By HANNAH BEECH

BELIEVED DEAD. CARLOS CASTANO, 32, notorious Colombian paramilitary group commander, after Marxist rebels leveled his mountain hideout; in northern Cordoba province. The apparent killing of Castano and nine other death squad leaders comes as peace talks are set to start between the government and Marxist insurgents. Observers worry that an ultra-right backlash against the leftists will escalate tensions and sink any chance of ending Colombia's decade-long conflict, which has claimed 35,000 lives.

DIED. CATHAL GOULDING, 75, indomitable former head of the "Official" Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.), whose poorly armed organization was eclipsed by younger militants who formed the breakaway "Provisional" I.R.A. in 1969; in Dublin. Despite an impeccable republican pedigree, Goulding could not save the foundering movement, focusing his attention on armchair ideological debate instead of the more effective street struggle pursued by the Provisional wing.

DIED. CHIJINDU CHIDERA, one-week old, most fragile of the world's first living octuplets, of lung and heart failure; at a Houston hospital. Weighing 292 grams at birth--about as much as a Beanie Baby--the tiny newborn succumbed just one day after two of China's first naturally conceived sextuplets died of lung hemorrhages in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

DIED. DOROTHY NYEMBE, 67, irrepressible South African activist, who rallied thousands of rural black women against apartheid in a vocal 1956 campaign for an all-race Freedom Charter, which effectively became the African National Congress' manifesto for struggle against white domination; in Johannesburg. Jailed for 18 years for her underground activism, Nyembe was later elected an ANC member of parliament in the 1994 elections that officially ended South Africa's era of segregationist politics.

DIED. BOB JOHNSON, 78, American World War II aerial wizard, who shot down a record 28 enemy planes; in Lake Wylie, South Carolina. Demolishing Eddie Rickenbacker's hallowed World War I record of 26 "kills," Johnson was ultimately eclipsed by fellow combat pilot Richard Bong, who downed 40 aircraft in the Pacific.

BARRED. BENAZIR BUTTO, 45, embattled former Prime Minister of Pakistan, from leaving her home country, by immigration authorities; at Karachi airport. Bhutto's name was placed on the Exit Control List after she was named a defendant in a slew of high-level corruption cases, but the ex-Premier contends the Sindh High Court previously said she could travel abroad. Bhutto and her husband are accused of having siphoned more than $1 billion from government coffers during her tenure.

Time Capsule

Back when a certain intern was still a junior at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon, the original Whitewater scandal broke. Attorney general JANET RENO was then authorized to name a special counsel:

"How broad or narrow will the probe be? Said Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern: "We are not going to tell the special counsel what to investigate. He or she is going to tell us." The difference could be crucial. An investigation focused narrowly on Whitewater ... might be concluded speedily, but be open to charges of inadequacy. A broader inquiry could turn into a fishing expedition... The dealings are so complex that it is difficult to summarize the suspicions they arouse... But on another level, the investigation concerns the much larger issue of whether a President and First Lady can be trusted to obey the law and tell the truth."

--TIME, Jan. 24, 1994