North Korea's Kim Jong Il Dead at 69

North Korea's long-time leader Kim Jong Il has died.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday the 69-year-old reclusive leader died Saturday of a heart attack while on a train for one of his “field guidance” tours. The agency attributed his death to “physical and mental over-work.”

KCNA said his funeral will be held on December 28 in Pyongyang. A period of national mourning was declared from December 17 to 29.

Kim Jong Il came to power after his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. Reliable biographical information about Mr. Kim is scarce. He rarely appeared in public and his voice was seldom broadcast.

He may be best remembered for defying the international community and boosting North Korea's nuclear program, while millions of North Koreans were starving.

Late last year, Mr. Kim promoted his youngest son Kim Jong Un to the rank of four-star general, in what was seen as a bid to extend the world's only communist family dynasty to a third generation.

The KCNA on Monday urged people to follow Kim Jong Un, who is believed to be around 28 years old.

North Koreans expressed shock at the news of Mr. Kim's death, with many people crying openly in the streets.

Workers at an electric wire factory were seen in tears as they watched the announcement on state television.

Factory worker Jo Jae Sok said he could not believe the news. “Leader Kim Jong Il is always with us. I saw him on TV every day. We have worked hard for the modernization of the factory under difficult conditions, eagerly waiting for him to come to our factory again. I can't believe the news about his passing away.”

Another factory worker, Kim Ok Song said she had been waiting for Mr. Kim to visit the factory she worked in. “It is unbelievable that leader Kim Jong Il whom I have followed like my own father passed away. I don't know how to describe my grief. I have been looking forward to seeing him in my factory. I will change sorrow into strength and courage and remain faithful respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.”

Vaclav Havel Dies at Age 75

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who led the peaceful revolution that toppled communism in the former Czechoslovakia, has died. He was 75.

A spokeswoman said Mr. Havel died in his sleep early Sunday at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic with his wife and a nun at his side. A former chain smoker, he had a history of chronic respiratory problems that physicians traced back to his Cold War years in communist prisons.

Mr. Havel was his country's first democratically-elected president after the 1989 non-violent “Velvet Revolution” that ended four decades of communist repression. On taking office, he oversaw Czechoslovakia's transition to a free-market economy and democracy, as well as its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in a statement Sunday, praised Mr. Havel's “moral leadership,” saying he “lived with a spirit of hope.” He said the Czech leader's peaceful resistance “shook the foundations of an empire” and “exposed the emptiness of a repressive (communist) ideology.”

In Prague, where black flag flew over Prague Castle, the presidential seat, Czech citizens lighted candles at the monument to the Velvet Revolution.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed Mr. Havel as “a great European” who fought for freedom on the continent, while British Prime Minister David Cameron said all of Europe owes the former president a “profound debt” for bringing freedom and democracy to the continent.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa, who spurred the fall of communism in his homeland, said Vaclav Havel's voice will “be greatly missed” in Europe, “above all now when it is experiencing a great crisis.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, in a message posted on Twitter, called the Czech icon “a voice for freedom” and “one of the greatest Europeans of our age.”

Mr. Havel left office in 2003, just months before the Czech Republic and Slovakia joined the European Union. He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought the Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when the republic joined NATO in 1999. But he said his proudest presidential moment was the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact – the Moscow-led military alliance that lasted until 1991.

Mr. Havel first rose to prominence after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion that crushed the “Prague Spring” reforms of Alexander Dubcek and other liberally-minded communists in the former Czechoslovakia. His plays were then banned by hardliners installed by Moscow who sought to crush any traces of those reforms.

However, he continued to write a series of underground essays widely seen as some of the most damning critiques of what communism did to society and the individual in post-World War Two Europe.

Photo by Henryk Prykiel: Václav Havel, 1991.

Cape Verde's 'Barefoot Diva' Dies

Cesária Évora, the Cape Verdean singer known as the “Barefoot Diva” because she performed without shoes, has died at the age of 70.

The singer, who won international acclaim with her sultry voice and melancholy ballads of lost love, died Saturday in a hospital on her native island of Sao Vicente.

Évora retired in September because of health problems. She underwent open heart surgery last year.

Évora was the best-known performer of “morna,'' Cape Verde's national music.

Her 1995 album, Cesaria, was released in more than a dozen countries and brought the entertainer her first Grammy award nomination. She won a Grammy in the World Music category several years ago for her album, Voz D'Amor.

Photo by Bremond: Cesária Évora in concert, 14 November 2009, at the Rockhal of Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.

Provocative British-Born Author Christopher Hitchens Dead at 62

Provocative British-born American writer and intellectual Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62 following a long battle with cancer.

Vanity Fair magazine, where Hitchens worked as a columnist, said the sharp-witted commentator died late Thursday of pneumonia, a complication of the esophageal cancer he was diagnosed with in 2010.

Though Hitchens developed a high-profile in 2007 with his controversial international bestseller, “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” he spent the majority of his career as a war-time journalist, literary critic and prominent political commentator.

Hitchens did not fit into any easily definable political mold. After spending years as a correspondent for the left-leaning magazine The Nation, he went on to become a strong supporter of former Republican President George W. Bush and the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Hitchens was born to a nominally Christian family, but discovered later in life that his mother had deliberately hidden her Jewish heritage.

His combative disdain for organized religion and love for debates made him one of the world's most well-respected and most reviled religious skeptics.

A heavy smoker with a love for Scotch whisky, Hitchens was forced to postpone a national book tour after being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in June 2010.

Upon his death, Vanity Fair described him as an “incomparable critic masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant.”

Photo: Christopher Hitchens, 2007 by José Ramírez a.k.a. ensceptico.

Final Exits, 8-14 December 2011

Susan Gordon, as seen in The Five Pennies, 1959.

Obituaries for 8-14 December 2011

8
* Gilbert Adair, 66, Scottish author, film critic and journalist, brain haemorrhage.
* Robert Brown, 61, American politician, Georgia State Senator (1991–2011), suicide by gunshot. (body discovered on this date)
* Lewis Bush, 42, American football player (San Diego Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs), apparent heart attack.
* Sir Zelman Cowen, 92, Australian constitutional lawyer and academic, 19th Governor-General of Australia (1977–1982).
* Vinko Cuzzi, 72, Croatian footballer. (Croatian)
* Ladislas de Hoyos, 72, French journalist and news anchor (TF1). (French).
* Nancy Hoyt, 56, American reality show contestant (The Amazing Race), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
* Gene Huff, 82, American politician, member of the Kentucky House of Representatives (1967–1971) and State Senator (1971–1994), lung disease.
* Giorgio Mariani, 65, Italian footballer. (Italian)
* Minoru Miki, 81, Japanese composer. (Japanese)
* Andrew Pataki, 84, American Eastern Catholic hierarch, Bishop of Parma for Ruthenian (1984–1995) and Passaic for Ruthenian (1995–2007).
* Joe Restic, 85, American NCAA and CFL football coach (Harvard Crimson, Hamilton Tiger-Cats).
* Nakdimon Rogel, 86, Israeli journalist and broadcaster, author of the Nakdi Report.
* Roman Simakov, 27, Russian boxer, injuries sustained during a fight.
* Dick Sims, 60, American keyboardist (Eric Clapton, Bob Seger).
* Dan Spears, 62, American musician (Willie Nelson and Family), exposure.
* Alan Styles, 75, British roadie (Pink Floyd), subject of the song "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast".

9
* Alf R. Bjercke, 90, Norwegian business magnate. (Norwegian)
* Davida Karol, 94, Israeli actress. (Hebrew)
* Len Phillips, 89, British footballer.
* Stanislaw Podemski, 82, Polish journalist . (Polish)
* Richard J. Rabbitt, 76, American politician, Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives (1973–1977), heart failure.
* Roy Tattersall, 89, British Test cricketer.
* Myra Taylor, 94, American jazz singer.

10
* Cary D. Allred, 64, American politician, member of the North Carolina Senate (1980–1984) and North Carolina House of Representatives (1994–2009).
* Jean Baucus, 94, American author, historian and arts patron, mother of Max Baucus.
* Hamilton Bobby, 44, Indian footballer.
* John Gower, 70, American politician, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly (1973–1979).
* Shinichi Ichikawa, 70, Japanese scriptwriter. (Japanese)
* Vida Jerman, 72, Croatian actress, lung cancer. (Croatian)
* Albert Overhauser, 86, American physicist.
* Panagiotis Sideris, 33, Greek handball player, heart attack. (Greek)
* Karryl Smith, American rapper (The Conscious Daughters).
* Sotia Tsotou, 69, Greek lyricist, cancer. (Greek)

11
* Ahmed Bahgat, 79, Egyptian writer and journalist.
* Rodolfo Bottino, 52, Brazilian actor, pulmonary embolism. (Portuguese)
* Trevor Christian, 69, Australian boxer, first Indigenous Australian to referee world title bout.
* Phillip Cottrell, 43, Scottish journalist (BBC Scotland, Radio New Zealand), assaulted.
* John Patrick Foley, 76, American Roman Catholic Cardinal and Grand Master Emeritus of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, leukemia and anemia.
* Mihnea Gheorghiu, 92, Romanian writer and filmmaker, natural causes. (Romanian)
* Susan Gordon, 62, American child actress (The Five Pennies, My Three Sons, The Twilight Zone), cancer.
* J. Lynn Helms, 86, American Marine Corps officer, Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (1981–1984), cardiopulmonary failure and pneumonia.
* Hans Heinz Holz, 84, German Marxist philosopher. (German)
* Harold Hopkins, 67, Australian actor (Don's Party, Gallipoli, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities), mesothelioma.
* Ke Yan, 82, Chinese poet and writer.
* Ahmed İhsan Kırımlı, 91, Turkish doctor, politician, poet and philanthropist. (Turkish)
* Leonida Lari, 62, Moldovan-born Romanian writer and politician, member of the Supreme Soviet (1989–1991) and Romanian Parliament (1992–2008), breast cancer.
* Mario Miranda, 85, Indian cartoonist.

12
* John Atterberry, 40, American music industry executive (Death Row Records), shot.
* Sunday Bada, 42, Nigerian Olympic athlete.
* Predrag Ćeramilac, 67, Serbian actor, suicide. (Croatian)
* John Gardner, 94, British classical music composer.
* Alberto de Mendoza, 88, Argentine actor.
* Mălina Olinescu, 37, Romanian singer (Eurovision Song Contest 1998), suicide. (Romanian)
* Robert Peliza, 91, Gibraltarian politician, Chief Minister (1969–1972).
* Bert Schneider, 78, American film and television producer (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Monkees), natural causes.
* Will Townsend, 33, American video game producer, car crash.

13
* Juan Calderón, 75, Mexican journalist and announcer. (Spanish)
* Kabir Chowdhury, 88, Bangladeshi writer.
* Russell Hoban, 86, American writer.
* Park Tae Joon, 84, South Korean businessman, honorary chairman of POSCO, lung disease.
* Klaus-Dieter Sieloff, 69, German footballer. (German)
* Erica Wilson, 83, Scottish embroidery designer.

14
* Luigi Carpaneda, 86, Italian Olympic fencer. (Italian)
* Boris Chertok, 99, Polish-born Soviet and Russian rocket designer. (Russian)
* Karl-Heinrich von Groddeck, 75, German Olympic rower. (German)
* Thomas C. Kelly, 80, American Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Louisville (1981–2007).
* Mark Francis Schmitt, 88, American Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Marquette (1978–1992).
* Joe Simon, 98, American comic book writer (Captain America, Fighting American, Prez).
* Billie Jo Spears, 74, American country music singer ("Blanket on the Ground"), cancer.
* George Whitman, 98, American bookstore proprietor, complications of a stroke.

Final Exits, 1-7 December 2011

Harry Morgan (as Colonel Potter) in the TV show M*A*S*H, 1975. (Photo: CBS Television)

Obituaries for 1-7 December 2011

1
* Arthur Beetson, 66, Australian rugby league footballer, first Indigenous Australian to captain a national team in any sport, heart attack.
* Andrei Blaier, 78, Romanian film director and scenarist, after long illness. (Romanian)
* Ted Lapka, 91, American football player (Washington Redskins).
* François Lesage, 82, French embroidery designer.
* Bill McKinney, 80, American actor (Deliverance, The Outlaw Josey Wales), esophageal cancer.
* Louis Silverstein, 92, American artist and graphic designer.
* Bev Smith, 70, British actor and newsreader, heart attack.
* Alan Sues, 85, American comic (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In).
* Mamoru Uchiyama, 62, Japanese manga artist (The Ultraman).
* Hippolyte van den Bosch, 85, Belgian football player. (Dutch)
* Christa Wolf, 82, German writer.
* Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, 65, American psychoanalyst, biographer of Hannah Arendt, pulmonary embolism.

2
* Robert Lawrence Balzer, 99, American wine journalist.
* Leo Friedman, 92, American photographer.
* Laurent Fuahea, 84, Tongan-born Wallisian Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Wallis et Futuna (1974–2005).
* Len Gendle, 90s, British football administrator (Tamworth F.C.).
* Chiyono Hasegawa, 115, Japanese supercentenarian, nation's oldest person.
* Pavle Jurina, 57, Croatian handball player and coach. (Croatian)
* Branimir Koštan, 32, Croatian disc jockey, cancer. (Croatian)
* Christopher Logue, 85, English poet.
* Artur Quaresma, 94, Portuguese footballer. (Portuguese)
* Patrick Sheridan, 89, American Roman Catholic prelate, Auxiliary Bishop of New York (1990–2001).
* Dugald Stermer, 74, American illustrator and art director (Ramparts), cardiac and respiratory failure.
* Bill Tapia, 103, American ukulelist.
* Howard Tate, 72, American soul singer.
* Al Vega, 90, American jazz pianist.

3
* Juan Carlos Adrianza, 28, Venezuelan actor and entertainer, road accident. (Spanish)
* Jalal Alamgir, 40, Bangladeshi academic, drowning.
* Dev Anand, 88, Indian actor (Ziddi), cardiac arrest.
* Louky Bersianik, 81, Canadian novelist. (French)
* Philip "Fatis" Burrell, 57, Jamaican record producer, stroke.
* Sabri Godo, 82, Albanian politician, writer and scriptwriter, founder and president of the Republican Party of Albania, lung cancer. (Albanian)
* Diana Gould, 85, British political critic.
* Sam Loxton, 90, Australian cricketer (The Invincibles), Australian rules footballer and politician, Victorian MLA for Prahran (1955–1979).
* Julia Marichal, 67, Mexican actress. (body found on this date)
* Larry Rickles, 41, American Emmy-award winning producer (Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project), pneumonia.
* Rob Schroeder, 85, American racing driver.

4
* Ambika Charan Choudhury, 81, Indian writer.
* Marion Dougherty, 88, American casting director (Lethal Weapon, Full Metal Jacket).
* Patricia C. Dunn, 58, American businesswoman, Chairman of Hewlett-Packard (2005–2006), ovarian cancer.
* Andrew Ali Aga Khan Embiricos, 25, American HIV activist, grandson of Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan, suicide. (body found on this date)
* Adam Hanuszkiewicz, 87, Polish actor and theatre director. (Polish)
* Matti Yrjänä Joensuu, 63, Finnish crime fiction writer. (Finnish)
* Besim Kabashi, 35, Kosovar-born German kickboxer. (German)
* Alamein Kopu, 68, New Zealand politician, MP (1996–1999).
* James S. Malosky, 82, American football coach (Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs), respiratory failure.
* Solange Pierre, 48, Dominican Republic human rights advocate, winner of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award (2006), heart attack.
* RJ Rosales, 37, Filipino-born Australian singer and actor.
* Sócrates, 57, Brazilian footballer, septic shock.
* Hubert Sumlin, 80, American blues guitarist, heart failure.
* Andrey Tverdokhlebov, 70, Soviet dissident. (Russian)

5
* Bruno Bianchi, 56, French cartoonist and animator (Inspector Gadget, Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats).
* Dan Biggers, 80, American actor (In the Heat of the Night, Glory).
* Michel Descombey, 81, French choreographer. (Spanish)
* Paul M. Doty, 91, American scientist.
* Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, 75, Japanese politician, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2006–2008), acute pneumonia. (Japanese)
* Peter Gethin, 71, British Formula One driver (1970–1974).
* Jorge Maria Hourton Poisson, 85, French-born Chilean Roman Catholic prelate, Auxiliary Bishop of Temuco (1992–2001).
* Gennady Logofet, 69, Russian footballer. (Russian)
* Joe Lonnett, 84, American baseball player and coach.
* Pusuke, 26, Japanese dog, world's oldest known living dog at time of death, natural causes.
* Darrell K. Sweet, 77, American artist.
* Violetta Villas, 73, Belgian-born Polish singer.

6
* Paul Blair, 69, American magazine editor and tour guide.
* Brent Darby, 30, American basketball player (Ohio State University), blood clots.
* Dobie Gray, 71, American singer ("The 'In' Crowd", "Drift Away").
* Barbara Orbison, 61, German-born American record producer and music publisher, widow of Roy Orbison, pancreatic cancer.
* Paul Ramírez, 25, Venezuelan footballer, stroke. (Spanish)
* Lawrie Tierney, 52, Scottish footballer.

7
* Oscar Angeletti, 64, Argentine racing driver. (Spanish)
* Josip Barković, 94, Croatian writer. (Croatian)
* Pearse Cahill, 95, Irish aviation pioneer.
* Peter Croker, 89, English footballer.
* Don Duong, 54, Vietnamese-born American actor (We Were Soldiers), complications following post-stroke surgery.
* Nuno Viriato Tavares de Melo Egídio, 89, Portuguese general, Governor of Macau (1979–1981).
* Harry Morgan, 96, American actor (M*A*S*H, Dragnet).
* Gilberto Pinto, 82, Venezuelan playwright. (Spanish)
* Jerry Robinson, 89, American comic book artist (Batman) and reputed creator of The Joker.
* Fred Thompson, 19, American football player (Oregon State University).

Final Exits, 29-30 November 2011

Leka Zogu, Crown Prince of Albania

Obituaries for 29-30 November 2011

29
* Lev Bruni, 61, Russian journalist. (Russian)
* Annetto Despasquale, 73, Maltese Roman Catholic prelate, Titular Bishop of Aradi, Auxiliary Bishop of Malta (since 1998).
* Donatus Djagom, 92, Indonesian Roman Catholic prelate, Archbishop of Ende (1968–1996).
* Ramadan Khater, 48, Egyptian storyteller, actor and comedian.
* Guillermo O'Donnell, 75, Argentine political scientist. (Spanish)
* Mamoni Raisom Goswami, 69, Indian writer and academic, multiple organ failure.
* Alexandru Tocilescu, 65, Romanian film and theatre director, cardiac arrest. (Romanian)

30
* Shingo Araki, 72, Japanese animation artist and character designer. (French)
* J. Blackfoot, 65, American soul singer.
* Leka, Crown Prince of Albania, 72, Albanian royal and politician, pretender to the Albanian throne (since 1961).
* Kuldeep Manak, 62, Indian Punjabi language singer, pneumonia.
* Chester McGlockton, 42, American football player (Oakland Raiders), apparent heart attack.
* Zdeněk Miler, 90, Czech animator and illustrator, creator of The Mole.
* Carl Robie, 66, American swimmer, Olympic champion.
* Partap Sharma, 71, Indian playwright.
* Bill Waller, 85, American politician, Governor of Mississippi (1972–1976).