RESIGNED. MESUT YILMAZ, 49, Turkey's Prime Minister, after just three months at the head of a center-right coalition government; in anticipation of a censure motion because the Constitutional Court ruled illegal the vote of confidence that brought him to power; in Ankara. The collapse of Yilmaz's coalition gives the Islamic Refah (Welfare) Party--which won the most seats (158) in Turkey's 550-member parliament last December--an opportunity to form a government. Yilmaz will remain as caretaker Prime Minister until another leader can assemble a coalition.

RETIRED. DESMOND TUTU, 64, South Africa's spiritual guide, whose early and eloquent crusading against apartheid won him the Nobel Prize in 1984; from his post as Archbishop and leader of Southern Africa's Anglican Church; in Cape Town. From the pulpit of St. George's Cathedral, Tutu preached the sins of apartheid--a singular voice during the 1980s, when most other black leaders were jailed. One of the first to call upon other nations to impose economic sanctions against his country's white-minority regime, Tutu warned leaders of newly democratic South Africa a decade later against the "gravy train" of privilege.

MURDERED. KUDIRAT ABIOLA, 44, critic of Nigeria's military junta who campaigned tenaciously for the release of her jailed husband Moshood Abiola, a wealthy businessman widely believed to have won the West African nation's annulled 1993 presidential election; by unknown gunmen who ambushed her car; in Lagos. Mrs. Abiola was scheduled to stand trial on charges relating to her repeated calls for her husband's release. He is serving his 24th month in prison for treason and may not have been notified of his senior wife's assassination.

DIED. PILAR LORENGAR, 68, Spanish diva whose shimmering soprano gave radiant life to opera's greatest heroines, such as the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro; of breast cancer; in Berlin. The glory of Lorengar's higher register coupled with her warm stage presence drew fans on both sides of the Atlantic. She was a regular of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, where she had lived since 1958, and a frequent guest star at New York City's Metropolitan Opera House. Though purists considered her vibrato a trifle uncontrolled and her emotional repertoire somewhat limited, her soaring renditions of Mozart's Dovo Sono and Federico Mompou's Cantar del Alma effectively silenced her detractors.

DIED. LEON GARFIELD, 74, British children's storyteller who peopled his extravagant yarns with plucky orphans, lusty gods and shamelessly outsize villains; in London. A biochemist until age 48, Garfield turned scribe by concocting out of seemingly familiar elements--18th century England, Greek mythology--literary compounds such as Smith (1967), a Dickensian tale of a pickpocket who steals a document that becomes his death warrant. Garfield's writing was permeated by a clear humanity, justifying his claim that "one does not write for children. One writes so that children can understand."