Former South Vietnam premier Nguyen Cao Ky, 80, had been treated for a respiratory ailment.
He was younger than I thought he was.
When Thieu's government in Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops in 1975, Ky fled by piloting a helicopter to a U.S. Navy ship. He and his family eventually settled in the United States, where he led a quiet life largely away from politics. He made headlines in 2004 when he made a controversial visit back to his homeland, praising the communists, his former enemies._____
Retired general John Shalikashvili, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Clinton, 75, from complications of a stroke:
The native of Poland held the top military job at the Pentagon in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, when the general retired from the Army. He spent his later years working as a visiting professor at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation._____
Clinton pointed out that "Gen. Shali" made the recommendations that sent U.S. troops into harm's way in Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia, the Persian Gulf and a host of other world hot spots that had proliferated since the end of the Cold War.
"He never minced words, he never postured or pulled punches, he never shied away from tough issues or tough calls, and most important, he never shied away from doing what he believed was the right thing," Clinton said.
The so-called "27 Club" got a new member today as singer Amy Winehouse died. Frankly, I had never heard of her, so that goes to show you how much I follow current music.
She was certainly far less famous than other "27 Club" members Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, Jones, and even Cobain, but she rivaled them in self-destruction:
Increasingly, her personal life began to overshadow her career.
She acknowledged struggling with eating disorders and told a newspaper that she had been diagnosed as manic depressive but refused to take medication. Soon accounts of her erratic behavior, canceled concerts and drink and drug-fueled nights began to multiply.
Photographs caught her unsteady on her feet or vacant-eyed, and she appeared unhealthily thin, with scabs on her face and marks on her arms.
There were embarrassing videos released to the world on the Internet. One showed an addled Winehouse and Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty playing with newborn mice. Another, for which Winehouse apologised, showed her singing a racist ditty to the tune of a children's song.
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