Milestones

RAISED. Interest rates, by the Bank of Japan (BOJ), for the first time in six years, from 0% to 0.25%, marking an end to a decade of economic stagnation; in Tokyo. The decision brings Japan’s monetary policy in line with those of the U.S. and Europe, where central bankers are trying to contain inflation by raising rates. BOJ governor Toshihiko Fukui called the rate increase a “delightful moment for the future of the Japanese economy.”

RETIRED. Joaquín Navarro-Valls, 69, as the Pope’s chief spokesman, after more than 20 years as the unflappable public face of the Vatican; in Vatican City. A confidant of John Paul II, the Spanish-born former journalist—the first non-cleric to take the job—modernized the Vatican’s information service and helped move the Holy See into the Internet age.

INDICTED. Chao Chien-ming, 34, son-in-law to Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian; on charges of insider trading; in Taipei. Prosecutors say Chao, an orthopedist, reaped huge profits by investing in a troubled land-development firm after learning of a plan to rescue the company. If found guilty, he could face up to eight years in prison and a $925,000 fine. Chao, who maintains his innocence, is one of several associates of the President caught up in recent scandals, sparking demands for Chen’s resignation and a legislative attempt to recall him in June.

EXTRADITED. David Bermingham, 43, Giles Darby, 44, and Gary Mulgrew, 43, British former bankers for Greenwich NatWest; in a case that has sparked controversy in the U.K. over U.S. extradition powers; to Houston, Texas. Known as the “NatWest Three,” the men are accused of conspiring with Enron executives to defraud their employers through the sale of a stake the bank held in a unit of the collapsed energy firm. All three pleaded not guilty.

RELEGATED. Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina, three top Italian football clubs, to the second division for their part in a national match-fixing scandal; in Rome. Turin’s Juventus was also stripped of its last two championship titles, and had 30 points deducted for the forthcoming season. Rival AC Milan, also implicated in the scandal, will remain in the first division, but faces a 15-point handicap and expulsion from Europe’s lucrative Champions League competition. All four clubs are expected to appeal.

KILLED. Shamil Basayev, 41, Chechen terrorist who masterminded numerous large-scale attacks on Russian civilians, including a siege of an elementary school in the town of Beslan that killed more than 330 people, most of them children, and an attack on a theater in Moscow in 2002, in which 172 people died; when a bomb in his car exploded in the republic of Ingushetia, bordering Chechnya. While Basayev’s supporters said the explosion was accidental, Russian forces said they killed Basayev as part of a long-planned sting operation.

DIED. Red Buttons, 87, impish comedian who emerged from burlesque and Borscht Belt clubs to forge a successful acting career, with roles in more than 30 films including Sayonara, Pete’s Dragon and The Poseidon Adventure; in Los Angeles. Born Aaron Chwatt, he was nicknamed for his red hair and the brass buttons on his uniform at an early gig and became an overnight hit in 1952 with his own CBS variety show. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his 1956 portrayal of a U.S. airman in a doomed romance with a Japanese woman in Sayonara, starring Marlon Brando. “I’m a little guy,” Buttons once said, “and that’s what I play all the time: a little guy and his troubles.”

DIED. June Allyson, 88, wholesome, gravel-voiced actress dubbed the “girl next door” for her frequent turns in the ’40s and ’50s as the loyal, adoring girlfriend or wife in such films as Two Girls and a Sailor, with Van Johnson, and The Glenn Miller Story, opposite Jimmy Stewart; in Ojai, California. Allyson was upbeat about her Hollywood reputation, but it doomed her efforts to take on grittier roles—1955’s The Shrike, in which she played a harsh wife who drives her husband to a nervous breakdown, was a flop. She once claimed she couldn’t live up to her image. “In real life,” she joked, “I’m a poor dressmaker and a terrible cook.”