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AUGUST 7, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 5
Milestones
BY PENNY CAMPBELL
CHARGES FINALIZED. Against SUHARTO, 79, former President of Indonesia, for allegedly stealing $157 million from seven charitable foundations under his control during his 32-year rule; in Jakarta. The charges will be presented to a civil court by the Attorney General sometime this month.
DIED. CLAUDE SAUTET, 76, French director whose art-house films chronicled the life of the French bourgeoisie; in Paris. Sautet made 15 films, among them Une Histoire Simple, which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign picture in 1980, and Nelly et M. Arnaud, for which he won the French César award for best director in 1996.
DIED. YUKI OGURA, 105, oldest of Japan's traditional Nihonga-style painters; in Tokyo. The first woman to join the prestigious Japan Art Institute, in 1932, Ogura was awarded the Order of Culture in 1980. She continued to work until being hospitalized earlier this year.
DIED. AHMAD SHAMLOU, 75, Iran's most celebrated contemporary poet who was a major force in the intellectual movement opposed to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi; in Tehran. A proponent of secular nationalism, Shamlou became disillusioned with the Islamic government that took power after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He was jailed under the Shah and his books were banned for periods by both regimes.
CASE DISMISSED. Against BAL THACKERAY, 73, leader of the Hindu fundamentalist Shiv Sena party, after being arrested for inciting communal riots in 1992-93; in Bombay. Thackeray appeared before a magistrate who, in less than two hours, ruled that the case was too old to try. More than 1,000 people died in the Hindu-Muslim riots, and Thackeray was accused of inciting his followers to attack Muslims in an editorial in his party newspaper. His release ended tension that gripped Bombay after the state government ten days earlier announced its intention to prosecute him.
RELEASED. MICHAEL STONE, 45,
notorious Northern Irish Protestant militant, 11 years into a 30-year sentence
for a fatal gun and grenade attack that killed three Catholics attending
an IRA funeral; in Belfast. Stone, who was also convicted of three other
murders, was released from Belfast's infamous Maze prison under the 1998
Good Friday peace accord's early release scheme.
RESIGNED. YU SHYI-KUN, 52, as Vice Premier of Taiwan, to take political responsibility for the failure to rescue four workers stranded in a flooded river; in Taipei. Lack of communication among rescue services led to the four being swept away after a three-hour wait.
RESIGNED. JUAN VILLALONGA, 47, as chairman of Spanish phone giant Telefónica; in Madrid. The subject of an insider trading investigation, Villalonga had also fallen out with the government and major shareholders. He has reportedly won a $28 million payoff.
Time Capsule
Twenty
years ago at the Republican convention in Detroit,
RONALD REAGAN and GEORGE BUSH
formed a ticket that took back the White House from the Democrats. Will
the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney duo have the same broad appeal?
"On the third night of the convention came the moment that had eluded Reagan for twelve years... Montana's 20 votes pushed Reagan's total above the 998 that he needed for the nomination, and pandemonium broke out. Some 12,000 red-white-and-blue balloons... dropped from the ceiling as Manny Harmon's Convention Orchestra played Sousa marches... On the following night, after he had formally accepted... Reagan stood on the platform, with Bush at his side. The very fact that they were together indicated the political changes in the men and, more important in their party... The Republican Party seemed clearly to have stolen a march on the Democrats in the contest to form a new, right-center coalition and become the new majority."
--TIME, July 28, 1980
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