Milestones

HANNAH BEECHRESIGNED. JOHANN KRIEGLER,66, outspoken head of South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission, stoking fears of administrative chaos during the nation's second all-race elections, slated for later this year; in Johannesburg. Kriegler has warned that the IEC's independence is endangered by a shortage of funding and has criticized a government plan to require bar-coded identity documents for voters, arguing that the complicated procedure could discourage up to one-fifth of the electorate from taking part in the polls.CONVICTED. ROBERT FLAHIFF,51, disgraced Quebec Superior Court judge, of laundering $1.1 million in drug money; in Montreal. As a practicing lawyer in 1989-91, Flahiff helped a former client and cocaine trafficker by hauling bags of cash to a Montreal bank--the starting point of a circuitous round-the-world money-laundering route. Despite his 1997 arrest and the possibility of a maximum 10-year prison sentence, Flahiff is still receiving his $115,000 annual salary as head of Quebec's highest trial court.KILLED. EAMON COLLINS,44, introspective ex-Irish Republican Army intelligence operative, whose chilling expose discredited the romanticized image of paramilitarism, by unidentified assailants who stabbed him and beat his face beyond recognition; in Newry, Northern Ireland. Following the 1997 publication of Killing Rage--a memoir in which he lamented turning into a machine geared towards death--Collins was repeatedly targeted by suspected I.R.A. supporters, who torched his home and nearly killed him in a hit-and-run incident. DIED. ROBERT SHAW,82, spirited American conductor, whose soaring choral concerts moved Arturo Toscanini to rhapsodize: In Robert Shaw, I have at last found the maestro I have been looking for; in New Haven, Connecticut. After nearly 20 years leading his eponymous chorale--a Grammy-award-winning troupe that once caused a riot in Ukraine when ticketless fans battered down the doors of a concert hall--Shaw took the helm of the Atlanta symphony in 1967, transforming it from a shabby collection of 60 part-timers into a professional, 93-member ensemble.DIED. SADIE DELANY,109, unassuming schoolteacher, whose extraordinary 1993 memoir, co-conceived with sister Bessie and writer Amy Hill Hearth, documented African-American life in the 20th century; in Mount Vernon, New York. Now a standard classroom text, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years spanned the indignation of the segregationist South, the heady hopes of 1920s black intellectualism and the quiet prejudice of New York suburbia.DIED. GONZALO TORRENTE BALLESTER,88, fanciful Spanish novelist, whose potent blend of realism and fantasy captured the surreal spirit of the civil-war years; in Salamanca, Spain. Winner of the 1985 Cervantes prize, the Spanish-speaking sphere's top literary award, Torrente Ballester was best known for his The Delights and the Shadows trilogy, which explored the demise of a once-powerful clan.