Milestone

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Kathleen Kingsbury, Julie Norwell, Logan Orlando

ELECTED. MICHELLE BACHELET, 54, physician and socialist; as Chile's first female President; in Santiago. An agnostic divorce with three children, she was imprisoned and tortured under right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s. Her win is seen as a sign of a cultural shift in conservative, Roman Catholic Chile and was the latest in a series of leftist victories in Latin American elections.

CLOSED. The independent-counsel investigation into possible tax violations by HENRY CISNEROS, 58, Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Clinton; after 10 years, making it the longest independent-counsel probe in U.S. history; in Washington. Begun after Cisneros' ex-mistress alleged he had lied to the FBI about money he had given her, the inquiry continued even though Cisneros pleaded guilty in 1999 to the misdemeanor of making false statements to the bureau. It finally ended with the release of David Barrett's 474-page report, in which the prosecutor says a cover-up by Clinton-era officials prevented him from bringing new charges.

RESIGNED. RIZKAR MOHAMMED AMIN, as chief judge of the tribunal overseeing the trial of Saddam Hussein; "for personal reasons," he said in a statement; in Baghdad. The Iraqi government did not immediately accept the resignation of Amin, who has been criticized for allowing Saddam's frequent outbursts. The trial is set to resume this week after a month's recess.

DIED. IBRAHIM RUGOVA, 61, President of U.N.-administered Kosovo and a leader of the decades-long quest by the province's ethnic Albanian majority for independence from Serbia; of lung cancer; in Pristina.

DIED. WILSON PICKETT, 64, volatile R&B star whose gravelly, raunchy delivery on such 1960s hits as Mustang Sally and In the Midnight Hour inspired the 1991 film The Commitments and helped earn him the moniker Wicked Pickett; of a heart attack; in Reston, Va. Despite drug and legal battles, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer remained inventive and determined, answering the disco craze with explosive live performances, which he continued until shortly before his death, and meriting a 2000 Grammy nomination for It's Harder Now, his first album in a decade.

DIED. JIM GARY, 66, globally popular artist known for massive yet graceful dinosaur sculptures made from the vividly painted parts of junked cars; after a brain hemorrhage; in Freehold, N.J. Gary's T. Rexes--with oil pans for heads and leaf springs for ribs--delighted kids as well as curators, including those at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, where he had an acclaimed solo show in 1990.

DIED. BOB WEINSTOCK, 77, jazz producer who, at age 20, parlayed a family loan into an indie label that became Prestige, home to some of jazz's greatest musicians; in Boca Raton, Fla. He encouraged his artists to record long, unrehearsed jams. Among the results: the 1956 John Coltrane-- Sonny Rollins saxophone duet Tenor Madness and the seminal four-album series Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Relaxin', Workin' and Steamin'.

DIED. SHEIK JABER AL-AHMAD AL-SABAH, 79, modest emir of Kuwait, who survived a 1985 assassination attempt and Iraq's 1990 invasion and guided his tiny, oil-rich country to stability during his 28-year rule; in Kuwait City. His shrewd decisions--including an alliance with the U.S. and the creation of a fund that saves part of his country's huge oil revenues for the future--are credited with ensuring Kuwait's independence.

DIED. EDWARD HALL, 91, U.S. Air Force engineer considered the father of the Minuteman intercontinental-ballistic-missile system, the core of U.S. missile defense; in Torrance, Calif. Early liquid-fueled rockets required complex preparation. Hall helped develop a more practical solid-fuel technology--since used in missiles including the Navy's Polaris, in the Titan III and IV rockets, and in the boosters for NASA's space shuttles.