Milestones Sep. 14, 1998

CONVICTED. JEAN-PAUL AKAYESU, an ex-mayor from central Rwanda; of genocide; by a U.N. tribunal in Tanzania. It is the first such verdict by an international court. Former Rwandan Prime Minister JEAN KAMBANDA, who pleaded guilty to the crime, was sentenced to life in prison.

DIED. JONATHAN MANN, 51, aids and human-rights activist who in 1986 founded the World Health Organization's program to fight AIDS; aboard Swissair Flight 111. His wife, MARY LOU CLEMENTS-MANN, 51, an AIDS vaccine expert, also died in the crash.

DIED. AKIRA KUROSAWA, 88, cinematic visionary whose visceral and visually compelling films integrated Japanese culture into the global movie idiom and inspired a generation of Western directors; in Tokyo. Rashomon (1950), the tale of a murder seen four ways, first brought him fame outside Japan, its title now a byword for the fragility of truth. Even as his samurai epics like Throne of Blood (1957) and Ran (1985) borrowed from the West, particularly Shakespeare, movies outside Japan borrowed from him: The Seven Samurai is at the heart of The Magnificent Seven; The Hidden Fortress is concealed in Star Wars.

DIED. ALLEN DRURY, 80, former Washington reporter who turned political insight into fictional intrigue when he wrote the 1960 Pulitzer prizewinning novel Advise and Consent; in Tiburon, Calif. The best-selling book drew on Drury's years as a New York Times correspondent and portrayed the machinations surrounding the nomination of a new Secretary of State. He published 18 more novels, most pertaining to the inner workings of the capital.

DIED. CARY MIDDLECOFF, 77, dentist who traded in his drill to become a top golfer and the leading money earner on the PGA Tour in the 1950s; in Memphis, Tenn. Middlecoff won 40 professional tournaments in his prime playing years, including two U.S. Opens and the Masters.