Milestones

By Melissa August; Elizabeth L. Bland; Jeninne Lee-St. John; Barbara Maddux; Elizabeth Sampson

AFFIRMED. A gold medal for PAUL HAMM, 22, U.S. gymnast; by a sports tribunal; in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, in a case brought by South Korean gymnast Yang Tae Young, decided that it would set a dangerous precedent to withdraw Hamm's medal from the Summer Olympics in Athens, despite a scoring error that cost bronze medalist Yang a crucial one-tenth of a point, which would have been enough to win him the gold.

DROPPED. MISS AMERICA, from ABC, leaving the iconic beauty pageant without a network home for the first time since its first televised pageant 50 years ago. The move, a result of sinking ratings, has the potential to devastate the 84-year-old nonprofit organization, which was financially dependent on its income from the annual broadcast. Pageant officials say they are optimistic that the show will appear on another channel.

SENTENCED. STAFF SERGEANT IVAN FREDERICK II, 38, highest-ranking Army reservist accused in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal; to eight years in prison; during a court martial in Baghdad. The sentence also includes a reduction in rank to private, a forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge. Frederick, who pleaded guilty to five of eight charges, is one of seven charged in the scandal; his sentence is the longest of the three imposed thus far.

KILLED. VICTORIA SNELGROVE, 21, a journalism student at Emerson College; after being hit in the face by a projectile used by a policeman during celebrations following the Red Sox playoff victory; in Boston. The pepper-spray balls, considered nonlethal, were being used for crowd control, although some witnesses said the crowd appeared subdued when Snelgrove was hit.

DIED. KOOSE MUNISWAMY VEERAPPAN, 60, India's most-wanted bandit, in a jungle shootout with police; near Chennai, India. Regarded by the poor as a Robin Hood who fought the ruling classes on their behalf, he was accused of murdering 130 police officers, slaughtering elephants and smuggling illegal sandalwood and ivory. The outlaw, who lived in the forest, was reportedly lured to his death by his doctor, who talked him into an ambulance by telling him he needed eye surgery.

DIED. RAY BOONE, 81, patriarch of the only family to have three generations of baseball All-Stars; of complications from intestinal surgery; in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. An infielder who played for 13 years, mostly with the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers, Boone is better known as the father of catcher Bob Boone and the grandfather of infielders Bret Boone and Aaron Boone.

DIED. BETTY HILL, 85, who claimed in 1961 that she and her husband were abducted by aliens; in Portsmouth, N.H. The Hills said that while driving in the White Mountains one night, they saw strange lights but blanked out afterward. Later, under hypnosis, they described being probed by aliens aboard a spacecrafta tale that inspired a book, a TV movie and a wave of popular fascination with alien encounters.

DIED. PAUL NITZE, 97, formidable diplomat and negotiator who was one of the principal architects of America's cold war policies toward the Soviet Union; in Washington. Erudite, brash and sometimes irritable, he worked for Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan, helping to instigate the postwar Marshall Plan and, in 1950, writing a key paper that urged a U.S. economic and military buildup to "frustrate the Kremlin design of a world dominated by its will." Yet this early cold warrior became better known for his later efforts at conciliation, most notably a famous "walk in the woods" near Geneva, Switzerland, in 1982 with his Soviet counterpart in an attempt to break an arms-control deadlock. The agreement they reached failed to win approval, but his efforts paved the way for an arms deal between the U.S. and the Soviets in 1987. Though regarded as a godfather of the neoconservative movement, Nitze in recent months had become a critic of U.S. war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.