Milestones

HANNAH BEECHDIED. JOSHUA NKOMO,82, imperious African nationalist, who skillfully brought Zimbabwe's bickering tribes together in the fight for independence; in the capital, Harare. Although his steadfast stand against white Rhodesian colonialists led the black majority to freedom in 1980, Nkomo was eclipsed in the new nation's first election by his autocratic ally, Robert Mugabe, who has served as Zimbabwe's only President since independence.DIED. GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS,80, overbearing Greek strongman whose lightning 1967 coup installed a seven-year repressive military dictatorship; in Athens. After leading his right-wing junta to power, the authoritarian colonel abolished the monarchy, filled jails with dissidents and banned beards and mini-skirts--all in the name of preventing Greece from slipping over to the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. Although he succeeded in that goal, Papadopoulos spent his final years imprisoned for treason and insurrection and remained unrepentant to the end.DIED. MARIO PUZO,78, masterful storyteller who breathed life into the fictional Corleone mobster family; in Long Island, New York. In his 1969 The Godfather, which was later turned into an Oscar-winning film classic, Puzo romanticized the Mafia as a tight-knit, honor-bound clan. But the son of illiterate Italian immigrants insisted that his mythical version of organized crime held a kernel of truth, asking: Just because a guy's a murderer, he can't have endearing traits?DIED. WILLIAM WHITELAW,81, loyal deputy to Britain's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; in Penrith, England. As the amiable deputy leader of the Conservative Party from 1975-'91, Whitelaw frequently moderated Thatcher's especially hawkish stances and once quipped: I'm never an accelerator, but I'm the best brake she has.DIED. JOHN WOOLF,86, hit-making British film producer who almost singlehandedly revived the nation's ailing movie industry in the 1950 and '60s by proving that high-quality artistic features could be commercially viable even in an era of blockbuster fluff; in London. Woolf, whose classics--including Oliver!, The Day of the Jackal and The African Queen--won 13 Oscars, later turned his attentions to the small screen, where he produced gritty TV dramas that were broadcast around the globe.UNDER INVESTIGATION. JEAN TIBERI,64, scandal-plagued Mayor of Paris, for allegedly awarding plush contracts to firms that kicked back illegal campaign contributions to his Gaullist party, by a magistrate; in Paris. The formal inquiry, the most recent in a continuing five-year probe into abuse of city funds, brushes dangerously close to a fellow Gaullist, President Jacques Chirac, who preceded Tiberi as Mayor of the city and under whose tenure the corruption reputedly began.ELECTED. VIKTOR CHERNOMYRDIN,61, former Russian Prime Minister and Kosovo envoy, as chairman of the nation's largest firm, Gazprom, by the company's 11-member board; in Moscow. One-fifth of the country's tax revenue flows from the natural-gas monopoly, and the ex-PM's posting underscores the cozy ties between the Kremlin and the big businesses whose financial support is likely to be key in parliamentary elections slated for December.
IMPROVING JEFFERSON Not impressed by the U.S. Declaration of Independence? Then turn to the Web, where translation sites like Babel Fish () and the Dialect Translator () can help you look at it in a whole new way:ORIGINAL: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ...

ENGLISH TO GERMAN TO ENGLISH (Babel Fish): We continue this truth to be naturally, that all its creates man directly, that they equip its by their creator with certainly intransferably right, that under this its life-span, liberty and the pursuit of luck ...

ENGLISH TO SWEDISH CHEF (D.T.): We-a huld zeese-a trooths tu be-a selff-ifeedent, thet ell mee ere-a creeted iqooel, thet zeey ere-a indooed by zeeur creetur veet certeeen uneleeeneble-a reeghts ...

ENGLISH TO CALIFORNIA VALLEY GIRL (D.T.): Us guys hold these truths to be self-evident, mostly ... like, that among these are life, like, liberty and thuh pursuit of happiness ...

ENGLISH TO FRENCH TO GERMAN TO ITALIAN TO SPANISH TO ENGLISH (Babel Fish): East halting truth for obvious uniform, this all same man create that one, that straight stops to be creative point with intransferable pagination ...

IMPROVING JEFFERSON