Milestones

By Melissa August; Elizabeth L. Bland; William Han; Unmesh Kher; Nadia Mustafa; Jonathan Rick

RECOVERING. DAVID BOWIE, 57, British glam rocker; after undergoing an emergency angioplasty to open a blocked coronary artery, following a performance in Scheesel, Germany; in New York.

FOUND. CORPORAL WASSEF ALI HASSOUN, 24, U.S. Marine who was reported kidnapped in Iraq; in Beirut. The Lebanese-born Muslim, who disappeared from his base near Fallujah on June 20, was seen blindfolded in a videotape and at one point was reported to have been beheaded. After resurfacing in Beirut, he was shipped to Ramstein air base in Germany for debriefing and medical evaluation. The Navy is investigating the possibility that his apparent kidnapping arose from an attempt at desertion.

DIED. PAUL KLEBNIKOV, 41, editor of Forbes Russia and an investigative journalist; of gunshot wounds inflicted by an unknown assailant as he left his office in Moscow; the shooting had the hallmarks of a contract hit. A New Yorker of Russian descent, Klebnikov won notoriety in Russia in the late '90s for his writings on corruption and his coverage of controversial businessman and politician Boris Berezovsky.

DIED. ERIC DOUGLAS, 46, actor Kirk Douglas' youngest son, who for years battled drug and alcohol abuse; of undetermined causes, pending an autopsy; found in his New York City apartment. Best known for his headline-making brushes with the law, the sometime actor and stand-up comedian appeared in a handful of television shows and films, including Delta Force 3.

DIED. JEFF SMITH, 65, white-bearded United Methodist minister who became public television's popular Frugal Gourmet and wrote a series of accompanying best-selling cookbooks; of heart disease; in Seattle. He was forced off the air in 1997 after seven men filed a lawsuit alleging that he had sexually abused them as youths. He denied the allegations, and was never charged with a crime.

DIED. PAULA DANZIGER, 59, author of more than 30 children's books, whose flamboyant style and comic writing connected with grade-schoolers and young adults alike; of a heart attack; in New York City. In 1974 she penned The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, detailing the trials of junior-high life, and later the popular Amber Brown series, about a precocious third-grader.

DIED. THOMAS KLESTIL, 71, Austrian President; of multiple organ failure, two days before his second six-year term was to end; in Vienna. While in office, he spoke out against Austria's Nazi complicity during World War II and expressed sympathy for Holocaust victims during a trip to Israel, helping improve bilateral relations after revelations that his predecessor, Kurt Waldheim, had served in the Nazi military.

DIED. RODGER WARD, 83, one of auto racing's most prominent figures during the glory days of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; in Anaheim, Calif. Before winning the Indy 500 in 1959 and 1962, Ward almost quit racing because of his involvement in two fatal crashes--one that killed his former crew chief Clay Smith, and another that claimed the life of his friend and two-time Indy 500 champion Bill Vukovich.

DIED. JOHN CULLEN MURPHY, 85, artist and illustrator who turned the Sunday comic strip Prince Valiant into as much a family saga as a tale of adventure; in Greenwich, Conn. In 1970 the former student of Norman Rockwell took over the epic strip, noted for its detailed backgrounds and costumes, from its creator, Hal Foster, and this past March turned it over to another illustrator.