Milestones

RELEASED. JILL CARROLL, 28, U.S. journalist abducted in January by Iraqi gunmen who threatened to kill her if their demand--that all female detainees in Iraq be freed--was not met; after 82 days in captivity; in Baghdad.

RECUPERATING. CHARLIE ROSE, 64, anchor of PBS's highly acclaimed Charlie Rose show; after heart surgery to repair a valve; in Paris. Rose, who had felt short of breath while in Syria to interview President Bashar Assad, hopes to be back on air in several weeks.

PLEADED GUILTY. TONY RUDY, 39, former deputy chief of staff to Representative Tom DeLay; to conspiring with Jack Abramoff in a lobbying-fraud scheme while Rudy worked for DeLay and after he left to become a lobbyist; as part of a deal in which he agreed to cooperate with a federal investigation.

SENTENCED. JACK ABRAMOFF, 47, Washington lobbyist who pleaded guilty to offering bribes to members of Congress; to five years and 10 months in jail, in a separate fraud case; for using a fake $23 million wire transfer--intended to prove a down payment had been made--to qualify for a loan to buy a fleet of gambling ships; in Miami. Abramoff was allowed to remain free to assist the investigation into the congressional lobbying scandal.

DIED. EUGENE LANDY, 71, psychologist-guru who treated the depressed, drug-addled Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson with a controversial round-the-clock form of therapy that spurred the musician's comeback in the early '80s; in Honolulu. In 1989 Landy surrendered his license for two years after a state board found him grossly negligent for conduct including improperly prescribing drugs for Wilson. After the settlement of a suit against him by Wilson's family, Landy was barred from contacting the rocker, who often insisted that Landy "saved my life."

DIED. DAN CURTIS, 78, TV producer; in Los Angeles. In the early 1960s, Curtis pitched a campy soap set on a desolate Maine estate and centered on a vampire and other gothic creatures. It became the cult hit Dark Shadows, which ran on ABC from 1966 to '71. Later he produced and directed two of the best-rated mini-series in history: The Winds of War and its sequel, War and Remembrance--starring Robert Mitchum, above with Curtis--for which he won an Emmy.

DIED. LYN NOFZIGER, 81, irascible, savvy longtime aide to Ronald Reagan; of cancer; in Falls Church, Va. As head of communications for Reagan's successful 1980 White House bid, Nofziger endeared himself to the press with his candor, rumpled look and Mickey Mouse tie. The former newspaperman, who began advising Reagan in 1965, retired as a White House aide in 1982, but not before filling in memorably for press secretary James Brady after Reagan and Brady were shot by John Hinckley in 1981, delivering to reporters the President's quip "Honey, I forgot to duck."

DIED. STANISLAW LEM, 84, Polish writer of ruminative science-fiction classics, most famously Solaris, a metaphysical-psychological tale that spawned a 1972 film and a 2002 remake starring George Clooney; in Krakow, Poland. Lem, who battled communist-era censors--and tweaked them in novels like The Futurological Congress--wrote more than 50 books that were translated into 40 languages and sold 27 million copies worldwide.

DIED. CINDY WALKER, 87, Hall of Fame country tunesmith whose hits for performers from Bing Crosby to the Byrds--including You Don't Know Me and In the Misty Moonlight--made the pop or country charts some 400 times; in Mexia, Texas. She drew unequaled praise from peers (Dolly Parton said Walker had "never written a bad song"; Willie Nelson last month released his CD of her songs; songwriting legend Harlan Howard called her the "greatest living songwriter of country music"), and she had Top 10 hits in every decade from the '40s to the '80s.

DIED. CASPAR WEINBERGER, 88, wry, intellectual veteran public servant whose long record of toil in the White Houses of Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan was marred by a late, rare blemish: a 1992 indictment for allegedly covering up facts in the Iran-contra scandal, which he vigorously denied and for which he was pardoned; in Bangor, Maine. As Defense Secretary under Reagan, the anti-Soviet hard-liner presided over a $2 trillion peacetime military buildup--the biggest in U.S. history--and backed Reagan's controversial, never implemented Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars. After finding himself at odds with Reagan's arms-control negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev, Weinberger retired in 1987. Yet despite his reputation as a dedicated hawk, he opposed excessive military intervention. "I did not arm to attack," he said of his cold war efforts, "[but] to make war less likely."

With reporting by Harriet Barovick, ELIZABETH L. BLAND, Clayton Neuman, Logan E. Orlando