MILESTONES

PLEADED NO CONTEST. OKSANA BAIUL, 19, effervescent Olympic-gold skater; to speeding; in West Hartford, Connecticut. Fined $90, she was ordered to undergo alcohol education.

SETTLEMENT REACHED. Between ANTHONY LAKE, 57, the CIA director-designate, and the Justice Department; in the amount of $5,000; for having delayed selling energy stocks while National Security Adviser; in Washington. The stocks raised a potential conflict of interest, but Justice found no evidence of wrongdoing.

AILING. IRIS MURDOCH, 77, philosophical British novelist; of Alz-heimer's disease; in Oxford, England.

DIED. CHICO SCIENCE, 30, Brazilian bandster noted for his novel "mangue-beat" fusion of rock, rap and Brazilian rhythms; in a car crash; near Recife.

DIED. MITCHELL GOODMAN, 73, passionate Vietnam-era antidraft activist prosecuted with Dr. Benjamin Spock and the Rev. William Sloane Coffin as one of the Boston Five in 1968; of cancer; in Temple, Maine.

DIED. BOHUMIL HRABAL, 82, Czech novelist who wrote of life under oppression and whose Closely Watched Trains, about the Nazi Occupation, became an Oscar-winning film; in Prague.

DIED. ROSS FINNEY, 90, composer fascinated by the interplay between music and memory; in Carmel, California. His pieces ranged from folk-influenced compositions to 12-tone works.

DIED. SANFORD MEISNER, 91, master acting teacher; in Sherman Oaks, California. An original member of the seminal 1930s Group Theatre--which also nurtured teaching greats Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Robert Lewis--Meisner coached actors to interact convincingly and to project emotional believability. Among his many students: Gregory Peck, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, and directors Sidney Lumet and Sydney Pollack.