Milestones

KILLED. Andrei Kozlov, 41,who as the first deputy chief of Russia's central bank worked to reform the country's fast-expanding, long-corrupt financial sector -- along the way angering "pocket banks" largely controlled by oligarchs; after two gunmen shot him as he left a soccer arena in Moscow. In an effort to make the chaotic industry safer for credit-seeking consumers, Kozlov cracked down on money laundering, closed shady banks and lobbied to consolidate the nation's 1,200 financial institutions.

DIED.William Ziff, 76, who took over his family's tiny publishing company at age 23 and built it into the $700 million Ziff-Davis magazine empire, specializing in hit niche periodicals like Car and Driver, Flying,Yachting and PC Magazine; in Pawling, N.Y.

DIED.Oriana Fallaci, 77, fearsome, glamorous Italian journalist renowned during the 1960s and '70s for her war reporting and aggressive, revealing interviews with world leaders like Yasser Arafat, Golda Meir and Ayatullah Khomeini, whom she famously asked, "How do you swim in a chador?"; in Florence. Of her passion for covering combat, Fallaci said, "Nothing reveals man the way war does." In recent years, she drew accusations of racism for referring to an "Islamic invasion" of Europe and declaring that "sons of Allah breed like rats."

DIED. Joachim Fest, 79, celebrated German author of the psychologically incisive, globally acclaimed 1973 work Hitler; in Kronberg-im-Taunus, Germany. A political conservative whose father was fired from his job for refusing to join the Nazi Party, Fest shed light on the Third Reich by examining its leadership in dispassionate, vivid detail. He attributed Hitler's rise not primarily to economics, as many German historians have, but to the abdication of moral responsibility by educated Germans.

DIED. Patty Berg, 88, charismatic, pioneering women's-golf champion whose record of 15 major titles still stands; in Fort Myers, Fla. Eager to run the women's game more efficiently, in 1950 she jump-started the formation of the Ladies Professional Golf Association and tirelessly promoted the 13-member group as its first president. At her induction into the Hall of Fame in 1951, Berg -- who as a girl played quarterback on a local team with friend (and soon-to-be-legendary University of Oklahoma coach) Bud Wilkinson -- joked, "I'm very happy I gave up football."

DIED. Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, 88, King of Tonga, a group of 169 Polynesian islands, for 41 years; of heart disease; in Auckland, New Zealand. A mostly benign ruler of the only remaining monarchy in the South Pacific, he opposed political reforms and restricted the press but also introduced Tonga's first dictionary, newspaper and television station. He is succeeded by his British educated businessman son, Crown Prince Tupouto.

DIED. Hilda Bernstein, 91,white, middle-class illustrator turned antiapartheid activist and founding member of the influential, multiracial Federation of South African Women; in Cape Town, South Africa. Bernstein and her husband Rusty, who was tried for treason alongside friend Nelson Mandela and acquitted, fled in 1964 amid harassment by police, settling in Britain. Only after Mandela had served as the first democratically elected President did the widowed activist return to South Africa. "The meaning of life," she said, "is a choice you make about the way you live."

I've known every First Lady going back to Eleanor Roosevelt. But forget them and Mother Teresa too. I think Ann Richards, who died of cancer last week at age 73, was the greatest woman I have ever known. The former Governor of Texas was electrifying, brilliant, loyal, tolerant. She was also exhausting. I am surprised Ann stopped long enough to leave this world. She loved telling stories. One of her favorites was about taking her darling grandchild Lily to see the Queen of England. Later Ann asked Lily what she remembered. "The Queen had lipstick on her teeth!" said Lily. I heard Ann tell this anecdote to masters of the universe, and they'd fall out of their chairs and start writing checks for charity. Ann, you were always the most alive person in the universe. To me, you always will be.

Rather Goes HD

UPDATE

DAN RATHER may have been replaced at CBS Evening News by Katie Couric, but he hasn't signed off. Next month the veteran journalist will again take an anchor seat, as host of the weekly news program Dan Rather Reports on HDNet, a high-definition TV network that airs in 3 million homes. The one-hour show will draw heavily from the Rather repertoire: field reports, investigative stories, interviews. "I want Dan Rather to be Dan Rather," says Mark Cuban, sports mogul and chairman of HDNet. To that end, he named Rather the show' s producer and gave him full editorial control. For Rather, that means he can pursue stories without worrying about what the suits upstairs think. "Free people in a democratic system need hard news," says Rather, who plans to roam the country in pursuit of serious stories and heavy hitting interviews. "I am an all-day runner and a long distance hunter." The Ratherisms too are back.

With reporting by Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Clayton Neuman and Elizabeth Salemme, Liz Smith, Carolyn Sayre