Fadzil Noor, 65, the leader of Malaysia's opposition Islamic fundamentalist party, died Sunday in Kuala Lumpur after failing to regain consciousness after heart bypass surgery two weeks ago, hospital officials said.
His death threw Malaysian politics into deeper uncertainty a day after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced he was resigning, then reversed himself after supporters begged him to stay and lead his party into elections against the fundamentalists.
Mr. Fadzil's death is a setback for the fundamentalists, who have been under pressure since the aftermath of Sept. 11, when their pro-Taliban statements alienated many Malaysians and strengthened the standing of Mr. Mahathir's United Malays National Organization.
The ruling party is increasingly expected to call elections a year early in 2003 in a bid to reverse gains that the fundamentalists made in 1999 when they gained more seats in Parliament and took control of a second of Malaysia's 13 states.
Mr. Fadzil, who led the party since 1989, was viewed as a moderate compared to hard-line clerics in the party who want to declare the country an Islamic state.
Mr. Fadzil said imposing harsh Islamic laws across the board would bring unrest in a multiracial country with large non-Muslim ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities. His deputy, the more hard-line Abdul Hadi Awang, took over his duties temporarily when he didn't regain consciousness after the surgery.
Anica Vesel Mander, 67, a feminist author and professor whose research helped to legally classify rape as a war crime, died of breast cancer Wednesday in Bolinas, Calif.
In the early 1990s, Ms. Mander traveled to her native Yugoslavia on a fact-finding mission. Her interviews with Bosnian rape victims led an international tribunal to declare rape a war crime.
In 1976, Ms. Mander, known as Ani, founded a division of Random House called Moon Books, considered the first feminist publishing house, in Berkeley.
"Feminism is a political term and it must be recognized as such: it is political in women's terms," she wrote in Feminism as Therapy, which she co-authored in 1974. She also wrote Blood Ties, A Woman's History in 1976.
Born in Yugoslavia, Ms. Mander fled the Nazis with her family at age 7 and hid for years on an island in the Adriatic Sea. In 1949, the Mander family arrived on Ellis Island.
Theodore Souris, 76, a former Michigan Supreme Court justice, died of leukemia Friday in Chicago.
Mr. Souris became the youngest person to serve on the high court when, at age 34, then-Gov. G. Mennen Williams appointed him in January 1960. Mr. Souris was elected to an eight-year term in November 1960.
During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Mr. Souris became known for his willingness to "bring justice into accord with 20th-century economic and social realities."
Pierre Werner, 88, a former prime minister of Luxembourg whose blueprint for a common European currency inspired the creation of the euro, died yesterday in that country, the government said.
Mr. Werner's 1970 plan for nations in the European Economic Community to develop a shared currency was not taken up at the time. But it provided the inspiration for a later generation of politicians to create the euro, which entered into circulation in 12 European Union nations Jan. 1.
The conservative, who served as Luxembourg's prime minister for 20 years, was hailed by European politicians and journalists as "father of the euro" when his dream became reality.
Chang Cheh, 79, a veteran martial arts filmmaker who was mentor to kung fu film superstar Bruce Lee and action director John Woo, died in Hong Kong on Saturday of pulmonary disease.
Born in 1923 in mainland China, Mr. Chang was one of the most distinguished filmmakers in Hong Kong during the 1960s and 1970s. He received a lifetime achievement award at this year's Hong Kong Film Awards.
Apart from his kung fu films, Mr. Chang was well-known for his ability to discover and turn young martial artists into major stars. Mr. Chang directed Mr. Lee in many of his films.
Mr. Woo worked as Mr. Chang's assistant for many years. Mr. Woo's filmography includes A Better Tomorrow, Hard-Boiled, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Face/Off, Mission: Impossible 2 and his current release, Windtalkers.
Frank J. Pelisek, 72, a lawyer who served on the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents and helped to guide a major merger of the UW System in the 1970s, died in Milwaukee on June 20 of cancer.
Mr. Pelisek served on several civic and governmental boards. He also helped in the drive to build an addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It opened last year.
Walter B. "Barney" Toner, 91, one of the nation's first federal labor mediators, died in Seattle on June 18 of injuries from a recent car accident.
Mr. Toner helped resolve labor disputes at Boeing Co., Weyerhaeuser Co. and numerous other major employers in 27 years with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
Sophie Untermeyer, 92, who served on the board of directors for the New York Philharmonic for more than two decades, died June 15 in New York.
Ms. Untermeyer was a supporter of the Philharmonic for many years, doing paid and volunteer work for the orchestra.
She was the director of fund raising from 1965 to 1980. From 1958 to 1980, she directed Friends of the Philharmonic, a fund-raising group.
Maia Wojciechowska, 74, an award-winning author of children's books, died of a stroke June 13 in Long Branch, N.J.
She wrote 19 books, including Shadow of a Bull in 1964. The book, which won the Newbery Medal, is about a young boy in Spain who must decide whether to follow in his father's footsteps as a bullfighter.
"I've been writing for children because I've always remained sort of a child in my directness," Ms. Wojciechowska said in a 1995 interview with The Record of Hackensack.