Quotes of the Day

Performance of the Week
Relations between India and Pakistan got a boost last week after some hotel hopping diplomacy in New York City. First, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH traveled to the Roosevelt Hotel to meet PAKISTAN PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, who gave him a painting of Singh's boyhood hometown, the village of Gah in Pakistan's Punjab province, and one of his old report cards. Then the two men had a one-on-one meeting without aides that lasted an hour. Later in the day, Musharraf traveled five blocks to Singh's hotel, the New York Palace, where the two delivered a joint statement saying their talk had been "constructive and frank" and that they discussed Kashmir, the major issue dividing the two nations. Singh quoted a wise and encouraging Urdu couplet that goes: "For mistakes of the moment, generations may have to pay the price."
By Anthony Spaeth

DEPORTED. YUSEF ISLAM, 56, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, whose string of hits in the 1960s included Peace Train, Wild World and Morning has Broken; from the United States; after his United Airlines flight from London to Washington was diverted to Bangor, Maine, when U.S. officials discovered he was on the no-fly list for having suspected ties to terrorists. He returned to London, saying, "The whole thing is totally ridiculous," and vows to challenge the ban.

ACQUITTED. GLORIA TREVI, 36, irreverent pop-music superstar nicknamed "Mexico's Madonna"; on charges of kidnapping, rape and corruption of minors; after spending nearly five years in prison; in Chihuahua, Mexico. Prosecutors alleged that Trevi, her former manager and two backup singers lured young girls into their entourage and sexually abused them, but the judge ruled there was not enough evidence to support the charges.

LIFTED. U.S. trade sanctions against LIBYA; after it agreed to eliminate its nuclear-weapon and long-range-missile programs; in Washington, D.C. Long an enemy of the West under leader Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, Libya has admitted responsibility for the 1988 downing of a Pan Am jet in which 259 people died, along with a spate of other terrorist attacks in the 1980s. The U.S. relaxed most sanctions against Libya last April, but still considers it a "state sponsor of terrorism." The recent agreements could result in direct air service between the two countries and the possible importation of Libyan oil.

DETAINED. ZHAO YAN, 42, Chinese reporting assistant at the Beijing bureau of the New York Times; in Shanghai. The Times reported that Zhao's family received a notice on September 21 from the Beijing State Security Bureau stating he was "in criminal detention under suspicion of illegally providing state secrets to foreigners." New York Times foreign editor Susan Chira said, "We can state categorically that Mr. Zhao has not provided any state secrets to our newspaper."

DIED. FRANÇOISE SAGAN, 69, rebellious intellectual and writer; in Honfleur, France. Born Françoise Quoirez, she published her first book, Bonjour Tristesse, under the pseudonym Sagan in 1954 when she was 18 years old. A precocious novel of sexual disillusionment, it became a huge hit at home and sold more than a million copies in the U.S. Known for her love of drinking, fast cars and gambling as much as for her influential friendships with the likes of Tennessee Williams and French President François Mitterrand, Sagan went on to write more than 50 books and plays over her career.

DIED. EDDIE ADAMS, 71, American photojournalist whose shocking picture of a South Vietnam general executing a Vietcong guerrilla on the streets of Saigon changed the way people viewed the Vietnam War; in New York City. Working for the Associated Press, TIME and Parade magazine, Adams covered 13 wars and won more than 500 photojournalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for his Vietnam photograph. "I wasn't out to save the world," he once said of his work. "I was out to get a story."

DIED. RAJA RAMANNA, 79, scientist regarded as the father of India's nuclear-weapons program; in Bombay. Ramanna was head of Bombay's Bhabha Atomic Research Center in 1974 when the facility designed and detonated the country's first nuclear device in the Rajasthan desert; he was later appointed scientific adviser to the Defense Ministry and head of the Department of Atomic Energy. A skilled pianist and author of a book on music theory, he once reportedly declined an offer from Saddam Hussein to help Iraq develop its own nuclear program.

DIED. RUSS MEYER, 82, soft-core-porn director and master of the "sexploitation" genre; in Hollywood. A World War II combat cameraman and onetime Playboy-centerfold photographer, Meyer directed titillating '60s classics like Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! and Vixen. He borrowed from his own genial, breast-obsessed farces for 1970's nutty major-studio masterpiece, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, written by a young Roger Ebert. He also produced, financed, wrote, edited and shot 21 other films, some of which have been acquired by institutions such as the New York Museum of Modern Art as prime examples of late-20th-century pop culture at its most cheerfully leering.

• Adam Shemper
• India and Pakistan's leaders meet face to face in New York