RETIRED. EARVIN ("Magic") JOHNSON, 36, perennially optimistic U.S. basketball great whose disclosure in 1991 that he carried the HIV virus forever changed the face of aids and sent him into retirement, twice before as a player; from the Los Angeles Lakers; in Los Angeles. Insisting that his health was not a factor in the decision, Johnson said, "It's time to move on."

DISMISSED. RAJKO KASAGIC, 53, moderate Prime Minister of the self-styled Bosnian Serb state whose conciliatory approach won him international support; by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic; in Banja Luka. The usually soft-spoken Premier had criticized his government as an "out-of-tune band" because of its refusal to negotiate with the Muslim-Croat Federation.

RESIGNING. ROELOF ("Pik") BOTHA, 64, South Africa's longest serving Cabinet minister who, as Foreign Minister from 1977 to 1994, took on the impossible task of defending his apartheid regime to a skeptical global audience; as Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs; following his National Party's decision to withdraw from Nelson Mandela's government; in Cape Town. Harshly reprimanded by then President P.W. Botha (no relation) in 1986 for suggesting that South Africa might one day have a black President, Pik Botha has decided with a similarly acute sense of timing to leave politics.

ARRESTED. YIP KAI-FOON, 31, Hong Kong's most wanted criminal, who escaped from a prison hospital in 1989 while serving a 16-year sentence for firearms offenses; after he was shot twice by police; in Hong Kong. The two officers were searching for illegal immigrants at the pier and found Yip and a cache of weapons. Reportedly paralyzed by a bullet to the spine, Yip was later identified at the hospital from which he disappeared seven years ago.

COMMITTED SUICIDE. JEREMY M. BOORDA, 57, conscientious chief of U.S. Naval Operations who had hoped to restore its reputation after a series of scandals; just before a potentially damning interview; in Washington. Formerly commander of nato forces in southern Europe, the admiral was appointed to the Navy's top position in 1994 after it had been besmirched by incidents of sexual assault, harassment and rampant cheating. Shortly after learning that Newsweek magazine planned to question him about the legitimacy of two Vietnam War decorations, Boorda shot himself in the chest.

DIED. NNAMDI AZIKIWE, 91, Nigeria's first President, who led his country to a heady independence, only to watch it splinter into feuding factions; in Enugu. Azikiwe's nationalist yearnings reached an eloquent and fevered pitch on the pages of his newspaper, West African Pilot. Independence from Britain in 1960, however, brought the polar opposite of the black unity he envisioned as Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba ethnic groups scrambled for power within their fledgling confederation. After only three years as President, Azikiwe was ousted in 1966 by an Ibo-led coup that brought secession--which he supported for a while, being Ibo himself--and the devastating Biafran war.