By HANNAH BEECH

DIED. JOHN HAWKES, 72, cutting-edge American writer, who dismissed plot, character, setting and theme as "the true enemies of the novel"; in Providence, Rhode Island. In evocative novels like The Blood Oranges and Sweet William: A Memoir of an Old Horse, Hawkes concentrated instead on crafting labyrinthine sentences that languorously wound their way through the lives of characters as divergent as a manipulative lover and a retired racehorse.

DIED. ALFREDO YABRAN, 53, shady Argentine tycoon whose close relations with President Carlos Menem ensured him lucrative government contracts and the disdain of a public sick of corruption, of an apparent suicide; at his luxurious ranch north of Buenos Aires. Obsessed with avoiding publicity, Yabran is alleged to have ordered the execution-style killing of photo-journalist Jose Luis Cabezas, who snapped a rare picture of the reclusive businessman two years ago.

DIED. SOSUKE UNO, 75, Japanese politician, whose prime ministerial term was memorable only for its brevity (69 days) and the sex scandal that ended it; in Tokyo. Hustled into office after predecessor Noboru Takeshita was undone by a bribery scandal, Uno himself lost the public mandate when reports surfaced that he had paid a geisha to be his mistress.

DIED. HUGH CUDLIPP, 84, pugnacious British media mogul who energized the modern British tabloid with his brazen motto "publish and be damned"; in Chichester, England. Dropping out of school at age 14 to try his luck as a reporter, Cudlipp impressed Fleet Street just a decade later when he became the industry's youngest-ever editor. Even in his later years, when he ran one of the world's largest publishing groups, Cudlipp never lost his brashness, shocking Mirror readers by labeling Britain "too damn smug" and nagging Princess Margaret to "please make up your mind" about a possible marriage.

ACQUITTED. SUKRU KARATEPE, 49, pro-Islamic mayor of the central Turkish town of Kayseri, of "inciting national hatred based on religious separatism"; by an Ankara court. Karatepe was imprisoned in April for having said in 1996 that his "heart was bleeding" because he had to attend a function honoring the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Although Ataturk set up a stridently secular state in 1923, a resurgence of religious sentiment has buoyed the careers of Karatepe and fellow members of the now-outlawed Islamic Welfare party.

PARDONED. HELMUT POHL, 54, former German Red Army Faction terrorist, by President Roman Herzog, who gave no reason for the absolution; in Bonn. The left-wing group's ex-strategist was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1981 bombing of a U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany. Although the Red Army Faction has orchestrated dozens of terrorist attacks since its founding in 1970, time has robbed it of its numbers and relevancy, and the much-diminished group announced last month that it would disband.