JANUARY 8 2001 VOL. 157 NO. 1

Milestones
BY PENNY CAMPBELL

DIED. NEIL HAWKE, 61, Australian cricketer renowned for his courageous fight against chronic ill health in later life; in Adelaide. A fast-medium bowler, Hawke started playing cricket for West Australia in 1959 and made his Test debut against England in 1962, playing a total of 27 Test matches for 91 wickets before retiring in the late 1960s. He also maintained a parallel career in Australia's football league. Complications from bowel surgery in 1980 left him struggling with illness and multiple operations during the last 20 years of his life.

DIED. JOHN COOPER, 77, designer of the iconic 1960s Mini Cooper car that became a favorite of celebrities such as Ringo Starr and Peter Sellers; in West Sussex. A souped-up version of the original Mini, the Mini Cooper was launched in 1961, soon acquiring cult status and becoming immortalized in the 1969 film The Italian Job starring Michael Caine. A former racing driver, Cooper built the first rear-engine Formula One car, and his team won the World Championship in 1959 and 1960.

DIED. JASON ROBARDS, 78, gritty stage and screen actor, acclaimed for his performances in Eugene O'Neill plays, who won back-to-back Oscars for All the President's Men and Julia; in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Robards, who won the Navy Cross for his service in World War II, began his career in New York in the 1950s, struggling as a bit-part actor in radio, TV and theater. His career took off in 1956, with a critically acclaimed performance in the O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh; he would always remain loyal to the stage. He made his movie debut in 1959, playing a Hungarian freedom fighter in The Journey and went on to make more than 50 feature films, winning his Oscars in 1976 and 1977.

ARRESTED. BROWN MPINGANJIRA, 50, former Milawian Transport Minister fired from the cabinet last month on graft charges; in Blantyre. President Bakili Muluzi sacked Mpinganjira and two other senior ministers in November after criticism that he was soft on corruption. Mpinganjira is alleged to have awarded contracts totaling $2 million to ghost contractors while he was Education Minister several years ago.

WON. By VISWANATHAN ANAND, 31, Indian chess grandmaster, the world chess federation (fide) championship, the first time the title has gone to a player from outside the former Soviet Union since 1972; in Tehran. Anand easily beat Spanish player Alexei Shirov in the shortest ever world championship match. Coming just months after Vladimir Kramnik unseated Garry Kasparov in the rival Professional Chess world championship in London, Anand's victory means that both bodies now have champions of equal standing and may lead to reconciliation between the two organizations.

APPOINTED. ZHANG FUSEN, 60, as China's Justice Minister, formally replacing Gao Changli who was removed from office last month; in Beijing. A former vice minister of justice and deputy general secretary of the Communist Party, Zhang effectively took over as Justice Minister when Gao dropped from view in late November. Despite widespread speculation that Gao might be under investigation for corruption, the government maintains that he resigned from his post for health reasons.

TIME CAPSULE

2001 is finally here, and at least one aspect of the world envisioned by ARTHUR C. CLARKE, in his novel and screen-play more than three decades ago seems to have come to pass: life today requires dealing with computer voices just as soothing and sinister as Hal's.

"Across the U.S. . . . 2001: A Space Odyssey is playing to packed houses. An engrossing novel expanded from the movie's screenplay . . . [is] selling briskly. Some [35,000 km] above the equator, communications satellites are relaying TV pictures and telephone calls between the continents. The movie, the book and the satellites all have something in common: they are the brainchildren of Arthur C. Clarke, a tall, springy and remarkably imaginative Englishman whose writing bridges the gap between the far reaches of science fiction and the intricate realities of scientific fact. . . In the film 2001, Clarke's contribution . . . is evident in such items as a weird but technologically probable talking computer that is more human than the astronauts."
--Time, July 19, 1968