Starting Time

Person of the Week
FORCED OUT When 150,000 protesters hit the streets in Caracas to protest,Venezuelan President ; Hugo Chavez;’ ordered police to fire into the crowd. At least 14 people died, 240 were injured and the army arrested and deposed Chavez, replacing him with businessmen Pedro Carmona

Noted
“They’re going to have a hard time eating their oil.”
CONDOLEEZA RICE,
U.S. National Security Adviser, shrugging off Iraq’s decision to stop oil sales for 30 days as a protest over the conflict in the Middle East

Prime Number
30 days is how long business travelers and tourists will be allowed to visit the U.S. under proposed immigration rules, down from six months

Omen
Armed Thai police have been told not to carry water pistols during Thailand’s New Year festivalin case they go for the wrong weapon during water fights

Winners
JOHN ASHCROFT
Musical A.G. wows Letterman crowd with pop songs, then announces he’d like hair and urine samples from every Muslim in the audience
STEVE IRWIN
“Crocodile Guy” made $8.7 million last year. Too bad insurance premiums for sticking your head in a crocodile’s jaw are three times that
ELIZABETH HURLEY
Ex-covergirl may get millions for the story of her son Damian’s birth. Meanwhile, Hugh Grant is trying desperately to impregnate himself
Losers
DAVID BECKHAM
England’s top footballer breaks foot, may miss World Cup. For our American readers, that’s like the Rock getting injured before Summer Slam
ED MCMAHON
Carson sidekick’s house infected with toxic mold. McMahon said he would never have known the mold was toxic from the way it tasted
MICHAEL OVITZ
Hollywood talent czar loses his best account: Robin Williams. His second-best account: Father Hands-to-Himself, the non-molesting priest

Milestones
By NEIL GOUGH

DIED. MARIA FELIX, 88, sultry screen siren of Mexican cinema’s golden age whose career spanned 47 films; in Mexico City. Best known for classics of the 40s and 50s like Dona Barbara, La Cucaracha and Enamorada, Felix married four times and had numerous lovers, the painter Diego Rivera among them. In the words of President Vicente Fox: “As an artist she gave everything to Mexico.”
DIED. YU CHI-CHUNG, 92, mainland-born founding publisher of Taiwan’s China Times who followed Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists to the island,but later stepped afoul of the KMT party line and became a staunch advocate of reunification with China; in Taipei.
DIED. MALCOLM KALP, 63, former American diplomat to Iran and one of 52 hostages held by Islamic militants for 444 days beginning in 1979, after his car was hit by a drunk driver; in Stoughton, Massachusetts. The U.S. Embassy’s commercial officer in Tehran, Kalp was accused by the kidnappers of being a CIA officer, beaten for three attempted escapes and spent more than a year in solitary confinement before his release on President Ronald Reagan’s inauguration day.
CONVICTED. JAMES TRAFICANT, 60, nine-term U.S. Congressman from Ohio, on 10 federal charges including bribery, fraud and racketeering; in Cleveland. Traficant may be expelled from the House of Representatives and faces up to 63 years in prison for taking bribes and kickbacks and filing false tax returns.
EXTRADITION ORDERED.Of JURGEN HARKSEN, billionaire South African resident wanted by his native Germany to face charges of tax evasion and investment fraud; by order of a court in Cape Town.
PLEADED GUILTY. DAVID DUNCAN, former head of the Arthur Andersen operations responsible for the Enron account, to charges of obstruction of justice for “knowingly, intentionally and corruptly” ordering the destruction of documents related to the collapsed energy firm; in a Houston court.
ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. VLAJKO STOJILJKOVIC, 65, former Serbian police chief and close aide to deposed President Slobodan Milosevic, in Belgrade. Hours after the Yugoslav Parliament passed a law allowing extraditions to a U.N. war crimes tribunal, Stojiljkovic, who was previously indicted, shot himself in the temple standing in front of the parliament building. He is comatose and on the verge of death.
ON TRIAL. FAN SHAORUN, 55, former Bank of China branch head in a small port city of southern Guangdong province, facing charges of corruption including misappropriating millions in public funds and accepting bribes from a smuggler now on death row; in Zhanjiang.
SENTENCED. GARY O’NIONS, 56, Briton convicted of violating Saudi Arabia’s strict Islamic law by trading in alcohol, to eight years in jail and 800 lashes, and fined more than $500,000; by a court in Riyadh.