Milestones

By Melissa August, Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Sora Song

SUSPENDED. MARIE-REINE LE GOUGNE, 41, and DIDIER GAILHAGUET, 48, French skating officials who, the International Skating Union ruled, colluded to fix the result of the pairs event at the Salt Lake City Olympics in February by ranking the Russian pair ahead of the Canadians; from any involvement with international skating for three years; in Lausanne, Switzerland.

AILING. LADY BIRD JOHNSON, 89, after suffering a mild stroke; in Austin, Texas. Her doctor at Seton Medical Center said the former First Lady was alert and resting comfortably but having difficulty speaking.

DIED. ALEXANDER LEBED, 52, blunt, charismatic Soviet general instrumental in defending the Russian parliament against a 1991 coup by communist hard-liners; in a helicopter crash in Siberia. When President Gorbachev was taken hostage by hard-liners seeking to overturn his reforms, Lebed, a hero of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, offered what turned out to be critical advice to emerging leader Boris Yeltsin: to forcefully rally the confused Russian troops by declaring himself the military's supreme commander. Though the regional governor's national visibility had waned in recent years, he remained a popular figure.

DIED. YEVGENY SVETLANOV, 73, Russian conductor, composer and pianist, who made his conducting debut at the Bolshoi in 1955; in Moscow. Known for his interpretations of Russian compositions, he was recently dismissed from his 35-year post as chief conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra for working too much overseas.

DIED. INDRA DEVI, 102, early "yoga ambassador" to the West whose students included China's Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Gloria Swanson and Greta Garbo; in Buenos Aires. After persuading globally renowned guru Sri Krishnamacharya to teach her (his first woman student), she traveled the world teaching her gentle brand of yoga, even prompting Russia to legalize the practice after she met with leaders in 1960.

DIED. RUTH HANDLER, 85, co-founder of Mattel and creator of Barbie, the first mass-marketed American doll with adult curves; in Los Angeles. Male executives at Mattel were skeptical of an adult-looking doll's appeal to little girls, but Barbie, named for Handler's daughter, debuted in 1959 and has since sold 1 billion worldwide. After feminists denounced her as a symbol of objectification, Barbie took on such careers as doctor and astronaut. Handler, a breast-cancer survivor, later made artificial breasts for women who had had mastectomies.