Milestones

By Melissa August; Elizabeth L. Bland; Unmesh Kher; Carolina Miranda; Nadia Mustafa Sunday, Apr. 25, 2004
    • RESIGNED. KAREN JURGENSEN, editor of USA Today, and her colleague HAL RITTER, managing editor of news; in the wake of a report that blamed poor editorial oversight for the paper's failure to uncover deceptions in the work of star reporter Jack Kelley; in McLean, Va. Kelley, who resigned in January, was found to have fabricated parts of at least 20 stories and plagiarized at least 100 passages since 1991. Both editors had been with the paper since its launch in 1982.

    RELEASED. MORDECHAI VANUNU, 50, former nuclear technician who was imprisoned for treason for 18 years — including 12 in solitary confinement — for revealing Israeli nuclear secrets to a British newspaper; in Ashkelon, Israel. A convert to Christianity who has had severe restrictions placed on his travel, he was defiant on his release. "To all those calling me a traitor," he said, "I'm proud and happy to do what I did."


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    REINSTATED. The right of the U.S. government to seek the death penalty against ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI, a French citizen charged with participating in a terrorism conspiracy to attack the U.S. along with the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers; by an appeals court in Richmond, Va. The appeals panel, overturning a lower-court ruling, also said Moussaoui could have access to information from three al-Qaeda prisoners who may be able to provide evidence in his defense. Moussaoui has denied that he was part of the Sept. 11 plot.

    DIED. JAMES CANTALUPO, 60, McDonald's chief who steered a dramatic turnaround at the world's largest restaurant chain; of an apparent heart attack; in Orlando, Fla. Cantalupo joined McDonald's in 1974 and helped oversee a large foreign expansion before taking early retirement in 2001. He was coaxed back in early 2003 and set about restoring sales and profit growth by demanding better service and, in response to health concerns, introducing entree salads while eliminating supersize fries and soft drinks.

    DIED. NORRIS MCWHIRTER, 78, who with his identical twin brother Ross co-founded the best-selling Guinness Book of Records in 1955 after being commissioned by the head of the Guinness brewery to create a reference for settling arguments between drinking buddies; in Wiltshire, England. The brothers — Oxford graduates, track stars and sports journalists — were also right-wing political activists, and Ross was murdered by the I.R.A. in 1975. Norris played his own role in one record performance in 1954: he was the announcer who described Roger Bannister's breaking of the 4-min.-mile barrier.

    DIED. RATU SIR KAMISESE MARA, 83, founding father of Fiji who helped guide the Pacific island to independence after 96 years of British colonial rule; in Suva, Fiji. An important U.S. ally during the cold war, he served as Prime Minister for 25 years before becoming President in a 1993 coup but was forced to retire in 2000 after an armed gang held the Prime Minister and Cabinet hostage for 56 days.

    DIED. MARY McGRORY, 85, liberal, no-nonsense columnist for the Washington Star and Washington Post whose career stretched from the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings to last year's Iraq war; in Washington. She wrote eloquently of President Kennedy's assassination ("Write short sentences in the presence of great grief," she said) and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for her columns on Watergate — which had already earned her a spot on President Nixon's notorious enemies list.