Milestones

By Tam Martinides Gray, Michele Lynn Orecklin and Jessica Yadegaran

STEPPING ASIDE. YVES SAINT LAURENT, 61, neurasthenic and increasingly reclusive French fashion legend whose creations have modernized and adorned society figures for close to 40 years; from his ready-to-wear line; in Paris. Duties for the Rive Gauche line will fall to Alber Elbaz, though Saint Laurent will continue designing the haute couture.

DIED. GENERAL SANI ABACHA, 54, Nigerian dictator who wrested power in a 1993 coup and maintained his grip on Africa's most populous and oil-rich nation by canceling free elections and silencing critics through imprisonment or execution; from an apparent heart attack; in Abuja, Nigeria. Perhaps Abacha's most notorious act as President was hanging the playwright and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight associates accused of treason.

DIED. LEO BUSCAGLIA, 74, avuncular, affectionate professor and author of numerous books on the permutations of love and self-acceptance; of a heart attack; near Lake Tahoe, Nev. Relentlessly upbeat, Buscaglia taught at U.S.C. for nearly 20 years, including a course in 1969 called Love 1A. He became known as Dr. Hug because of his habit of embracing the thousands of fans worldwide who turned out in droves to hear his encouraging aphorisms and elevated four of his books to the best-seller list at one time.

DIED. AGOSTINO CARDINAL CASAROLI, 83, a tailor's son who became the Vatican's unflappable envoy to Soviet bloc nations in the 1960s; in Rome. Upon his election as Pope, John Paul II quickly named the omnicompetent prelate the Vatican's chief diplomat, a post he filled with skill and judgment from 1979 to 1990. In 1989, in perhaps his most dramatic moment, Casaroli helped broker the meeting between the Pope and Mikhail Gorbachev.

DIED. JEANETTE NOLAN, 86, character actress who specialized in westerns on TV (Gunsmoke) and in film, including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Horse Whisperer; in Los Angeles.