By HANNAH BEECH

DIED. LUIS JOSE DA COSTA, 36, half of Brazil's rollicking musical duo Leandro and Leonardo, of cancer of the thorax; in Sao Paulo. Shunning the tomato fields that relegated his father to back-crunching labor, Leandro teamed up with his younger brother to cultivate once-disdained sertanejo country music into cool cowboy chic. Such was the popularity of the singer and guitarist that World Cup soccer player Rivaldo partially attributed Brazil's stunning 2-1 loss to Norway to the team's distress over Leandro's death.

DIED. MAUREEN O'SULLIVAN, 87, Irish screen siren, who scandalized 1930s audiences with the skimpy leather tunic she donned as Jane in the Tarzan film series; near Phoenix. After giving up on her jungle adventures, O'Sullivan graced more than 60 films with her Emerald Isle eyes, including Pride and Prejudice and Anna Karenina. O'Sullivan was prodigious at home as well, raising a brood of seven children that included actress Mia Farrow, with whom she co-starred in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters.

DEATH ANNOUNCED. of JAFAR SHARIF-EMAMI, 87, ineffectual former Iranian Prime Minister, who belatedly urged his boss and confidant, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, to liberalize his regime or face banishment; on June 16 in New York. The ex-engineer's reforms, which included freeing half the country's political prisoners and legalizing political parties, came too late to save the corruption-tainted Shah from being swept away by Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1979 Islamic revolution.

ESCAPED. GIUSEPPE AUTORINO, 52, and FERNANDO CESARANO, 44, wily Neapolitan Mafia members, from a courtroom cage where they were standing to face money-laundering charges; in Salerno, Italy. While the judge and jury watched, the two defendants dropped into a tunnel that had been dug underneath the cage by accomplices. Minutes later, the pair popped up near a busy street, where they commandeered a passing car and eluded police gunfire to complete their dazzling getaway.

MARRIED. P.W. BOTHA, 82, inflexible ex-South African President, and BARBARA ROBERTSON, 57, legal secretary; in a small ceremony at Botha's home in Wilderness, South Africa. Botha's first wife, Elize, died last year. The pair's honeymoon will have to wait until Botha resolves a standoff with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, before which he has refused to testify about apartheid-era atrocities.

RESIGNED. PHIL JACKSON, 52, Zen-spouting coaching maestro, who presided over the Chicago Bulls' remarkable six recent National Basketball Association championships; in Chicago. Although Jackson's nine-year tenure was marked by phenomenal on-court success, it was also marred by constant tension with Bulls' management. His departure leaves fans wondering whether Chicago's towering trinity--Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman--will return for another season in the Windy City.

NAMED. DAIM ZAINUDDIN, 60, pro-business stalwart, as Malaysia's Minister of Special Functions, by Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad; in Kuala Lumpur. The appointment of Daim, a former Finance Minister and a Mahathir insider, is regarded by some as the Prime Minister's attempt to check the liberal economic policies of the Finance Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, who is more supportive than the Prime Minister of tough, International Monetary Fund-style policies.