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Velvet Revolution hero Vaclav Havel, dies at 75Newspaper review: The life and times of Vaclav Havel

Velvet Revolution hero Vaclav Havel, dies at 75

PRAGUE: Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwrightwho wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, has died. He was 75. 

Havel died on Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Dancecova said. 

Havel was his country's first democratically elected president after the nonviolent 'Velvet Revolution' that ended four decades of repression by a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan". 

As president, he oversaw the country's bumpy transition to democracy and a freemarket economy, as well its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Even out of office, the diminutive Czech remained a world figure. He was part of the 'new Europe' - in the coinage of then-US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld - of ex-communist countries that stood up for the US when the democracies of "old Europe" opposed the 2003 Iraq invasion. 

A former chain-smoker, Havel had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist jails. He was hospitalized in Prague on Jan 12, 2009, with an unspecified inflammation, and had developed breathing difficulties after undergoing minor throat surgery. Havel left office in 2003, 10 years after Czechoslovakia broke up and just months before both nations joined the European Union. He was credited with laying the groundwork that brought his Czech Republic into the 27-nation bloc, and was president when it joined Nato in 1999. 

Havel came to symbolize the power of the people to peacefully overcome totalitarian rule. "Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred," Havel famously said. 

He was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and collected dozens of other accolades worldwide for his efforts. AP


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16241148

Newspaper review: The life and times of Vaclav Havel

A look at the first editions of the UK papers

The death of playwright-turned-Czech President Vaclav Havel leaves many writers attempting to assess his achievements and define the man.

The Times calls him an "implausibly towering figure" in the cause of freedom, who earned a place in history for his part in communism's overthrow.

The Sun calls Havel a "hero". The Daily Telegraph says he changed the courseof modern European history.

The Financial Times judges him to be "kind, wise and modest".

'Lead actor'

Those who knew Havel have been sharing their memories of him in the papers.

"The lead actor and director of a play that changed history" is how Tim Garton Ash describes him in the Guardian. But he says he stayed too long in office.

Lord Powell, who worked for Lady Thatcher, writes in the Daily Telegraph that Havel was a true hero.

He says Lady Thatcher admired Havel's courage and his speeches. Though their politics were different, he says, she never lost her affection for him.

'Ill-judged rant'

David Cameron is committed to tax breaks for married couples, says the Daily Mail, despite Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg's opposition.

It says Mr Clegg's comments on the danger of trying to return to a 1950s family model were an "ill-judged rant."

Daily Express columnist Leo McKinstry says Mr Clegg's "sneer at traditional family structures" is absurd.

But the Times says "Mr Clegg is right" and it is not the job of legislation to provide incentives to marry.

Insurance premiums

The Guardian's main story is that 700 top military and civil service posts could go in the next three years.

The Daily Mail is outraged that Britain is paying more than £13m a year in winter fuel payments to UK pensioners in some of Europe's warmest countries.

The Daily Mirror champions a motorist whose premiums shot up when he told his insurer he had lost his job.

The Times says housing benefit cuts mean more than 100,000 households could lose their homes in the New Year.

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