JANUARY 24, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 3

Milestones
By HANNAH BEECH

DIED: HENRY PLEASANTS, 89, influential music critic who summed up his disillusionment with contemporary forms when he wrote, "serious music is a dead art"; in London. An expert on vocal expression, Pleasants contended that modern opera suffers from ill-trained and overworked singers, but he nevertheless heaped praise on select contemporary divas like Cecilia Bartoli.

DIED: SOLOMON MAMALONI, corruption-stained former Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands; in the capital Honiara. The Pacific island-nation's longest serving leader -- he was Prime Minister for four tumultuous terms between 1983 and 1997 -- Mamaloni was ejected from power when reports leaked that he had tried to buy arms from a Singapore dealer. Still, his role as architect of the Solomon Islands' independence from British rule in 1978 buoyed Mamaloni's support, and he served as opposition leader until his death.

DIED: ALFRED NZO, 74, South Africa's first post-apartheid Foreign Minister; in Johannesburg. An elder statesman in the African National Congress, Nzo drummed up support for his party during his exile in Egypt, India and Tanzania. His tenure in the cabinet of then-President Nelson Mandela was far less distinguished, however, and critics charged that former Vice President Thabo Mbeki steered foreign affairs more forcefully than Nzo did.

DIED: MARC DAVIS, 86, American animation pioneer who breathed life into Tinker Bell, Bambi, Alice and Cruella De Vil; in Glendale, California. One of Walt Disney's "nine old men," the original cartoonists who conceived the studio's whimsical icons, Davis was considered the most gifted artist of the team. He later designed characters for Disney theme-park attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World.

RESIGNED: PORFIRIO MUÑOZ LEDO, leftist Mexican politician, from the opposition Democratic Revolution Party, which he helped found in 1987; in Mexico City. Muñoz Ledo, who has registered as a candidate for July's presidential election under the smaller Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution, is rumored to have lost an internal party struggle with former Mexico City mayor and presidential candidate Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano. Muñoz Ledo labeled his former party "frivolous," but its elders maintain that he lacked party discipline.

ARRESTED: GLORIA TREVI, 29, sultry Mexican pop singer who disappeared more than a year ago, on charges of statutory rape, kidnapping and corruption of minors; in Rio de Janeiro. Trevi, who rose to the top of Latin American pop charts in the late '80s with her rebellious anthems, is accused of helping her agent Sergio Andrade seduce a string of underage girls, some of whom were in his care. There is no extradition treaty between Brazil and Mexico, and Trevi's return to the state of Chihuahua, where the charges originate, could take up to three months.