Millard “Corky” Alexander
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TOKYO (AP) _ Millard ``Corky″ Alexander, the editor and publisher of the Tokyo Weekender, a free English language newspaper for expatriates in Japan’s capital, died Tuesday after collapsing at party with friends and family. He was 73.
The Childress, Texas, native first came to Japan in the 1950s to cover the Korean War and its aftermath with a U.S. military combat photo squadron. He became a reporter and editor for the Stars and Stripes, a U.S. military newspaper, in 1957.
Alexander began publishing the Tokyo Weekender in 1970, which soon became a valued resource for English speaking foreign residents of Japan. The newspaper’s Web site said Alexander died Tuesday evening, but did not give a cause of death.
He was a longtime member of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, the Tokyo chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Tokyo American Club.
Alexander is survived by his wife Mary, four daughters, and eight grandchildren.
Achille Castiglioni
ROME (AP) _ Italian interior designer and architect Achille Castiglioni, who gave new forms to domestic objects like lamps and ashtrays and helped make Italian modern design famous worldwide, died Monday in Milan. He was 84.
Born in Milan as the son of a sculptor, Castiglioni graduated from his hometown’s Politecnico university in 1944. A few years later, he started working with his elder brothers, Livio and Pier Giacomo, researching and experimenting with new forms in industrial design.
Some of Castiglioni’s most famous items were designed when he was working with his brothers, such as the trademark ``Mezzadro″ stool, an enameled-metal base topped by a tractor seat, and the ``Tojo″ lamp, which was made with a car headlight.
Castiglioni’s his light style in interior design made him famous worldwide and contributed to establishing Italy as a leading country in modern design.
He won the ``Golden Compass″ award, Italy’s top prize in the field, nine times.
In 1997, The Museum of Modern Art in New York held an exhibit dedicated to his work. The museum still houses 14 of his works.
Ne Win
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Gen. Ne Win, Myanmar’s former military dictator who dragged his country from the verge of prosperity down into poverty during his 26 years in power, died Thursday under house arrest. He was 91.
The family members said he died in his lakeside villa, where he had been kept confined along with his daughter since March 7 following the arrest of his three grandsons and son-in-law on charges of attempting to overthrow the military government. The family members spoke on condition of anonymity.
A national hero for his role in winning independence from Britain in 1948, Ne Win seized power in a bloodless coup in 1962, starting an era of authoritarianism that would sully his reputation.
When Ne Win took power, Myanmar was well on the way to recovering from the ravages of the World War II, exporting 2 million tons of rice per year. But by 1987, Myanmar was reduced to the status of a least-developed nation.
He retired from politics in 1988, just before a popular uprising for democracy erupted, triggered by his quarter century of misrule and catapulting Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the late independence hero Gen. Aung San, to political prominence.
Thousands of civilian protesters were gunned down in the military crackdown that followed and many more fled into exile.
Boris Schapiro
LONDON (AP) _ Boris Schapiro, a leading British bridge player who was implicated in an international cheating scandal, died Dec. 1 at the age of 93, English bridge officials said Thursday.
Schapiro died at his home in Buckinghamshire county, north of London, the English Bridge Union said.
An engaging man with a sharp sense of humor, Schapiro was devastated when the World Bridge Federation found him guilty of cheating at the 1965 Bermuda Bowl World Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The American captain, John Gerber, had accused Schapiro and his partner, Terence Reese, of using finger signals to communicate to each other. Schapiro and Reese withdrew from the tournament.
The federation referred its findings to the quasi-judicial British Bridge League, which agreed there was strong evidence that the players had exchanged hand signals. But it found them not guilty of cheating because the American vice captain, Sami Kehela, considered them innocent.
In an account of the scandal in ``The New York Times Bridge Book,″ Alan Truscott, the newspaper’s bridge correspondent, and his wife, Dorothy, an international player, wrote that many called the finding ``a whitewash.″
The World Bridge Federation suspended both players from international competitions, and Britain withdrew in protest from the 1968 World Bridge Olympiad. The men were allowed to return to competitive bridge three years later, but never played together again.