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TOPIC: death

Russia

Exclusive Details Of Prigozhin Funeral, First Photos Of His Grave

He was buried in an expensive coffin in a closed ceremony on Tuesday. By the next day, supporters were coming to the graveside to pay their respects.

ST. PETERSBURG — On Wednesday morning, some 25 people were waiting to enter the Porokhovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg to pay their respects to the founder of Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was buried here the day before amid heavy security as authorities tried to avoid a mass turnout of supporters .

Among the people on hand were Prigozhin's widow and daughter, the Rotundamedia telegram channel reports.

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Many security officials were still present at the cemetery Wednesday morning to screen visitors, and several buses of the National Guard were parked nearby. A number of law enforcement officers also spent the night near the cemetery.

A sign in the cemetery directed visitors to Prigozhin's grave, where dozens of wreaths were placed at the headstone from friends and relatives of the deceased.

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This Happened — July 23: Farewell Amy Winehouse

On this day in 2011, Amy Winehouse was found dead in her home in the Camden neighborhood of London. The cause of her death was determined to be accidental alcohol poisoning.

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Silvio Berlusconi, The Impossible Biography

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's death at the age of 86 reveals his complexity as both a public and political figure — in Italy and beyond. The author, who has tried in vain to write Berlusconi's biography, sifts through the truth behind the many myths.

-Analysis-

ROME — A few years ago, a friend suggested that I write a biography of Silvio Berlusconi — the kind that becomes indispensable to consult and cite every time Berlusconi is mentioned, like the biography of Julius Caesar written last century by French historian Jérome Carcopino.

This undertaking presented two problems. One was immediate: unfortunately, I don't have the stature of a Carcopino. The other, bigger problem showed up shortly after: Berlusconi has such a long history in politics, with so much written about him, that it becomes impossible to separate truth from legend.

For a couple of days, I dedicated myself to drafting the topics I wanted to cover. Very simple: Berlusconi is a politician, Berlusconi is an entrepreneur, Berlusconi is a sportsman.

I immediately added Berlusconi and the judiciary. This chapter was already long and complex: the investigations against him on charges of corruption, tax evasion, proximity to the Mafia, even the 1993 mob-linked killings in Milan, and many more topics.

Trying to frame Berlusconi as a politician immediately gave me hell, looking at his long career. Berlusconi and TV was already by itself a book of 400 pages. Berlusconi and soccer was another 300 pages. Berlusconi and the women in his life, his friends, his family, his connection to culture, his relationship to his wealth, his houses, his enemies and more.

The above prologue to this article quickly gets long, and was nothing compared to the original book outline, which I continued to enrich with other sections.

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Talking To My Four-Year-Old About Death

As he is faced by questions about death from his 4-year-old son during a family visit to Argentina, Recalculating author Ignacio Pereyra replies honestly. "I can only tell him the truth, at least the little truth that I know..."

BUENOS AIRES — An exchange with my four year old.

— Nacho…

— Yes?

— Am I going to die in Argentina or in Greece ?

— I don’t know… why?

— I want to die in Argentina. Can I?

— Well, I don’t know, it could happen in any country. I just hope it won’t happen for a very long time!

— I want to die in Argentina.

— Why?

— Because I like Argentina.

The talk I had with Lorenzo last week was in gentle tones. It’s something I am not used to with my oldest son, who at four, is usually loud, effusive and extremely expressive when we talk.

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Society
Tapati Guha Thakurta

Time To "Move On" From COVID? That's Not An Option For Me

Anger depletes and debilitates; grief, on the other hand, creates a new strength and resolve. What is centrally at stake for me, three years after I lost my husband, is a stubborn refusal to forget the disease that took him away.

-Essay-

NEW DELHI — Three years ago, it was during the last days in April that the season’s first Kalbaishakhi – gusts of thunder, storm and rain – broke into the sultry summer evening in Kolkata, just as it did this year. I remember the rains came late on that Sunday evening at the end of April 2020, stopping what had become our routine walk during that hour.

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Ideas
Gaspard Koenig

Assisted Dying, The Ultimate Act Of Self-Care

France's much discussed citizens' convention on assisted dying has just delivered its conclusions, including some proposals the government deems too ambitious. But the freedom to choose one's own death is the ultimate achievement of self-control, says French philosopher Gaspard Koenig.

-OpEd-

PARIS — The citizens' convention on end-of-life issues has spoken in favor of "active assistance in dying" (assisted suicide or euthanasia), in line with recommendations from the National Ethics Committee and most recent surveys of public opinion. But French Health Minister François Braun has expressed reservations, and proposed a simple strengthening of palliative care.

None of this is likely to calm the democratic crisis over this complicated but crucial issue for society. Why gather 200 citizens for four months and mobilize dozens of experts and significant government resources, if the response is immediately to dismiss their ideas?

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Geopolitics
Ali Yaycıoğlu

The Earthquake Will Change Turkey’s Future — And Could Tip Its Election

A reflection of what the Feb. 6 earthquake exposes deep problems in Turkish public life over the past two decades, and what we can expect in the coming months and years.

ISTANBUL — We are in great agony. The southern provinces of Turkey have suffered incalculable devastation with two major earthquakes in the Province of Kahramanmaraş.

Thousands of our siblings, children and grandparents, from Adana to Diyarbakır, Malatya to Hatay, met their final fate under wrecked buildings, awaiting to be dug out from the rubble and be buried with love and respect.

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Dottoré!
Mariateresa Fichele

A Newborn Dies, A Mother's Blame

Our Neapolitan psychiatrist reacts to the public blame directed at an exhausted Italian mother, after she fell asleep while breastfeeding her newborn son at a Rome hospital .

They say that childbirth is, and must necessarily be, the most beautiful thing in the world.

So beautiful that it justifies all the hardships a mother must endure, without complaining or expecting relief from the pain. So beautiful that after it has happened, you are not even allowed to rest because you have to keep the baby with you to breastfeed.

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This Happened

This Happened—January 12: Earthquake In Haiti

An earthquake in Haiti that killed 220,000 people happened on this date in 2010.

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This Happened

This Happened—January 4: Albert Camus Dies

Novelist and philosopher Albert Camus dies in a car crash on this day in 1960.

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Society
Reinaldo Spitaletta

Let's Not Forget The Original Sin Of The Qatar World Cup: Greed

Soccer is a useful political tool for dictatorships. But Qatar is able to milk the World Cup as much as possible because the sport is infected by unbridled capitalistic greed.

-OpEd-

BOGOTÁSoccer lost its innocence years ago. Its history of spectacular feats and heart-wrenching moments contain a catalogue of outrages. Beyond the miracles and goals, the "beautiful game" must face up to its own infection by capitalism and greed for profits.

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Geopolitics
Kayhan-London

Sabotage, Desertions, Gamers? Why It's Getting Harder For Iran To Squash Protests

Faced with the resilience of the national protests, Iran's security forces are now facing unusual acts of sabotage on state installations, and clerical authorities have started to wonder which of their loyalist forces can be firmly relied on still to defend the regime.

Ten weeks into the nationwide anti-state uprising in Iran, the regime's security agencies face a crisis driven by four key factors: 1. Losses among the ranks through disobedience, desertion or negligence on the streets; 2. insufficient forces because of casualties from clashes; 3. rising number of acts of subversion and sabotage, especially targeting strategic installations; 4. cyber-attacks and security traps laid from abroad.

At the same time, the Iranian regime is facing an apparent change of tactics among protesters compared to previous rounds of unrest, which is particular to the new generations involved in this movement. Senior officials of the Revolutionary Guards corps — the body effectively coordinating the repression — say the protesters are mostly aged between 15 and 25 years.

It is a kind of Gen-Z brigade working with older and experienced protesters who led previous rounds of protests in 2009, and especially 2017 and 2019 when public unrest reemerged with particular vigor.

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