Milestones

NAMED. Margaret Chan, 59, assistant director-general for communicable diseases at the World Health Organization; as the WHO’s next director-general; in Geneva. A former head of Hong Kong’s health department, Chan succeeded Lee Jong Wook, who died of a stroke in May. She was praised for her decisive handling of Hong Kong’s H5N1 avian-flu outbreak in 1997. But during the 2003 SARS crisis that killed 299 in the territory, she was criticized for her slow response and her failure to investigate earlier outbreaks of the disease across the border on the Chinese mainland. During her campaign for the WHO’s top job, Chan, who was officially backed by Beijing, said: “I’m not serving China’s interests; I’m serving the world’s interests.”

DIED. Bulent Ecevit, 81, former Prime Minister of Turkey; in Ankara. First appointed Premier in 1974, Ecevit held the position four more times over the next 30 years. A left-leaning nationalist, Ecevit’s reforms at home were overshadowed by his hawkish foreign policy. Despite international opposition, Ecevit ordered Turkish troops into Cyprus in 1974 following a Greek-backed coup. His intervention split the island in two, and led to decades of deadlock with Greece.

DIED. Jack Palance, 87, hulking Hollywood iconoclast who won a best-supporting-actor Oscar for playing Curly, the hilariously creepy dude-ranch stud in City Slickers; in Montecito, California. The former heavyweight boxer shot to fame playing eerily calm, menacing heavies in films like Sudden Fear (Joan Crawford’s deranged stalker) and Shane (a bullying gunslinger) in the 1950s. But his most memorable performance was at the 1992 Oscars. Accepting his award, Palance started to attempt a speech, then dropped to the floor, displaying his virility with a series of one-handed push-ups. Later asked what happened, he replied, “I didn’t know what the hell else to do.”

DIED. Markus Wolf, 83, suave spymaster known as the “man without a face” for his ability to elude photographers during most of his 34-year reign over the foreign-intelligence division of the Stasi, East Germany’s dreaded secret police; in Berlin. Rumored to be the model for John le Carré’s shadowy Karla (a suggestion the author has denied), Wolf placed his 4,000 spies in such enemy territory as NATO headquarters, cannily converted West German agents to his team, and famously touted the “Romeo method”—the wooing of lonely government secretaries to gain access to confidential files. Among his best-known feats: placing an operative in the inner circle of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who retired in 1974 after the aide’s allegiance was revealed.

DIED. Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, 82, French journalist and politician; in Fécamp, Normandy. In 1953 Servan-Schreiber co-founded L’Express, building it into the nation’s most influential newsweekly. A devout reformist, Servan-Schreiber used L’Express to champion French decolonization and to back politicians who promised change. In 1970 Servan-Schreiber struck out into politics on his own—winning legislative and regional seats—and in 1974 briefly served as Reform Minister under President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

Numbers
$240 billion Amount taken in bribes by Russian bureaucrats each year, according to the country’s Deputy Prosecutor General
$259 billion Russia’s predicted budget revenues for 2007

397 meters The length of the Emma Maersk, the world’s biggest container ship
45,000 tonnes The load of Chinese goods—toys, computers, decorations—carried by the Emma Maersk last week to Suffolk, England, in time for the Christmas season

49% Percentage of young Indian men surveyed by the magazine India Today who claim to have slept with a prostitute
63% Percentage of young Indian men who, according to the same survey, hope their bride is a virgin on their wedding night

53% Estimated increase in global demand for energy—mostly fossil fuels—by 2030. Developing nations, primarily China and India, are responsible for 70% of that growth
2010 Year China is projected to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide

8,000 km Width of a storm—equivaIent to two-thirds of the Earth’s diameter—detected on the planet Saturn by a NASA spacecraft
550 km/h Speed of winds circling the storm’s immense eye