SUED.SEIKOMATSUDA 36, grande dame of Japan's pop scene, for purportedly sexually harassing an American man who gyrated as one of her backup dancers from 1991 to 1996; in Tokyo. Christopher Conte, 29, is seeking $366,000 in damages for allegedly being threatened with dismissal if he did not pursue a sexual relationship with the chart-topping singer.

DIED. LLOYD BRIDGES, 85, versatile Hollywood actor who breathed vindictiveness into a High Noon deputy and wackiness into an Airplane! air-traffic controller; in Los Angeles. Briefly ostracized during the anti-communist McCarthy era, the athletic actor rebounded from the blacklisting to snag a starring role in the popular 1957-61 TV series Sea Hunt.

DIED PATHFINDER, intrepid Mars lander and its plucky sidekick rover, after scientists spent five unsuccessful months trying to locate the awol spacecraft; somewhere on the rock-strewn red planet. Officials believe there is no way Pathfinder could have survived the harsh Martian winter, and the craft was pronounced officially dead the morning of March 10, 250 days after its pioneer landing last year.

DIED ALBERTO SARTORIS, 97, innovative architect who filled drafting pads with avant-garde sketches only to have many developers balk and dull his cutting-edge designs; in Pompaples, Switzerland. The Italian-born designer's modernist models were little appreciated until the 1970s, and of the 800 futurist structures he envisaged, only 50 were built.

EXTRADITION DENIED. Of ROISIN McALISKEY 26, Irish nationalist charged by German authorities with participating in a 1996 mortar attack on a British army barracks in Osnabruck, Germany; by British Home Secretary Jack Straw in London. Although critics attacked the cabinet minister for appeasing Sinn Fein by not returning McAliskey to Germany, Straw defended his decision as proper given her unstable mental and physical condition.

RECOVERING. KING FAHD 73, sovereign of Saudia Arabia, from an apparent gall bladder infection that required emergency treatment at King Faisal Specialist Hospital; in Riyadh. Heightened concerns over the monarch's health lessened after a royal court spokesman denied a report that Fahd had undergone surgery, and hospital officials discharged the monarch after a two-day stay.

EXHUMED. YVES MONTAND, craggy-faced French entertainer who died in 1991 at age 70, to settle a paternity suit claim; from the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, where his grave was cordoned off to keep curious onlookers from watching the grisly undertaking. dna scraped from the late performer's teeth and bones will determine whether 22-year-old Aurore Drossard is Montand's daughter-and whether she will inherit part of his considerable estate.

RESIGNATION ANNOUNCED. By QIAN QICHEN, 70, urbane Chinese Foreign Minister, who finessed diplomatic nightmares like the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and tense moments in cross-strait relations with Taiwan; in Beijing. Despite China's questionable human rights record, Qian commanded respect overseas and played a moderating role in Chinese diplomacy. He is expected to remain a Vice Premier in charge of foreign affairs.

By Hannah Beech

EULOGY
James McDougal, epicenter of the Whitewater inquiry into Bill Clinton's past financial dealings, was convicted on 18 felony counts in 1996. He died in a prison hospital on March 8. My deepest regret is that others never got to see the JIM McDOUGAL I fell in love with 20 years ago. The Jim McDougal I knew and trusted; the Jim McDougal whose intellect and dry wit led to his friendships with Bill Clinton and William Fulbright; the Jim McDougal who would rant and rave against social and racial inequality. He taught me how to be giving because he was one of the most generous men I have ever met. It is truly sad that the U.S. will be left with the public image of a man destroyed by manic depression and bitter resentment. Jim was a man who was suffering and struggling at the end of his life. I pray that he has now found peace. As Jim would say: "No sad songs for me."
Susan McDougal, his former wife and herself an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Los Angeles