I VANT MY NTV Russian President Vladimir Putin is in a position to control almost everything his countrymen hear and watch after the independent TV-news outlet NTV, owned by Vladimir Gusinsky, a prominent government critic, fell under control of a state-affiliated conglomerate
Winners
MICHELLE YEOH
Crouching Tiger star is given the royal title datuk by the sultan of her home state of Perak, Malaysia. Is Dame Jade Fox next?
MEL BROOKS
Producers gets raves; show sold out. What's next for Broadway? Blazing Saddles, the Musical? Silent Movie, the Play?
SCOTT WADDLE
Submarine commander discharged without a court-martial. Guess the tribunal had too many civilian visitors that day
Losers
MARION BARRY
Former Washington, D.C. mayor must do community service for shoving a female janitor. His actual response: "God knows I'm right"
FERRETS
The E.U. won't let the nosy pets travel freely in Europe. Watch out for owners trying to wear their furry companions through customs as stoles
LE KHA PHIEU
Vietnam's Communist Party leader steps aside because he "made mistakes." He's now rethinking National No Pants Day
Noted
"I think the best country is one in which rich Jews feel like living."
TARO ASO, Economic Minister and contender for the Japanese Prime Minister post, describing his vision for a safer, more tolerant Japan
Prime Number
2 hours. That's what it would take NASA's X-43A plane to fly from L.A. to Tokyo. A prototype, now being tested, is designed to reach 11,500 km/h
Omen
Hong Kong surgeons can no longer use cell phones in the operating theater after a patient complained that a doctor took a 14-minute call while removing an intestinal polyp
Digital Ramparts
The New Radicalism
China got counterrevolution, Japan had its jobs-for-life thing, but Taiwan never developed much of an entitlement culture. But take away their Leon Lai downloads, and Taiwanese are ready to storm the barricades. "We cannot remember a time when the students of Taiwan were so united by a burning rage," head-scratched the Taipei Times. The source of this unrest: two weekends ago, authorities in southern Tainan busted into a university dorm room where students were burning bootleg CDs. The predawn sting yielded one guilty coed and 14 MP3-laden computers, which authorities said undermined intellectual property laws. Within days, students compiled a 3,000-signature petition and demonstrated before visiting Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou. By Thursday the movement had spread to Taipei, where students wore yellow armbands symbolizing digital solidarity. Middle-aged rabble-rousers who once struggled against authoritarian rule were not impressed. "What are they, Black Panthers?" squawks Sisy Chen, a talk show host. "Our jobs are moving to China, we're building another nuclear plant, and they rise up for this?"
Pushing the Right Buttons
PINNED. Once they made a statement. They were quirky windows into our souls, expressions of our kicky individuality. Michael J. Fox sported one in Back to the Future; Wham had a few dozen pinned to their blousy satin suits. They even made it big in China during the Cultural Revolution when Mao-adorned pendants were the symbol of revolutionary coolness. Then the multinationals, elementary schools and junior athletic leagues took over and un-cooled the button. They became big and plastic, and their messages lost out to corporate hype and photo badges of 8-year-old softball players. Until now. Yes, the classic aluminum beauties are back. Kitschy slogans and retro cartoons decorate the small, round pins that reign again on the streets of fashion-conscious England and Holland. But no country has embraced the retro buttonsand their message of '80s-style youthful exuberanceas completely as Japan. Tokyoites have flocked to purchase kanbacchi, sporting their own distinctive anthems on their identical denim jacket lapels. Wait till they rediscover thin, leather neck ties.
Milestones
By MAUREEN TKACIK
EXPECTING. PRINCESS MASAKO, 37, and PRINCE NARUHITO, 41, Japan's childless Crown couple;in Tokyo. The baby, who could be the Chrysanthemum Throne's 126th Emperor, is due inSeptember. Despite the fact Masako's 1999 miscarriage was blamed on the media frenzy that surrounded that pregnancy, more than 100 journalists flocked to her parents' home last week. Pundits predict a nationwide baby boom.
PLEADED INNOCENT. DRAGAN OBRENOVIC, 38, to genocide charges stemming from his role in the 1995 Srebrenicamassacre of 7,500 Bosnian Muslims; in The Hague. According to his indictment Obrenovic carried out the orders ofGeneral Radislav Krstic to "kill all inturn" in what is now considered Central Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
DIED. MICHAEL RITCHIE,62, acerbic American director best known for his debut films Downhill Racer and The Candidate; in New York City. Ritchie also directed the Fletch comedies starring Chevy Chase and an hbo production self-explanatorily titled The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.
DIED. HIROSHI TESHIGAHARA, 74, Japanese film director and artist; in Tokyo. Teshigahara is best known abroad for directing the Oscar-nominated Woman in the Dunes, but he was also a calligrapher,ceramicist and headmaster of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, the renowned flower-arranging academy his father founded in 1927.
FILED FOR DIVORCE. JANEFONDA, 63, from TED TURNER, 62, after 10 years of marriage, citing differences arising from herconversion to Christianity; inAtlanta. The billionaire cnn founder and the actress-cum-fitness guru separated last year but claimed commitment to the "long-term success" of the marriage; last week "no hope of reconciliation" remained, divorce papers said.
Eulogy
By BONO, U2
The idea of being in a band and making records seemed out of reach to me, Adam, Edge andLarry until we heard the Ramones. Something about their humility and humor struck us when we saw them in Dublin in 1977. They seemed like the antithesis of every other band we went to see where, intentionally or not, you felt like you were peasants. It was a revolution; it felt like our people were on stage. When I was listening to JOEY RAMONE and realizing that there was nothing else that mattered to him, pretty soon nothing else mattered to me. Imagination was the only obstacle to overcome. Anyone could play those four chords. You had to be able to hear it more than you had to be able to play it. Suddenly, a bunch of kids from Dublin who wouldnever have had a chance to get on the musical merry-go-round watched it stop for just long enough to jump on. We were a band before we could play, and formed our band around an idea of friendship and shared spirit. That was a preposterous notion before the Ramones.