MILESTONES

By KATHLEEN ADAMS, KATHLEEN HIRCE, NADYA LABI, JAMIE MALANOWSKI, ELIZABETH RUDULPH, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND GABRIEL SNYDER

DIED. AKIL AL-JUNDI, 56, onetime Harlem street thug who was the lead plaintiff in a class-action lodged by mistreated Attica prisoners and who later became a passionate and respected legal advocate for young criminals; of complications from diabetes; in New York City.

DIED. MARIA ROSA HENSON, 69, the first Filipina to reveal that she had served as a sex slave for Japanese soldiers during World War II; of a heart attack; in Manila. One of 46 "comfort women" who filed suit against Japan in 1993, Henson was among the few who accepted compensation from a private fund and a letter of apology from Japan's Prime Minister.

DIED. BURNUM BURNUM, 61, quixotic Aboriginal activist who once staked claim to England atop the cliffs of Dover to protest the English settlement of Australia; of a heart attack; in Woronora, Australia. One of the 100,000 Aboriginal children forcibly taken from their parents and known as the "stolen generation," he adopted his great-grandfather's name, which means "great warrior."

DIED. JAMES STARBUCK, 85, pioneering Emmy Award-winning TV choreographer; in Beverly Hills, Calif. A ballet dancer by training, Starbuck gained prominence and a larger audience choreographing dance numbers for such stalwart programs as Your Show of Shows, Sing Along with Mitch and The Andy Williams Show.

DIED. LEO JAFFE, 88, successful Columbia Pictures chairman who helped steer the studio past the rough shoals of a 1970s financial scandal involving Columbia's president; in New York City. Hits during his tenure included Kramer vs. Kramer and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

DIED. NORRIS BRADBURY, 88, top physicist and for 25 years the head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory weapons-research center; in Los Alamos, N.M. A veteran of the Manhattan Project, where he helped assemble the first atom bomb, he built Los Alamos into a formidable facility that developed the first thermonuclear weapons.