Milestones

The first time I met MARGARET HASSAN, CARE International’s Iraq directorwho was murdered by insurgents last weekI was puzzled. It was in an Iraqi government office in 1998. Here was a petite Irishwoman in her 50s with an English accent speaking fluent Arabic in one of the world’s most dangerous pariah states. The U.N. sanctions that had wedged the Iraqis between an evil regime and an uncaring world had been in place for eight years. She fixed her strong, brown eyes on me and gave me the facts: Iraqi children were dying by the thousands; Iraq was ceasing to exist as a unified nation-state; its people were experiencing an African-scale catastrophe of malnutrition. She knew the situation on the ground and cared passionately about the suffering around her.

In 2003, as American bombs fell around Baghdad, she again warned me of the catastrophe that was on our doorstep. She was visibly distressed and looked tired. The lines under her eyes were deeper, but her anger at the condition of the Iraqis was undiminished. After the war, while all around crumbled, she worked tirelessly to provide water, shelter and medical aid for the poor.

The unspeakable hostage videos made by Margaret’s murderers are not the images we’ll remember. Her family, her colleagues, the foreign correspondents who cherished her advice and the tens of thousands of Iraqis who benefited from her work will never forget all the good she did.
By Richard Downes, reporter for Irish TV station RTE

RELEASED. 3,937 prisoners, including student leader MIN KO NAING, 42 (pictured after his release from Sittwe prison), and at least two dozen members of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy; from jails around the country; in Burma. Reasons for the mass release remain unclear; the move follows last month’s purge of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt by the junta, and state media have reported that the prisoners had been “inappropriately” jailed by the former PM’s intelligence apparatus. Min Ko Naing, a leader of 1988’s student democracy protests, had been in jail since March 1989. Suu Kyi, Burma’s most prominent political prisoner, remains under house arrest in the Burmese capital.

STEPPING DOWN. PHIL KNIGHT, 66, Nike co-founder and master marketer; as CEO of the world’s biggest athletic-shoe company, effective next month; in Beaverton, Oregon. Knight and the late Bill Bowerman started out in the 1960s making soles with a waffle iron and selling the shoes out of a car trunk. Knight, who will remain chairman, will be replaced by William Perez, CEO of S.C. Johnson & Son.

REVISED. CHINA’S GENERAL PHYSICAL EXAMINATION STANDARDS, to allow HIV-positive citizens to qualify for government jobs; in a draft posted on Ministry of Personnel and Ministry of Health websites last week; in Beijing. Earlier versions barred those with HIV or AIDS from public service, and were denounced as unconstitutional by Chinese AIDS activists and human-rights attorneys. The new guidelines still don’t cover those with full-blown AIDS, but Shanghai-based lawyer-activist Zhou Dan says the reform will help “ensure that the government isn’t in the position of legalizing discrimination.”

BANNED. FOX HUNTING, a 300-year-old English tradition, after seven years of bitter political debate and legislative maneuvering; by Britain’s House of Commons; in London. Despite a last-minute compromise proposal from Prime Minister Tony Blair, Labour Party members pushed through the ban on the grounds that fox hunting was cruel and inhumane. Hunt supporters have vowed to challenge the new law.

RESIGNED. ROD PAIGE, 71, as U.S. Education Secretary; SPENCER ABRAHAM, 52, as Energy Secretary; ANN VENEMAN, 55, as Agriculture Secretary; and COLIN POWELL, 67, as the Bush Administration’s long-embattled Secretary of State; in Washington, D.C. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has been nominated to replace Powell.

HOSPITALIZED. MOHAMED ALANSSI, 52, Yemeni-born businessman and FBI informant; after setting himself on fire at the front gates of the White House; in Washington, D.C. Alanssi had recently told the Washington Post that he was upset at being unable to return to Yemen to see his ailing wife because the FBI was holding his passport until he testifies in a coming terrorism trial. He was listed as being in a critical condition with burns over 30% of his body.

DIED. ASIM GHAFOOR, Islamic militant allegedly linked to the outlaw group Harakatul Mujahideen; after being shot by police; in Islamabad. Pakistani officials claim that Ghafoor had ties to Amjad Farooqi, a suspected al-Qaeda operative killed in September who was wanted in connection with the 2002 killing of journalist Daniel Pearl as well as two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf. Deputy inspector general of police Javed Ali Shah Bokhari said Ghafoor “had a role in all terrorist activities orchestrated by [Farooqi].”

Performance Of The Week
A 7-0 victory is usually reason enough to break out the champagne. But despite demolishing Hong Kong’s side last week, China’s national soccer team found itself out of the 2006 World Cup after Kuwait edged ahead on goals scored in the qualifying rounds, by trouncing Malaysia 6-1. In response, China sacked its coach. It’s never too early to start thinking about 2010.