Milestones

BORN to PRIVATE FIRST CLASS LYNNDIE ENGLAND, 21, U.S. soldier seen holding a leash in some of the most notorious photographs from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, and Specialist Charles Graner Jr., 36, also shown in prison photographs; a son; in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The parents are among seven reservists charged in connection with abuse at the prison late last year. The West Virginia mother is scheduled to stand trial in January on charges that carry a maximum sentence of 38 years.

NAMED PRINCE NORODOM SIHAMONI, 51, former ballet dancer and son of ex-King Norodom Sihanouk, who abdicated the throne last week; as the new King of Cambodia; in the capital, Phnom Penh. The Prince, considered to be largely apolitical, returns to the royal palace after living abroad for a large part of his life, mostly in Paris, where he danced for some of the leading conservatories.

FIRED MARTA ANDREASEN, 49, the European Commission's chief accountant; for going public with allegations that the European Union's €100 million annual budget was vulnerable to fraud and abuse; in Brussels. She was hired in 2002 to clean up the E.U.'s accounting procedures but was suspended for disloyalty and breach of trust a few months later, after she complained about its lax accounting system.

BARRED SAUDI WOMEN; from voting in the country's first nationwide municipal elections; in the capital, Riyadh. The country's election committee head, Prince Mansour bin Mutib bin Abdul Aziz, said it isn't possible to set up voting booths for women or to identify the vast majority of females — who live without identification papers — before the three-stage election process begins in February 2005.

ARRESTED MAMOUN DARKAZANLI, 46, a Syrian-born German suspected of having ties to Osama bin Laden and serving as a fund-raiser for al-Qaeda networks in Europe; in Hamburg. German antiterror police arrested him on a European warrant at the request of Spanish authorities, who believe he helped purchase a boat for bin Laden.

DIED CHRISTOPHER REEVE, 52, chiseled star of the Superman movies, who became even better known for his inspiration and activism after a 1995 horseback-riding accident that left him paralyzed; of an infection from a pressure wound; in Mount Kisco, New York. He became a powerful spokesman for spinal-cord injuries, including the use of fetal stem cells for medical research, while continuing to work in films as an actor and director.

DIED GERARD PIERRE-CHARLES, 68, influential Haitian author and politician; of heart failure after a lung infection; in Havana, Cuba. Although the lifelong communist was an early ally of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's, standing by the former Haitian President during his 1991 ouster and his 1994 return to power, the two had a falling out in 1997, when he accused Aristide of betraying the poor and drifting toward dictatorship. In 2001, Aristide backers burned down the home of Pierre-Charles, who continued to stage protests until the Haitian President finally left the country last February.

DIED MAXIME FAGET, 83, NASA engineer whose design of the Mercury space capsule made it possible for men to return from space; in Houston, Texas. Early needle-nosed spaceships, designed for as little resistance as possible, were almost impossible to protect from the heat of re-entry. Faget designed a blunt nose for the Mercury, which created a shock wave that deflected the heat, a design feature later used on the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft, as well as the Soviet Soyuz.