By HANNAH BEECH

DIED. SHEIK SAEED SHAABAN, 75, ardent Sunni Muslim leader, whose Islamic Unification Movement tried to install Muslim rule in Lebanon forcibly; in Tripoli, Lebanon. During the 1980s, Shaaban's followers formed militias that patrolled Tripoli's streets, effectively controlling the city. More recently, his acolytes clashed with police who pulled the plug on his illegal Islamic television and radio programs.

DIED. DAVID WALSH, 52, embattled founder of bankrupt mining firm Bre-X; in Nassau, the Bahamas. The Canadian company boasted of having uncovered one of the world's largest gold deposits on its Busang property in Indonesia, but the vaunted find was exposed as a fraud last year and cost investors more than $3 billion. Just weeks before his fatal brain aneurysm, the Supreme Court of the Bahamas froze Walsh and his wife's assets there, reportedly worth $21 million.

NAMED. PIUS SEGMUELLER, 46, Swiss Army colonel, as new chief of the Swiss Guards, the tiny Vatican army, by Pope John Paul II; in Vatican City. The elite corps, which has protected the pontiff for five centuries, was rocked last month by a murder-suicide that claimed the life of its previous commanding officer, Alois Estermann, and his wife. They were slain by another guardsman, Cedric Tornay, who proceeded to kill himself minutes later.

MARRIED. The AGA KHAN, 61, spiritual leader to 12 million Shi'a Ismaili Muslims, and GABRIELE ZU LEININGEN, 35, a German-born princess and UNESCO consultant; at the Aga Khan's estate north of Paris. Both the Aga Khan, one of the world's wealthiest men, and the princess have been married previously.

PLEADED NOT GUILTY. CANAAN BANANA, 62, former Zimbabwean President, to two counts of sodomy, three of attempted sodomy and six of indecent assault; in Harare. During his 1980-87 term as the young nation's first President, the Methodist minister is alleged to have forced 10 aides and guards into unwanted sexual relationships. The case is a major embarrassment to Banana's successor Robert Mugabe, who has raised eyebrows by virulently attacking gays as "worse than pigs and dogs."

CHARGED. MOHAMMED RASHID, 51, alleged Palestinian bomb specialist, with nine counts of murder, sabotage and other crimes in connection with the 1982 bombing of a Hawaii-bound Pan Am flight; after Egyptian authorities secretly spirited the suspected terrorist to Washington. A member of the Baghdad-based 15th of May terrorist ring, Rashid protested the arrest, claiming double jeopardy: in 1992 he was convicted by a Greek court in connection with the fatal mid-air explosion but was released in December 1996.

SENTENCED. TERRY NICHOLS, 43, owlish Oklahoma City bomb conspirator, to life imprisonment without parole, by U.S. District Court judge Richard Matsch; in Denver. Labeling Nichols an "enemy of the Constitution," Matsch derided Nichols and partner Timothy McVeigh for their anti-government views, which inspired the pair to carry out the deadliest act of terrorism in U.S. history.

COMPLETED. By TOM WHITTAKER, 49, dedicated British-born outdoorsman, the first ever ascent of Mt. Everest by a disabled climber. Whittaker, who was fitted with an artificial leg after a 1979 auto accident, tried unsuccessfully twice before to scale the 8,847-m peak.

--By Hannah Beech