NOVEMBER 22, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 20

Milestones
By HANNAH BEECH

RETIRING. MICHEL CAMDESSUS, 66, long-serving French managing director of the International Monetary Fund; in Washington. Through his 13-year tenure, Camdessus directed numerous IMF rescue missions to countries floundering in financial storms, from the Mexican peso crisis in 1994 to the post-Soviet market transition in Russia and Eastern Europe. Not all of the fund's actions were roundly welcomed by its clients; during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Camdessus and his colleagues were heavily criticized for insisting that countries adopt painful reform measures in return for IMF assistance.

ELECTED. FRANCISCO LABASTIDA OCHOA, 57, loyal Mexican ruling-party member and former Interior Minister, as the powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party's candidate for next July's presidential polls; in Mexico City. The primary that resulted in Labastida's victory is the first in the 70 years the PRI has ruled Mexico, a credit to President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, who relinquished his prerogative of anointing a successor in favor of a democratic poll. Since the opposition is split into numerous feuding parties, Labastida is a strong favorite in the presidential race.

DIED. PRIMO NEBIOLO, 76, autocratic head of track and field's International Amateur Athletic Federation, who oversaw the sports body's transformation from an impoverished organization into a multimillion-dollar marketing success; in Rome. Nebiolo's 18-year reign spanned the sport's Golden Age, when stars like Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson dazzled in globally televised world championships--lucrative contests that had not existed until Nebiolo staged the first one in Helsinki in 1983.

DIED. JACOBO TIMERMAN, 76, crusading Argentine author whose 1981 memoir Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number chronicled his clandestine incarceration during the nation's 'dirty war' against opponents of the ruling military regime; in Buenos Aires. Editor of the liberal daily La Opinion, Timerman was one of up to 30,000 dissidents who 'disappeared' during the junta's seven-year rule. Thousands never reappeared, even after a civilian government was established in 1983.

CONDEMNED. EGON KRENZ, 62, historical anachronism who served as East Germany's last communist leader, to six-and-a-half years' imprisonment, after his appeal of a 1997 conviction for complicity in the shooting deaths of people fleeing the country was rejected; in Leipzig. Krenz, who succeeded long-time dictator Erich Honecker in October 1989, tried desperately to salvage the German Democratic Republic by opening its border to the West, but the Iron Curtain came down just one month later.


NAME THAT DECADE

IT AIN'T "THE TENTIES" Since this decade began, pollsters and pundits have fretted over what collective noun to use for the next one (2000-2010). What comes after the '90s? Zeros? Two thousands? Double ohs? Linguists have waited years for a consensus to emerge. Now Time intends to find it. Select your favorite from the list below, then vote for it in our online poll at time.com/daily/poll/. The winner will be announced in an upcoming issue.

NAME THE ZIPS THE TWO THOUSANDS THE ZEROS THE OHS THE DOUBLE OHS THE 2KS("TWO KAYS) THE MMS THE AUGHTS THE SINGLES

PRO Cool, fresh, sexy; instant street cred Topped Futurist magazine survey Top in survey of 1,000 adults earlier this year New York Times pick; expresses delight, surprise Like above, only more emphatic Efficient; not nearly as unwieldy as "thousand" Could give the study of Latin a much needed boost Might have been what was used for 1900s Sounds swinging and '60s-ish

CON Reminiscent of icky Clinton thing Boooor-ing! Kids of the era could feel inferior Might as well call decade the Huhs Sounds James Bond-esque Too close to the name of the dreadedcomputer bug Looks too much like free advertising for candy What are we, Edwardians? Sounds swinging and '60s-ish