JANUARY 15 2001 VOL. 157 NO. 2

Milestones
BY PENNY CAMPBELL

DIED. JIMMY ZAMBO, 42, Hungary's "King of Pop," who accidentally shot himself after a night of drinking; in Budapest. Zambo, whose Christmas with Jimmy album has been at the top of the Hungarian charts for weeks, fired a gun he believed was unloaded at his head.

DIED. TANAQUIL LE CLERCQ, 71, ballerina whose long-limbed elegance epitomized classical American ballet in the 1940s and '50s; in New York City. First dancing professionally as a star student at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet, French-born Le Clercq became Balanchine's muse and, later, his wife. She went on to dance for the New York City Ballet, but her career was tragically cut short when a 1956 bout of polio left her partially paralyzed.

DIED. ALAN CRANSTON, 86, former U.S. Senator who was an advocate of arms control but left office tarnished by scandal; in Los Altos, California. A onetime journalist, Cranston was elected as Democratic Senator for California in 1968 and served a total of 24 years. His name became irrevocably associated with the U.S. savings and loan scandal in the late 1980s, when Charles H. Keating Jr. was indicted on fraud charges. The Senate reprimanded Cranston, who had accepted $1 million in donations from Keating, for improperly intervening with federal regulators on Keating's behalf.

DIED. RAY WALSTON, 86, Tony and Emmy award-winning actor who, despite a seven-decade career on stage and screen, was always popularly identified with his TV role as the extraterrestrial Uncle Martin in the sitcom My Favorite Martian; in Beverly Hills. Walston made his stage debut in 1938, winning a Tony in 1956 for his Broadway performance as the wise-cracking Devil in Damn Yankees, a role he recreated in the 1958 film adaptation.

SUSPECTED. HAROLD SHIPMAN, 55, British former doctor already convicted last January of murdering 15 female patients, of killing more than 200 in total, which would make him one of the world's worst serial killers; according to a government study released in London that analyzed death rates at his practice. It is unlikely that Shipman, who killed his victims by giving them an overdose of diamorphine, will be brought to trial again, as the government believes it would be impossible for him to have a fair trial.

RESIGNED. RYAAS RASYID, 52, as Indonesia's Administrative Reform Minister, two days after the national decentralization policy he helped create took effect; in Jakarta. Rasyid says the government's failure to sufficiently prepare for the policy's introduction will make it difficult to implement. The resignation has not been accepted by President Abdurrahman Wahid, pending the return from an overseas trip of his Vice President, who is in charge of the cabinet.

DEFUNCT.The ASAHI EVENING NEWS, 46, struggling English-language afternoon publication; in Tokyo. The paper's parent, Asahi Shimbun, has gone into partnership with the International Herald Tribune to jointly produce an English-language daily in its stead.