Human Race

POPULAR: Controversy surrounding Dutch politician Geert Wilders' anti-Islam film Fitna has contributed to his party's recent surge in popularity, polls show. Wilders' right-wing Party for Freedom, which formed in February 2006, now holds a narrow lead over Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's ruling Christian Democratic Appeal party ahead of June elections.

CONTROVERSIAL: Indicted war criminals may apply. That's the word from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Darfur. Bashir appointed Ahmed Haroun, also charged by the ICC with war crimes, to serve as governor of the country's South Kordofan region. The north-south province includes the contested border town of Abyei where scores of people died last year during clashes, as well as Darfur refugees and key oil fields.

DIED: Pro-basketball star turned jazz musician Wayman Tisdale died May 15 after a two-year battle with bone cancer. A professing Christian, Tisdale, 44, spent 12 years on the court playing for the Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, and Phoenix Suns. Following his NBA retirement, he picked up the bass guitar, which he had once played at his father's church, and released eight albums in 13 years.

FREED: Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist jailed for four months in Iran on charges she was a spy for the United States, was released from prison May 11 after an appellate court suspended her sentence. Barred from working as a journalist in Iran for the next five years, Saberi, 32, planned to return with her parents to their North Dakota home.

ELECTED: Detroit voters picked former NBA player and steel businessman David Bing to serve as the Motor City's new mayor. Bing, 65, will fill the remaining term of ousted Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who served jail time after facing felony charges while in office.

DIED: Danny Gans, 52, the iconic Las Vegas Strip headliner best known as the "Man of Many Voices," died May 1. Gans, who along with his wife worked for Campus Crusade in college, started off as a minor league baseball player with the Chicago White Sox franchise. After an injury ended his sports career, he found his calling as a clean comic who perfected rapid-fire imitations of show-biz personalities like Tony Bennett and Al Pacino.

DIED: Chuck Daly, 78, who led the Detroit Pistons to NBA championships in 1989 and 1990, died May 9. In 1992 Daly made history after he took the first U.S. Olympic basketball team composed of professional players to the Barcelona Games and coached the Dream Team to a gold medal.