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| Vaclav Havel, Czech leader and playwright, dies at 75 | |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic's first president after the Velvet Revolution against communist rule, has died at the age of 75. | |
| The former dissident playwright, who suffered from prolonged ill-health, died on Sunday morning, his secretary Sabina Tancecova said. | |
| As president, he presided over Czechoslovakia's transition to democracy and a free-market economy. | As president, he presided over Czechoslovakia's transition to democracy and a free-market economy. |
| He oversaw its peaceful 1993 split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. | He oversaw its peaceful 1993 split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. |
| Havel first came to international fame as a dissident playwright in the 1970s through his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77. | Havel first came to international fame as a dissident playwright in the 1970s through his involvement with the human rights manifesto Charter 77. |
| "Vaclav Havel was one of the greatest Europeans of our age," Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote in reaction on Twitter. | |
| "His voice for freedom paved way for a Europe whole and free." | |
| He died at his country home north-east of Prague. | |
| In his final moments, he was comforted by his wife Dagmara and several nuns, his secretary was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. | |
| Havel had looked thin and drawn on recent public appearances, the BBC's Robert Cameron reports from Prague. | |
| When he met the visiting Dalai Lama in Prague this month, he appeared in a wheelchair. | |
| A former heavy smoker, Havel had a history of chronic respiratory problems dating back to his years in communist prisons. | |
| He had part of a lung removed during surgery for cancer in the 1990s. | |
| He was taken to hospital in Prague on 12 January 2009, with an unspecified inflammation, and developed breathing difficulties after undergoing minor throat surgery. |