Milestones Jul. 17, 2006

ARRESTED. Marco Mancini and Gustavo Pignero, officials with SISMI, Italy’s military-intelligence agency; for involvement in the 2003 kidnapping in Milan of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a radical Egyptian cleric suspected of ties to terrorism; in Milan. Italian prosecutors are also seeking the arrest of 26 Americans–most of them believed to be CIA operatives–in connection with the abduction of Nasr, who was spirited to Egypt, imprisoned and, he says, tortured under interrogation by U.S. agents about his terrorist ties.

DIED. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, 52, mezzo-soprano known for her intensely powerful voice and overwhelmingly emotional performances; after a long battle with breast cancer; in Santa Fe, N.M. Hunt Lieberson, a violist, didn’t get her big break as a singer until she was 31, when controversial director Peter Sellars cast her in a summer festival production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare. Throughout her career, she made unconventional choices, favoring complex roles in little-known baroque operas as well as contemporary pieces such as John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, in which she made her 1999 debut at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, playing Myrtle Wilson. Audiences were enthralled by Hunt Lieberson’s deeply passionate portrayals, but she once said they left her “crispy fried in every way.” She last sang professionally in March in Neruda Songs, which was created for her by her husband, composer Peter Lieberson.

DIED. Theodore Levitt, 81, legendary Harvard Business School professor who was credited with coining the term globalization in a 1983 Harvard Business Review article; in Belmont, Mass. A provocative teacher and scholar, Levitt wrote eight books on marketing. He contributed 25 articles to the Review, including the influential “Marketing Myopia” in 1960, which argued that companies suffer because executives define their businesses too narrowly, and has sold 850,000 reprints.

DIED. Philip Rieff, 83, conservative sociologist and cultural theorist at the University of Pennsylvania best known for a trio of books on the destructive impact of Sigmund Freud; in Philadelphia. In January, Rieff published his last book, Sacred Order/Social Order: My Life Among the Deathworks–in which he cites legal abortion, the gay-rights movement and pop music as examples of cultural decline–and dedicated it to the memory of his first wife, essayist Susan Sontag.

DIED. Jan Murray, 89, stand-up comedian and actor who went from performing variety-show routines at resorts in New York’s Catskill Mountains to hosting popular 1950s TV game shows, including Blind Date, Dollar a Second and Treasure Hunt, on which winning contestants got to pick a treasure chest that could contain anything from a big-money check to cabbage; in Beverly Hills, Calif. A native New Yorker who came up in Borscht Belt comedy with Sid Caesar and Buddy Hackett, Murray turned to acting in the 1960s, appearing in films like Thunder Alley and TV shows that included The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He also appeared as a substitute host for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.

DIED. Kenneth Lay, 64, founder and ex-CEO of Enron, who was convicted in May of fraud and conspiracy in the spectacular 2001 collapse of the mammoth energy company; while free on a $5 million bond as he awaited his October sentencing; of heart disease; in Aspen, Colo. Born to a poor family in rural Missouri, Lay became a friend to Presidents (George W. Bush famously nicknamed him “Kenny Boy”) and a Wall Street darling whose renown grew in step with Enron’s soaring stock price. But the emergence in 2001 of the truth about Enron and its scandalous business practices ruined that reputation–although Lay maintained his innocence to the end. Legal experts say his death vacates his conviction, since he cannot take part in any appeals. But his estate may still have to fight civil claims by former Enron employees as well as the U.S. government.