MAY 1, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 17

Milestones
BY PENNY CAMPBELL

PROVEN. The death of LOUIS CHARLES DE FRANCE, 10, son and heir of guillotined French King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette; in a Paris prison in 1795. Ever since the boy's reported death from tuberculosis, following two years alone in a filthy cell, there had been speculation that he had escaped while the body of another child was substituted in his place. In the ensuing decades, would-be royal heirs popped up all over Europe, some of whom gathered loyal followings. DNA tests conducted on the boy's heart now indicate he was indeed the French dauphin.

ARRESTED. JULIA MORENO MACUSO, 26, a suspected member of the Basque separatist group eta who Spanish officials say may have been involved in a fatal car-bomb attack earlier this year; in Bayonne, France. Macuso was caught at the end of a car chase after she tried to evade a routine traffic check. Spanish officials believe she was connected to an attack in Madrid in January in which a Spanish army officer died.

ARRESTED. CHENG CHUI-PING, 51, wanted by the FBI for allegedly masterminding a human-smuggling operation that ended in tragedy when at least six Chinese drowned off the coast of New York in 1993; in Hong Kong. The target of a five-year international manhunt, Cheng was wanted in connection with the Golden Venture, a ship that ran aground carrying nearly 300 illegal immigrants. The case spurred the United States government to strengthen efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

RESIGNED. MASSIMO D'ALEMA, 51, as Prime Minister of Italy following a humiliating defeat for his center-left coalition in regional elections; in Rome. Italy's first ex-Communist Prime Minister, d'Alema never managed to control his fractious coalition partners in 18 months in office. If the partners can't agree on his replacement, the country will hold early elections.

SENTENCED. AN JUN, 42, Chinese anti-corruption campaigner, to four years in prison on charges of subversion; in Xinyang, Henan province. An set up a corruption-monitoring group in 1998 that uncovered dozens of cases of graft. He was arrested in July 1999 and convicted in early April, though the verdict was not announced until a day after Beijing had succeeded in blocking debate on its human rights record at a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

ELECTED. PAUL KAGAME, 42, the first Tutsi to become President of Rwanda since the country's independence in 1962; in Kigali. Kagame, a former Vice President and Defense Minister, is also head of the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front and led the army that ousted the Hutu government responsible for ethnic genocide in 1994. Long seen as the real power in the country, he replaces Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, who resigned in March amid clashes with members of the Tutsi-led parliament.

Time Capsule
Feeling queasy? Stock prices are gyrating more wildly these days than at any time since October 1987, when a crash on the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE caused share values to bounce around all over the globe. "On all the world's stock exchanges, prices had leaped up too far, too fast to be sustained. The mood in the markets shifted from fantasy about instant wealth to nervous-ness about an inevitable 'correction' (a wonderful euphemism). By Monday morning the concern . . . had taken on physical form--rows of numbers flashing on computer screens, bringing news of alarming price breaks in . . . Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Paris. . . Brokers could find only one word to describe the rout: . . . panic. . . Then, since blind panic is no more sustainable than unthinking euphoria, came a crazy whipsawing that continued virtually all week. Up, down, up, down, with trends reversing in hours, and then reversing again." --TIME, Nov. 2, 1987