Update
Ending speculation that she was pregnant, the office of Japan's Imperial Household Agency announced on Dec. 30 that Crown Princess Masako, 36, had a miscarriage in Tokyo. Had a son been born, he would have been heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Fender Bender
On Dec. 30 in the Cats-kills of Upstate New York, a Ford sedan reportedly had a minor collision with a vehicle driven by 45-year-old comedian and newlywed Jerry Seinfeld. Apparently, there were no injuries and no traffic citations.

Law and Order
Police busted an airline security guard at Los Angeles International Airport for stealing items from Any Given Sunday actress Cameron Diaz, 27, on Dec. 30 after she placed them on the conveyer belt of an X-ray machine. Among Diaz's personal belongings discovered missing later on were her passport and a large sum of cash.

Exit
Six months before the end of his term, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, 68, resigned from office on New Year's Eve, naming Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, 47, to lead the beleaguered nation until elections are held on March 26.

Births
Former child actor Michael Fishman, 18, who played son D.J. on TV's Roseanne from 1988 to '97, and his bride of almost three months, Jennifer, 20, a daycare worker, welcomed son Aaron Andrew (8 lbs. 15 oz.) on Nov. 19 in Anaheim, Calif.

Deaths

Sarah Knauss, a home-maker and former insurance office manager who, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was the world's oldest living person, died on Dec. 30 in Allentown, Pa., of natural causes. She was 119....

Former U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson, who stood up, famously, to President Nixon in 1973 by refusing to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox and resigned in protest, died in Boston on Dec. 31 of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 79....

Retired Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr., whose order to spray the defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam may have caused the cancer death of his namesake son in 1988, died on Jan. 2 in Durham, N.C. He was 79....

Onetime cleaning lady Annie Oneta Plummer, who since 1992 made it her mission to provide a dictionary to every third-grade student in Savannah, died there on Dec. 23 of breast cancer at 63. Known as the Dictionary Lady, she saw to the distribution of more than 20,000 of the reference books and inspired like movements in other communities.

Expecting

Actress Melina Kanakaredes, 32, who plays Dr. Sydney Hansen on TV's Providence, and her husband of seven years, Peter Constantinides, 33, a chef, are looking forward to the birth of their first child in the summer....

Bret Michaels, 36, lead singer of the band Poison, and his live-in girlfriend, Kristi Gibson, 29, a model-actress, are expecting their first child in June.

Uncoupled
Melanie Gulzar, 24, better known by the names Scary Spice and Mel B, and her husband of 16 months, Jimmy Gulzar, 32, a dancer, have decided to end their marriage. "Everyone knows they haven't been getting on," said Scary's grandmother Mary Dixon to a British newspaper. The couple have an 11-month-old daughter, Phoenix Chi.