iraqi police officers who don’t come to work and must be replaced by the June 30 handover

$200,000 Amount the cult-linked group Clonaid claims two Singaporean couples have agreed to pay to conceive children through cloning

5,070 meters Top elevation of Tibet’s first railway, set to become the highest in the world

$356,400 Amount won by actor Ben Affleck, for 1st place in last week’s California State Poker Championship

Performance of the Week

Since Yuri Gagarin first blasted into the heavens in 1961, manned space flight has been a strictly government-run affair. That ended on June 21 when MIKE MELVILL flew to an altitude of 100.1 km on SpaceShipOne, a private rocket-powered plane funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. After gliding safely to earth, Melvill was more exultant than eloquent. He climbed atop the dart-shaped craft and whooped, “Yeeee-haaah!”