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FEBRUARY 28, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 8
Milestones
By PENNY CAMPBELL
DIED. MOHAMMED FAWZI, 85, former Defense Minister and army chief who rebuilt Egypt's military after the humiliation of the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967; in Cairo. Appointed to the cabinet in 1968 by then President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Fawzi also served as military secretary of the Arab League. After overseeing the 1969-70 War of Attrition against Israeli forces along the Suez Canal, Fawzi was dismissed and jailed by Nasser's successor Anwar Sadat in 1971 for plotting a coup. He was pardoned by Sadat in 1974 and became an opposition politician.
APPOINTED. DRAGOLJUB OJDANIC, 58, indicted war criminal, as Yugoslavia,s Defense Minister to replace Pavle Bulatovic, who was shot dead two weeks ago; in Belgrade. A close ally of President Slobodan Milosevic, Ojdanic was appointed army chief of staff in November 1998 and was recently decorated for his command during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. He was indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in the Hague for alleged war crimes in Kosovo.
RETIRED. MICHEL CAMDESSUS, 66, after 13 controversial years as managing director of the International Monetary Fund; in Washington. A former governor of the Bank of France and advocate of fiscal austerity, he helped shape the imf into a far-reaching political force. But it also was a target for criticism from both the right, which complained that it wasted taxpayers money, and the left, which accused it of worsening world poverty. Camdessus insisted at the end of his tenure that the recovery of the Asian economies from the late '90s currency crisis vindicated the IMF's approach.
ARRESTED. INNOCENT SAGAHUTU, 38, former Rwandan army captain accused of crimes against humanity, including mass murder and mass rape; in Skjern, Denmark. Sagahutu is suspected by the U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda of being one of a handful of officers who ordered the 1994 murder of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and 10 Belgian peacekeepers assigned to protect her, sparking the genocide in which 800,000 people, most of them ethnic Tutsis, were killed in just 100 days.
SENTENCED. HU CHANGQING, 52, former vice governor of China's Jiangxi province, to death for taking more than $500,000 in bribes; in Nanchang. He is the first high official to receive a death sentence in President Jiang Zemin's five-year campaign to root out massive institutionalized corruption that is eroding the authority of the Communist Party and bleeding state coffers of billions of dollars each year.
RESIGNED. HANS VON SPONEK, 60, humanitarian coordinator of the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq; in Belgrade. An outspoken critic of U.N. sanctions against Iraq, Von Sponek questioned the efficacy of the program in improving the lives of ordinary Iraqis and said he did not want to be party to their continued suffering. His resignation re-ignited a debate over the Iraq sanctions that has divided the international community since they were imposed in 1990.
Olympic Update
RED-LIGHT GAMES Olympic athletes aren't the only ones gearing up for the two-week competition in Sydney this summer. The city's 400 legal brothels, anticipating 400,000 overseas tourists, are already jockeying for customers. Tokyo House is spending $15,000 a week to advertise its "Olympics Package," which offers sushi eaten from naked female bodies. Not to be outdone, the nearby Tiffany's is touting its $50,000-a-day regimen, which includes drinks, food and careful consideration of "special needs." The New South Wales government recently released a health and safety video for sex workers on topics from condom use to employer responsibility for work injuries.
Help Wanted
U.S. To help boost enlistments, Defense Secretary Bill Cohen is asking celebrities to do military-recruiting ads. The Navy is airing Spike Lee-directed commercials, and James Brolin is narrating a video for the Marine Reserve.
SPAIN To help boost enlistments, the military is lowering the IQ requirement from 90 to 70, the minimum for normal behavior according to psychologists. Applicants will also no longer need to have finished high school.
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