Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Carlos Andrés Pérez, Venezuelan politician, President (1974–1979; 1989–1993), died from a heart attack. he was , 88

Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez , also known as CAP and often referred to as El Gocho (due to his Andean origins), was a Venezuelan politician, President of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993 died from a heart attack. he was , 88. His first presidency was known as the Saudi Venezuela due to its economic and social prosperity thanks to enormous income from petroleum exportation. However, his second period saw a continuation of the economic crisis of the 1980s, and saw a series of social crises, a popular revolt (denominated Caracazo) and two coup attempts in 1992. In May 1993 he became the first Venezuelan president to be forced out of the office by the Supreme Court, for the misappropriation of 250 million bolívars belonging to a presidential discretionary fund. After more than two years of house arrest, Pérez was released in September 1996.

(27 October 1922 – 25 December 2010)

Early life and education

Carlos Andrés Pérez was born at the hacienda La Argentina, on the Venezuelan-Colombian border near the town of Rubio, Táchira state, the 11th of 12 children in a middle-class family. His father, Antonio Pérez Lemus, was a Colombian-born coffee planter and pharmacist of Spanish and Canary Islander ancestry who emigrated to Venezuela during the last years of the 19th century. His mother, Julia Rodríguez, was the daughter of a prominent landowner in the town of Rubio and the granddaughter of Venezuelan refugees who had fled to the Andes and Colombia in the wake of the civil war that ravaged Venezuela in the 1860s.
Pérez was educated at the María Inmaculada School in Rubio, run by Dominican friars. His childhood was spent between the family home in town, a rambling Spanish colonial-style house, and the coffee haciendas owned by his father and maternal grandfather. Influenced by his grandfather, an avid book collector, Pérez read voraciously from an early age, including French and Spanish classics by Jules Verne and Alexandre Dumas. As he grew older, Pérez also became politically aware and managed to read Voltaire, Rousseau, and Marx without the knowledge of his deeply conservative parents.

The combination of falling coffee prices, business disputes, and harassment orchestrated by henchmen allied to dictator Juan Vicente Gómez, led to the financial ruin and physical deterioration of Antonio Pérez, who died of a heart attack in 1936. This episode would force the widow Julia and her sons to move to Venezuela's capital, Caracas, in 1939, where two of Pérez's eldest brothers had gone to attend university. The death of his father had a profound impact on the young Pérez, bolstering his convictions that democratic freedoms and rights were the only guarantees against the arbitrary, and tyrannical, use of state power.
In Caracas, Pérez enrolled in the renowned Liceo Andrés Bello, where he graduated in 1944 with a major in Philosophy. In 1944, he enrolled in the Law School of the Central University of Venezuela. However, the intensification of his political activism would prevent Pérez from ever completing his law degree.

Political life


The political life of Carlos Andrés Pérez began at the age of 15, when he became a founding member of the Venezuelan Youth Association and a member of the National Democratic Party, both of which were opposed to the repressive administration of General Eleazar López Contreras, who had succeeded the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935. He also co-operated with the first labour unions in his region. When he moved to Caracas, in 1939, he started an ascendant political career as a youth leader and founder of the Democratic Action (AD) party, in which he would play an important role during the 20th century, first as a close ally to party founder Rómulo Betancourt and then as a political leader in his own right.
In October 1945, a group of civilians and young army officers plotted the overthrow of the government run by General Isaías Medina Angarita. At the age of 23, Pérez was appointed Private Secretary to the Junta President, Rómulo Betancourt, and became Cabinet Secretary in 1946. However, in 1948, when the military staged a coup against the democratically elected government of Rómulo Gallegos, Pérez was forced to go into exile (going to Cuba, Panama and Costa Rica) for a decade. He temporarily returned to Venezuela secretly in 1952 to complete special missions in his fight against the new dictatorial government. He was imprisoned on various occasions and spent more than two years in jail in total. In Costa Rica, he was active in Venezuelan political refugee circles, worked as Editor in Chief of the newspaper La República and kept in close contact with Betancourt and other AD leaders.
In 1958, after the fall of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Pérez returned to Venezuela and participated in the reorganization of the AD Party. He served as Minister of Interior and Justice from 1959 to 1964[1] and made his mark as a tough minister and canny politician who successfully neutralized small, disruptive and radical right-wing and left-wing insurrections, the latter Cuban-influenced and Cuban-financed, that were being staged around the country. This was an important step in the pacification of the country in the mid to late 1960s, the consolidation of democracy and the integration of radical parties into the political process.
After the end of the Betancourt administration and the 1963 elections, Pérez left government temporarily and dedicated himself to consolidating his support in the party. During this time, he served as head of the AD in Congress and was elected to the position of Secretary General of AD, a role that was crucial in laying the ground for his presidential ambitions.

First term as president



In 1973, Carlos Andrés Pérez was nominated to run for the presidency for AD. Youthful and energetic, Pérez ran a vibrant and triumphalist campaign, one of the first to use the services of American advertising gurus and political consultants in the country's history. During the run up to elections, he visited nearly all the villages and cities of Venezuela by foot and walked more than 5800 kilometers. He was elected in December of that year, receiving 48.7% of the vote against the 36.7% of his main rival. Turnout in these elections reached an unprecedented 97% of all eligible voters, a level which has not been achieved since.
One of the most radical aspects of Pérez's program for government was the notion that petroleum oil was a tool for under-developed nations like Venezuela to attain first world status and usher a fairer, more equitable international order. International events, including the Yom Kippur War of 1973, contributed to the implementation of this vision. Drastic increases in petroleum prices led to an economic bonanza for the country just as Pérez started his term. His policies, including the nationalization of the iron and petroleum industries, investment in large state-owned industrial projects for the production of aluminium and hydroelectric energy, infrastructure improvements and the funding of social welfare and scholarship programmes, were extremely ambitious and involved massive government spending, to the tune of almost $53 billion. His measures to protect the environment and foster sustainable development earned the Earth Care award in 1975, the first time a Latin American leader had received this recognition.
In the international arena, Pérez supported democratic and progressive causes in Latin America and the world. He opposed the Somoza and Augusto Pinochet dictatorships and played a crucial role in the finalizing of the agreement for the transfer of the Panama Canal from American to Panamanian control. In 1975, with Mexican President Luis Echeverría, he found SELA, the Latin American Economic System, created to foster economic cooperation and scientific exchange between the nations of Latin America. He also supported the democratization process in Spain, as he brought Felipe González, who was living in exile, back to Spain in a private flight and thus strengthened the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE).
Towards the end of his first term in office, Pérez's reputation was tarnished by accusations of excessive, and disorderly, government spending. His administration was often referred to as Saudi Venezuela for its grandiose and extravagant ambitions. In addition, there were allegations of corruption and trafficking of influence, often involving members of Pérez's intimate circle, such as his mistress Cecilia Matos, or financiers and businessmen who donated to his election campaign, known as the "Twelve Apostles". A well-publicized rift with his former mentor Betancourt and disgruntled members of AD all pointed to the fading of Perez's political standing. By the 1978 elections, there was a sense among many citizens that the influx of petrodollars after 1973 had not been properly managed. The country was importing 80% of all foodstuffs consumed. Agricultural production was stagnant. The national debt had skyrocketed. And whilst per capita income had increased and prosperity was evident in Caracas and other major cities, the country was also more expensive and a significant minority of Venezuelans were still mired in poverty. This malaise led to the defeat of AD at the polls by the opposition Social Christian Party. The newly elected president, Luis Herrera Campíns, famously stated in his inaugural speech that he was "inheriting a mortgaged country."

After the first term

Carlos Andrés Pérez maintained a high profile in international affairs. In 1980, he was elected president of the Latin American Association of Human Rights. He collaborated with Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere in the organization of the South-South Commission. He actively participated in the Socialist International, where he served as Vice-President for three consecutive terms, under the presidency of Willy Brandt from West Germany. Willy Brandt and Carlos Andrés Pérez, together with the Dominican Republic's José Francisco Peña Gómez, expanded the activities of the Socialist International from Europe to Latin America. In 1988, he became a Member of the Council of Freely-Elected Heads of Government, established by the former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. He was elected Chairman of the Harvard University Conference on Foreign Debt in Latin America, in September 1989,[citation needed] and received the Henry and Nancy Bartels World Affairs Fellowship at Cornell University.[2]

Second term as president

In February 1989, at the beginning of his second term as president, he accepted an International Monetary Fund proposal known as the Washington consensus. In return for accepting this proposal, the International Monetary Fund offered Venezuela a loan for 4.5 billion US dollars. This cooperation with the IMF came about weeks after his victory in the 1988 presidential election, and a populist, anti-neoliberal campaign during which he described the IMF as "a neutron bomb that killed people, but left buildings standing" and said that World Bank economists were "genocide workers in the pay of economic totalitarianism".[3] Poor economic conditions led to attempts to revolutionize the political and economic structure of Venezuela, but the implementation of the neoliberal reforms (and in particular the liberalisation of petrol prices, which caused an immediate increase in the cost of petrol to consumers and rises in fares on public transport[4]) resulted in massive popular protests in Caracas, the capital. Carlos Andrés Pérez crushed the protest with the national guard, causing a large number of deaths—estimates range from 500 to 3000, and resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency. The protest is now referred to as the Caracazo.
In 1992, his government survived two coup attempts. The first attempt took place 4 February 1992, and was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo Chávez, who was later elected president. With the attempt having clearly failed, Chávez was catapulted into the national spotlight when he was allowed to appear live on national television to call for all remaining rebel detachments in Venezuela to cease hostilities. When he did so, Chávez famously quipped on national television that he had only failed "por ahora"—"for now". The second, and much bloodier, insurrection took place on 27 November 1992.

Impeachment

On 20 March 1993, Attorney General Ramón Escovar Salom introduced action against Pérez for the misappropriation of 250 million bolivars belonging to a presidential discretionary fund, or partida secreta. The issue had originally been brought to public scrutiny in November 1992 by journalist José Vicente Rangel. Pérez and his supporters claim the money was used to support the electoral process in Nicaragua. On 20 May 1993, the Supreme Court considered the accusation valid, and the following day the Senate voted to strip Pérez of his immunity.[5] Pérez refused to resign, but after the maximum 90 days temporary leave available to the President under Article 188 of the 1961 constitution, the National Congress removed Pérez from office permanently on 31 August.[5]

Post-presidency

Pérez' trial concluded in May 1996, and he was sentenced to 28 months in prison.[5]
In 1998 he was prosecuted again, this time on charges of embezzlement on public funds, after secret joint bank accounts held with his mistress, Cecilia Matos, were discovered in New York.[6] Before the trial, he was elected to the Senate of Venezuela for his native State of Táchira, on the ticket of his newly founded party, Movimiento de Apertura y Participación Nacional (Apertura), thus gaining immunity from prosecutions. However, as the newly approved 1999 Constitution of Venezuela dissolved the Senate and created a unicameral National Assembly, Pérez lost his seat. In 1999 he ran again for the National Assembly, but did not gain a seat.[6]
On 20 December 2001, while in Dominican Republic, a court in Caracas ordered his detention, on charges of embezzlement of public funds. On 3 February 2002 he was formally asked in extradition.[6] After that, he self-exiled in Miami, Florida, from where he became one of the most vehement opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. On 23 October 2003, at 81 years old, he suffered a stroke that left him partially disabled.[7] On 24 February 2005 he was prosecuted for his responsibility in the Plan Ávila he endorsed while President in 1989, to allow the Army to repress the citizenry during the Caracazo, causing the death of hundreds of civilians.[6]

Personal life

At the age of 26 he married his first cousin Blanca Rodriguez with whom he had six children: Sonia, Thais, Martha, Carlos Manuel, María de Los Angeles and María Carolina. In the late 1960s, he began an extramarital relationship with his then secretary Cecilia Matos, and fathered Matos' daughters, María Francia and Cecilia Victoria Pérez, while married to Blanca Rodríguez. Sources conflict as to whether or not Perez ever divorced Rodriguez and married Matos. [8][9]. Until his death (see below) he was living in exile since 1998 with Matos, dividing his time between his homes in Miami, the Dominican Republic and New York. In 2003, he suffered a debilitating stroke that seriously affected his mental and physical abilities. On 31 March 2008, the secretary general of Acción Democrática, Henry Ramos Allup, announced that Pérez wanted to return to Venezuela from exile, to spend his last years in Caracas.[10]

Death

On 25 December 2010, he was rushed to Mercy Hospital in Miami, where he died that afternoon. The cause of death was initially reported as having been a heart attack,[11] but was later referred to as "respiratory failure".[12] Chávez offered condolences, but commented that he hopes Pérez's way of governing would not return to the country: "May he rest in peace. But with him ... may the form of politics that he personified rest in peace and leave here forever."[13] Pérez's relatives in Miami said that Pérez would be buried in Miami and that they have no intention of returning his remains to Venezuela until Chávez is no longer in office.[13] Less than 24 hours before the burial Blanca Rodríguez managed to get a court order to stop the ceremony. It was reported that Miami relatives agreed to her wish to return Pérez's body to Venezuela[14] but later they denied having reached to an agreement.[15]

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Maurice Rioli, Australian VFL player and politician, member of the NT Legislative Assembly for Arafura (1992–2001), died from a heart attack. he was , 53

Maurice Rioli was an Australian rules football player from St Marys Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League, who also played for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League and the South Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football League died from a heart attack.he was , 53. After retiring from football he became a politician in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.

Regarded as one of the great players of his era, Rioli was one of the first aboriginal footballers to have a significant impact on Victorian football and was named in the centre for the Indigenous Team of the Century. A highly skilled and solidly built centreman with exquisite ball-handling skills and lightning reflexes, Rioli was a renowned performer on the big stage.[2]

(1 September 1957 – 25 December 2010[1])

 Early days

Born into a famous footballing family on Melville Island off the coast of the Northern Territory, the young Rioli learnt the game at the Garden Point Orphanage on the island. From there, he joined St Marys in the Darwin competition for the 1974-75 season; football in the top end is played during the summer months, or 'wet season'. Scouts from the South Fremantle club in Perth spotted the eighteen year old tyro and lured him to West Australia to join his brother for the coming season. At this stage in his sporting life, Rioli was also an excellent amateur boxer, who some thought good enough to go to represent Australia at the Olympics. He later won state amateur titles at light middleweight and welterweight.[3]
However, he chose to sign on as a professional footballer and quickly won a reputation as brilliant, elusive centreman. During this era, Rioli was one of a number of brilliant aboriginal players in the WAFL who caught the eyes of recruiting scouts from the VFL clubs in Victoria. South Fremantle, under ex-Richmond player Mal Brown, were a form team of the competition, playing in three consecutive WAFL grand finals between 1979 and 1982, including winning a premiership in 1980. Rioli won the Simpson Medal as best player afield in the 1980 and 1981 Grand Finals. He transferred to Richmond for the 1982 VFL season, after playing 121 games for South Fremantle between 1975 and 1981.[4]

Immediate impact In Victoria

To this point, few aboriginal players had had extended careers in the VFL. On his arrival, which coincided with the transfer of the Krakouer brothers to North Melbourne, Rioli spoke about the racial taunts and obstacles faced by indigenous players in the game. Rioli chose to shrug much of the racism off, and he was certainly possessed with an intense concentration on the field. His reputation as a boxer probably helped to avoid confrontation during a game - Rioli was a scrupulously fair competitor who found no trouble with the umpires.[citation needed]
The Tigers awarded Rioli the number 17 made famous by Jack Dyer.[5] Richmond supporters quickly warmed to their much-heralded recruit, who specialized in the audacious baulk, the pinpoint foot pass and the lightning-fast handball. His ability to work the ball out of packs and congestion was uncanny. Although his leg speed wasn't very fast, his quick mind appeared several steps ahead of the play and he had no problem adjusting to the faster tempo of Victorian football. It was just as well, because the Tigers opted to play him in his favoured centre position where Geoff Raines had dominated. For the previous five years, Raines had been the best player in the team (winning three best and fairest awards) and acknowledged as the best centreman in the competition, but he was moved to accommodate Rioli.[6] The change worked well and Richmond finished the season on top of the ladder for the first time since 1974. The Tigers booked a berth in the Grand Final with a comfortable win in the semi final against Carlton.
Pitted once more against Carlton, Richmond went into the big match as a slight favourite. However, the Tigers lost the match after leading at half-time. Rioli created history by winning the Norm Smith medal as best afield, the first aborigine and first player from a losing team to do so.[6] Shortly after, Rioli won the club's best and fairest to cap an amazing first season. But problems lay immediately ahead. Raines approached the club and requested a contract commensurate with Rioli's earnings. When refused, Raines walked out and asked for a clearance to Collingwood. Other prominent players fell into financial dispute with the club and left; the decimated team struggled and finished third-last in 1983.
But Rioli had another stellar season, again winning the best and fairest, finishing runner-up in the Brownlow medal and winning West Australian and All-Australian selection.[5] An acknowledged star of the game and the best player at the club, Rioli continued to stand out in a mediocre team. He represented Australia at Gaelic football against Ireland and was an immediate choice for West Australia in state of origin matches. However, after finishing second in the Richmond best and fairest in 1985, he dropped a bombshell on the club.

Aborted move to Sydney

In the summer of 1985–86, the new private owner of the Sydney Swans, flamboyant and controversial doctor Geoff Edelsten, had been frantically signing talent on massive contracts to play for his team. Rioli was announced as one of his many signings. It was the salary cap that saved Rioli from leaving for Sydney. After rumours that he would either join Essendon or return to South Fremantle, he eventually returned to the Tigers midway through the 1986 season.[5][7] Rioli performed patchily through the season and the next, when Richmond finished last for only the third time in its history. Rioli captained Western Australia in the state game that year against his team-mate Dale Weightman, who led Victoria.

Later career

Following the 1987 season, at only 30 years of age, Rioli decided that his time in Melbourne was up and headed back to South Fremantle to be appointed as captain. In his absence, the football landscape in the west had altered dramatically with the formation of the West Coast Eagles. Rioli opted to play at the lower level and the scheduling of seasons allowed him to captain-coach the Waratahs club in Darwin during the summer. He was still good enough to win All-Australian honours for a third time after the 1988 Bicentennial Carnival. In 1990, he finished as a player in Perth after 166 games for South Fremantle, but continued as a player in Darwin until 1991. He followed that with a two year stint as non-playing coach of the Waratahs. In 1993, he was invited by the AFL to present the Norm Smith medal at the Grand Final. Fittingly, it was won by another Territorian Aborigine, Michael Long (Essendon) who had played at St Marys in Darwin, where Rioli had started his senior football a generation before.

Political career

After permanently relocating with his family to Darwin, Rioli was elected as the member for Arafura in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly for the Australian Labor Party in 1992. He held this position until 2001 when he retired from parliament. Although he played football for almost a decade in Perth and only six years in Melbourne, Rioli is still recognised as one of the best known Northern Territorians. He was a trailblazer for indigenous Australian football players at the elite level of the game and was an acknowledged elder statesman among aborigines that played the game.
In 2007 Rioli was working as a Community Services manager for the Tiwi Islands Council.[8]

Family

In 1972, Maurice's older brother Sebastian Rioli, became one of the first Aboriginal footballers from the Northern Territory to move to Western Australia to play football for South Fremantle. Maurice followed in 1975 and became the most successful footballer of the eight Rioli brothers. Brothers Cyril Jr and Willie also played league football for South Fremantle, and John, Manny and Laurence also moved to Fremantle, but returned to Darwin without playing senior football.[9] Willie was drafted by Hawthorn in 1990, but did not make his AFL debut. Maurice is the uncle of current Hawthorn player Cyril Rioli (son of Cyril Jr) and former Essendon player Dean Rioli (son of Sebastian).[10][11]

Career highlights


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Elisabeth Beresford, British children's author, creator of The Wombles.died she was , 84


Elisabeth 'Liza' Beresford, MBE  was a British author of children's books, best known for creating The Wombles died she was , 84. Born into a family with many literary connections, she worked as a journalist but struggled for success until she created the Wombles in the 1960s. The strong theme of recycling was particularly notable, and the Wombles became very popular with children across the world. While Beresford produced many other literary works, the Wombles remained her most well known creation.

(6 August 1926 – 24 December 2010)

Early life and career

Beresford was born on 6 August 1926 in Paris, France.[1] Her father was writer J. D. Beresford, a successful novelist who also worked as a book reviewer for several newspapers.[2] Her godparents included author Walter de la Mare (who dedicated several poems to her), poet Cecil Day-Lewis, and children’s writer Eleanor Farjeon.[3] Beresford enjoyed many literary connections; her parents’ friends included H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy, Hugh Walpole, W. Somerset Maugham, and D. H. Lawrence.[3]
After 18 months' service as a Wren, Beresford started work as a ghostwriter specialising in writing speeches.[2][3] She began training as a journalist and was soon writing radio, film and television columns, and working for the BBC as a radio reporter.[3] Beresford married BBC tennis commentator and broadcaster Max Robertson in 1949.[2][4] The couple had one son and one daughter.[4] Trips to Australia, South Africa, and the West Indies with Robertson led to more children’s books and two television series: Seven Days to Sydney and Come to the Caribbean.[2][3]
During the 1960s, Beresford was a struggling children's author and freelance journalist.[5] This would, however, change with her creation of the Wombles.

The Wombles

'The Wombles of Wimbledon Common' were inspired by her daughter Kate’s mispronunciation of 'Wimbledon,' when Beresford took her children to Wimbledon Common for a Boxing Day stroll.[1][3] That same day, Beresford made out a list of Womble names.[3] Many characters were based on her family: Great Uncle Bulgaria her father-in-law, Tobermory her brother (a skilled inventor), Orinoco her son, and Madame Cholet her mother.[2][3][5] The Wombles’ names came from sources as varied as the town where Beresford’s daughter went on a French exchange and the name of the college attended by a nephew.[3] The first Wombles book was published in 1968.[1][2][3] After it was broadcast on Jackanory, the BBC decided to make an animated series.[2][3]
The Wombles’ motto, ‘Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish,’ and their passion for recycling was far ahead of its time,[3][5] and captured the imagination of children, who began to organise 'Womble Clearing Up Groups.'[3] Thirty-five five-minute films were broadcast on BBC1 accompanied by Mike Batt’s music and 'The Wombles' theme song, Underground Overground, Wombling Free.[3] Characterised by actor Bernard Cribbins’s voices and the creations of puppet maker Ivor Wood, the popularity of 'The Wombles' grew.[3] Beresford took part in live phone-ins with children in Australia, and in South Africa she enchanted a hundred Zulus with Womble stories.[1] Back in England, she made countless public appearances with 'The Wombles' across the country.[3]
Within 10 years, Beresford wrote more than 20 Wombles books (translated into more than 40 languages), another 30 television films, and a Wombles stage show, one version of which ran in the West End.[3] A range of Wombles products began to appear, including soap, T-shirts, mugs, washing-up cloths, and soft toys.[3]

Later life

Beresford and her family moved to the island of Alderney in the English Channel in the mid-1970s.[4] She and husband Robertson divorced in the 1980s.[4] As well as writing 20 Wombles books, Beresford wrote a variety of adventure and mystery books for children, many based on the small island of Alderney, where she lived in a 300-year-old cottage in St Anne’s.[3] Beresford was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to children's literature in the 1998 New Year's Honours List.[2][3]
Beresford died at 10:30 PM on 24 December 2010 in the Mignot Memorial Hospital on Alderney.[2] According to her son, Marcus Robertson, the cause of death was heart failure.[2]

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Frances Ginsberg, American soprano, died from brain and spinal cancer she was , 55


Frances Ginsberg  was an American opera singer. Opera News magazine described her as "a lirico-spinto soprano of striking temperament whose vivid style made her an audience favorite at New York City Opera and other U.S. companies in the 1980s and 1990s died from brain and spinal cancer she was , 55. She particularly excelled in the operas of Giacomo Puccini and Guiseppe Verdi.[2]

(11 March 1955 - 24 December 2010)

Life and career

Ginsberg was born to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri in 1955.[3] In 1973 she graduated from Ladue Horton Watkins High School in Ladue, Missouri, and in 1979 she graduated from the University of Kansas with fine arts degrees in theatre and voice. She then pursued further studies at the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Center for American Artists. She later studied opera privately with Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Tebaldi and Eve Queler.[2] She was also a pupil for many years of conductor Marco Munari of La Scala whom she studied with while living in Milan.
While still a college student, Ginsberg made her professional opera debut in 1977 at the Santa Fe Opera as the milliner in the United States premiere of Nino Rota's The Italian Straw Hat.[4] Her first major success came in 1986 when she made her debut at the New York City Opera (NYCO) in the dual roles of Margherita and Elena in Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele. She subsequently appeared with the NYCO as Donna Elvira in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni, Mimì in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème, and Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata. In 1990 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Rosalinde in Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus.[1]


Other US companies Ginsberg performed with during her career were Cincinnati Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, San Diego Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Utah Opera, and the Washington National Opera. On the international stage she made appearances with the Opéra de Nice, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, the New Israeli Opera, the Teatro Calderón in Madrid, the Scottish Opera, and the Welsh National Opera.[1] Some of the other roles she performed on stage were Abigaille in Nabucco, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Desdemona in Otello, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Elvira in Ernani, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Leonora in Il trovatore, Leonora in La forza del destino, Magda in La Rondine, Nedda in Pagliacci, and the title heroines in Aida, Manon Lescaut, Norma and Tosca.[2]

Ginsberg died in 2010 at the age of 55 of ovarian cancer in Riverdale, New York. She abandoned her career in 2007 after having been diagnosed with the disease.[2]

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Nalini Jaywant, Indian actress.died she was 84,


Nalini Jaywant was an Indian movie actress from Bollywood in the 1940s and 1950s died she was  84.

 (18 February 1926 -24 December2010)

 

Personal life and education

Jaywant was born in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1926.
She is first cousin to actress Shobhna Samarth, the mother of actresses Nutan and Tanuja). Shobhna's mother, actress Rattan Bai, was a sibling of Nalini's father.[1] Since 1983, she has been living mostly a reclusive life.[2]
She was married to director Virendra Desai in the 1940s. Later, she married her second husband, actor Prabhu Dayal, with whom she acted in several movies.[3]


Career

In her teens, she got some prominence through her performance in Mehboob Khan's Bahen (1941), a movie about a brother's obsessive love for his sister. The movie had strong shades of incest. She performed in a few more movies before the notable Anokha Pyaar (1948). The movie involved a love triangle among characters played by Dilip Kumar, Nargis, and Nalini, Nalini's character sacrificing her love for the hero played by Dilip Kumar. Nalini's performance in that movie proved to be the movie's saving grace.[citation needed]
1950 was a breakthrough year for Nalini when she became a top star with her performances opposite Ashok Kumar in Samadhi and Sangram. Samadhi was a patriotic drama concerning Subash Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army. Though the leading movie magazine of the day, Film India, called it politically obsolete, it enjoyed big success at the box office. The song Gore Gore O Banke Chhore sung by a Lata Mangeshkar and Ameerbai Karnataki for Nalini's character in Samadhi had become immensely popular. Sangram was a crime drama wherein she played the heroine reforming the anti-hero. Nalini and Ashok Kumar performed together in several more movies: Kafila (1952), Naubahar (1952), Saloni (1952), Mr. X (1957), and Sheroo (1957).
Nalini remained an important leading actress through the mid-1950s. Movie makers K. A. Abbas (Rahi), Ramesh Saigal (Shikast and Railway Platform), and Zia Sarhady (Awaaz) extended Nalini Jaywant’s association with realistic movies, while movie makers Mahesh Kaul (Naujavan (1951)) and AR Kardar (Jaadu) developed her musical persona. She performed admirably in successful Filmistan musicals like Nastik (opposite Ajit), Munimji (opposite Dev Anand), Hum Sab Chor Hain (opposite Shammi Kapoor).
The 1958 movie Kaala Pani, directed by Raj Khosla, was Nalini's last successful movie. That year, she won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in that movie as a shady nautch girl, Kishori, who formed a "key witness" in framing the hero's father for a murder. Her come-hither mujra in S. D. Burman's composition Nazar Laagi Raaja Tore Bangle pe and her tearful looks at Dev Anand from across the room in Burman's Hum Bekhudi Mein were memorable.
Bombay Race Course (1965) was Nalini's last main movie, though she did make a comeback of sorts playing a blind mother in Nastik (1983). (This Nastik had no connection with Nastik(1954) in which she had starred.)
Actor Dilip Kumar considered Nalini as the greatest actress he ever worked with, citing her instinct for grasping the essence of a scene as second to none.[citation needed] A Filmfare poll in the 1950s named her the most beautiful woman in the Indian movie world.[citation needed] She acted opposite all top actors of her time, barring Raj Kapoor, in hit movies like Samadhi (1950), Jaadu (1951), Nastik (1954), Munimjee (1955), Mr. X (1957), and Kaala Pani (1958). She received much critical acclaim for her performances in Rahi (1952), Shikast (1953), Railway Platform (1955), and Awaaz (1956). Nalini Jaywant died on the afternoon of 20th December 2010 in tragically lonely circumstances at her bungalow of 60 years at Union Park, Chembur, Mumbai. (ref:times of india edition dated 25 Dec 2010)

Selected filmography


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Neil Rogers, American radio personality, died from heart failure.he was , 68


Neil Rogers  was an American talk radio personality. Until his retirement on June 22, 2009, "The Neil Rogers Show" aired weekdays from 10am-2pm on 560 WQAM. It was consistently the top rated show in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale media market and had been since his Miami debut in 1976.

Although he was not syndicated nationally or even regionally, Talkers magazine, the trade publication of talk radio, ranked Rogers at Number 15 on its 2006 list of the 100 most important personalities in the business.[1] Rogers died at the age of 68 at the Vitas Hospice at Florida Medical Center in Broward County, Florida.[2]

(November 5, 1942 – December 24, 2010)

Career

Rogers was born Nelson Roger Behelfer in Rochester, New York. Growing up there, he amused himself by announcing his own play-by-play while watching baseball on television. His first job in radio was as a music disc jockey at a small station, WCGR, in Canandaigua, New York. He studied broadcasting at Michigan State University, but left shortly before he would have graduated to pursue his radio career.

Over the next decade, Rogers worked at several stations in several states, including New York, Michigan, and Florida, where he ended up at WJNO AM in West Palm Beach. Rogers subsequently lost his job in West Palm Beach and was headed to Yuma, Arizona when he called his mother from the road and learned that Miami-Ft. Lauderdale's WKAT (AM 1360) had offered him a job without application or audition. Rogers turned his car around and headed for Miami, debuting on WKAT on March 1, 1976. By the end of 1976, he was one of the top-rated radio personalities in the market.

Nine months later, when singer Anita Bryant began a crusade to repeal Dade County's ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals, Rogers responded by announcing on the air that he was homosexual. Although Bryant's campaign to repeal the ordinance was successful, Rogers' admission did nothing to hurt his radio career; indeed, his ratings steadily increased with every Arbitron period.
When his contract with WKAT expired in 1979, Rogers remained in Miami but moved down the AM dial to 790, WNWS. By that time Rogers was unrivaled as the highest-rated talk-show host in Miami, dominating both the 18-24 and 25-54 demographics (the most coveted age ranges in the business). His style — unabashed liberal, steadfast conspiracy theorist, scatological, and funny but acutely mean when dealing with callers (especially elderly callers), a schtick that may best be described as caustically comic — was firmly established, making Rogers something of an icon in the market.

Rogers moved again in 1982, to Miami's WINZ. When he moved to mid-days on WINZ, his "Hallandale Vice" routine set the market and WINZ on fire. After years of agitating for an earlier time slot, WINZ's owner, Guy Gannett Publishing, moved him to mornings on co-owned WZTA (Zeta-4) in 1988. Although ratings in the morning were immediate, Roger's long simmering battle with station management boiled over, culminating with him moving to WIOD in the fall of 1989. From WIOD he was briefly simulcast in the Tampa Bay market on WSUN. His last relocation was to 560 WQAM in 1997. Regardless of his station, he was consistently the top rated personality in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market, prompting one Miami radio executive to call him "the most consistent performer among men 25-54 that this market has ever seen." [3] He also has a devoted audience in Europe and around the world who listen via the Internet.
He has been targeted from time to time by local activists who find him offensive; one, Jack Thompson, a former Miami attorney, unsuccessfully sued Rogers and his employers to remove him from the air[4]. In 1989, the Hallandale City Commission voted to censure Neil Rogers for "offensive comments" that he had made about the elderly[5]. Rogers had survived all such attacks, and indeed, many of them have increased his popularity.

It was announced on April 14, 2008 that Rogers agreed to a new 5-year contract on WQAM, which would have kept "Uncle Neil", as he was called by his fans, firmly on the air until 2013.
On the May 13, 2009 show it was announced but not confirmed that Rogers' longtime show producer and fill in host Jorge Rodriguez was being fired by WQAM in a cost-cutting measure. Rogers' contract includes the ability for him to choose his producer and no resolution was found by the end of the program even after Rogers called his agent on the air. Rodriguez's future with the show has been the topic of interest in the South Florida media including the Sun-Sentinel newspaper.[6] Rodriguez's firing was confirmed by Rogers at the start of the May 14, 2009 program.
Rodriguez' firing drew great response from Neil's fans. Rodriguez later began his own show on SoFloRadio.com

Rodriguez was replaced by WQAM Deputy Program Director Lee "Flee" Feldman. Feldman stated that he is working on the Neil Rogers show without any increase in his salary.
It was announced on June 22, 2009 that Rogers and Beasley Broadcast Miami reached an agreement where Neil Rogers will no longer be featured on air at WQAM, but would consult for the station under a new agreement. Neil Rogers had retired from on-air radio.[7]
Rogers, at age 68, had been suffering from several health ailments in the last months of his life. His friend and attorney Norman Kent says the radio host suffered a stroke and heart attack in October and his condition had been declining since Thanksgiving.[8] He died on December 24, 2010 at the age of 68.

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Colin Burgess, the original drummer of AC/DC, passed away on Dec. 16, 2023, at the age of 77

Colin Burgess Colin Burgess, original drummer for AC/DC.   PETER CARRETTE ARCHIVE/GETTY ...