FEBRUARY 21, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 7

Milestones
By PENNY CAMPBELL

DIED. ROGER VADIM, 72, celebrated French director whose films often centered on the beauty of the actresses he also cast for leading roles in his romantic life; in Paris. He made his directorial debut with the 1956 classic And God Created Woman--a sexually daring film that also launched the career of Vadim's wife, Brigitte Bardot. During the course of his career, he courted other beautiful actresses including Jane Fonda and Catherine Deneuve, explaining his need for feminine beauty in work and life as "my style, my nature."

ELECTED. STIPE MESIC, 65, pro-European candidate of the center-left alliance, as President of Croatia; in Zagreb. His victory completes a remaking of the Croatian political landscape that began earlier this year, when the alliance defeated the party of former President Franjo Tudjman in parliamentary elections. Mesic has promised to increase democracy and to end the international isolation forced upon Croatia by a decade of Tudjman's fierce nationalism and support for Bosnian Croat separatists.

DIED. JACK SCOTT, 57, a radical critic of the American athletic establishment who gained fame after helping heiress turned bank robber Patty Hearst flee from the FBI; in Oregon. A onetime sports journalist and author, Scott later worked as a physiotherapist, treating track stars such as Carl Lewis. He helped Hearst, granddaughter of media baron William Randolph Hearst, evade capture in 1974, when she became one of America's most wanted fugitives after joining the Symbionese Liberation Army, whose members had earlier kidnapped her. Although Scott later admitted having sheltered Hearst, he was not a member of the SLA himself and never faced criminal charges.

ELECTED. TARJA HALONEN, 56, single mother and former radical turned mainstream Social Democrat, as the first woman President of Finland; in Helsinki. A former trade-union lawyer and career politician, Halonen saw a big lead in the polls nearly evaporate as her opponent attacked her past leftist activism and her strong support for European Union political sanctions against Austria. Halonen's final victory owed much to the gender issue, as many Finns decided it was time to end the male monopoly on the country's highest office.

DIED. JI PENGFEI, 91, former Chinese deputy premier and a veteran of the 1949 revolution; in Beijing. After originally joining Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists, he switched sides to the communists in 1931 and participated in the 1934-35 Long March. Ji, a former ambassador and foreign minister, was a key member of the team that negotiated Hong Kong's return to China.

ARRESTED. LAURENTINO "MOKO" SOARES, infamous pro-Jakarta militia leader; in West Timor. Soares' seizure by Indonesian police for illegal weapons possession was welcomed by the United Nations, which suspects him of organizing recent crossborder incursions into East Timor. He is also suspected of being involved in earlier atrocities in East Timor, including a massacre of 45 people in Oecussi last year, during the violence that swept the territory after its vote for independence from Indonesia. The U.N. is calling for him to be tried on charges of murder and looting.