SEPTEMBER 20, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 11

Spotlight

Winners JOHN HOWARD Australian PM's eagerness to support East Timorese puts the rest of the world to shame TALVIN SINGH Drum 'n' bassist with Asian flair takes Britain's Mercury award over Blur and Chemical Brothers MICHAEL PORTILLO Tory ex-minister's admission he had gay sex as a youth wins praise for honesty

Losers B.J. HABIBIE Indonesian Prez loses East Timor, international support and control of his country--all in one week SYLVESTER STALLONE Hasn't made a dime in two years, Rocky tells a U.S. author at a café where everyone ignores him RICHARD KRAJICEK Serves 49 aces in a single match--a tennis world record--at U.S. Open. He still loses

Verbatim

"It makes Bosnia seem like a holiday camp." Mike Holdsworth, British police officer who went to East Timor to help oversee referendum, on the violent aftermath of the vote "I have heard cynics say the Dalai Lama is a very political old monk shuffling around in Gucci shoes." Rupert Murdoch, media mogul accused of kowtowing to Beijing for commercial reasons, in an interview with Vanity Fair

"It's one of the greatest assaults on my senses since I left prison." Senator John McCain, G.O.P. Presidential hopeful and Vietnam War POW, on watching the MTV Music Awards with his daughter "In the same circumstances, I know I would do the same thing again." Melita Norwood, 87-year-old retired British secretary unmasked as a Soviet nuclear spy