Milestones

By Harriet Barovic, Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Janice M. Horowitz and Rebecca Winters

ASSASSINATED. ZORAN DJINDJIC, 50, reformist Prime Minister of Serbia who engineered the ouster--and transferral to a war-crimes tribunal--of dictator Slobodan Milosevic; by gunmen, in a parking lot outside his office in Belgrade, Serbia. Police arrested 40 people suspected of ties to the Zemun clan, an underworld syndicate led by ex-Milosevic associate Milorad Lukovic, whom Djindjic--under pressure to crack down on organized crime--was preparing to arrest. A political pragmatist, Djindjic once proudly asserted that "morals are for those who go to the monastery." With his fondness for Tony jewelry, fast cars and Armani suits, Djindjic was slow to win personal affection from his people. But his reforms spoke loudly. With Lukovic and other prime suspects still at large, one local newspaper headline read Serbia returns to darkness. --By Harriet Barovick

ARRESTED. YASSIR AL-JAZIRI, suspected al-Qaeda operative; by Pakistani security forces tipped off by the CIA; in Lahore, Pakistan. A communications specialist, he is thought to have been a key al-Qaeda courier and a trusted subordinate of Osama bin Laden's.

CHARGES DROPPED. Against PRENTICE SANDERS, 65, San Francisco's first black police chief, and his second-in-command, ALEX FAGAN SR., 52, who had been indicted, along with five others, for alleged conspiracy to cover up a bar fight involving off-duty police officers; by a superior-court judge, after district attorney Terence Hallinan said he did not have enough evidence to prosecute; in San Francisco.

DIED. LYNNE THIGPEN, 54, Tony-winning actress and co-star, as a statistics clerk assisting a Washington police chief, of the CBS drama The District; of unknown causes; in Los Angeles. In addition to playing roles in the films Tootsie and Shaft, she won a Tony in 1997 for her portrayal of a black Jewish feminist in Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter.

DIED. JEAN-LUC LAGARDERE, 75, French industrialist who built a small defense subcontractor into one of Europe's largest conglomerates and whose holdings include the company that makes Airbus jets and the Hachette magazine group, publisher of Car and Driver and Elle; of sudden complications after a hip operation; in Paris.

DIED. STAN BRAKHAGE, 70, experimental filmmaker; of cancer; in Victoria, Canada. By linking disparate images without narrative and by using the film surface to scratch, color, write on and paste collages onto, Brakhage aimed to provide a free-associative poetry on film. His 1964 film Dog Star Man was listed by the Library of Congress among the most important films ever made.

DIED. HOWARD FAST, 88, best-selling author of vivid historical novels of social justice, including Citizen Tom Paine and Freedom Road; in Old Greenwich, Conn. After refusing a request from the House Un-American Activities Committee to provide details of an antifascist group, Fast, a Communist Party member from 1943 to 1956, was jailed for contempt and blacklisted. He turned the experience into Spartacus, the story of a slave revolt in Rome, which became a 1960 Oscar-winning film.

DIED. MANNY HARMON, 93, Big Band leader who was a fixture of G.O.P. conventions from 1956 to 1992; in Century City, Calif. He prided himself on knowing the tastes of G.O.P. leaders--such as Ronald Reagan's favorite song, the theme from Doctor Zhivago. Asked about his political affiliation, he replied: "I belong to the Cocktail Party."