Marvin Sease, American blues singer, pneumonia died he was , 64.

Marvin Sease was an American blues and soul singer, known for his racy lyrics pneumonia died he was , 64..

(February 16, 1946 - February 8, 2011)














Born in Blackville, South Carolina,^[1] Sease started as a gospel artist, joining a gospel group called the Five Gospel Crowns,^[1] located in Charleston, South Carolina. After singing with them, Sease then left at age 20 for New York City. At this young age settling into New York, he then joined another gospel group called the Gospel Crowns. Having a preference for the musical style of R&B, Sease left the gospel circuit to form his own R&B group. In this group Sease was accompanied by his own three brothers, and named the backing band Sease.^[1] This band did not find popularity and eventually broke up. He did not quit performing musically, but began to cover songs that started a career with a recurring gig at the Brooklyn club, Casablanca.
In 1986, he recorded a self titled album, featuring one of his more popular songs, "Ghetto Man". This started his professional career with his fans in the South's circuit of bars, blues festivals, and juke joints. While promoting his self produced and publicized debut album, he entered a recording contract with Polygram. With this contract, he was able to launch his music nationally with the re-release of his self titled LP on Mercury Records in 1987. This updated release of his previous material also included the new ten minute track "Candy Licker," which became an instant success for Sease through the South.^[2] Success had finally come to Sease without the help of airplay which deemed his sound too explicit for the audience.^[3] Over the next decade Sease released several more records for Mercury and Jive Records, which ranked on the US Billboard R&B chart. Sease's success was notably linked with his chart topping song "Candy Licker", and ensured a strong female based following.

He was said to have a comparable sound to Johnnie Taylor and Tyrone Davis, but without the commercial success.
Sease died of compilcations from pneumonia in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on February 8, 2011, eight days before his 65th birthday.^[4][5]
There was a poster depicting Sease in the film, Pretty in Pink.

[edit] References

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Eugenio Toussaint, Mexican composer and jazz musician, died from a heart attack he was 56,

Eugenio Toussaint Uhtohff , was a Mexican composer, arranger and jazz musician.

(October 9, 1954 – February 8, 2011)









He began playing as a pianist in 1972 with the band "Odradek". In 1975, he took part in the jazz band "Blue Note" (which was also the name of his first album) and a year later he founded the Mexican band "Sacbé", one of the most important Mexican jazz bands. This band started October 2, 1976 and included brothers Enrique Toussaint on bass and Fernando Toussaint on drums,^[1] Mexican saxophone player Alejandro Campos was also part of the founding members of the band. In 1979 the band moved to the USA and did some work in Minneapolis with guitar player Will Sumner.
In 1980, the Mexican Government gave him a scholarship and he moved to Los Angeles, California to study at the Dick Grove Music School, where he met Jon Crosse, a well established teacher and performer in the Los Angeles area.
With Jon Crosse, a new version of Sacbé which was signed by the local Discovery/Trend label. "Street Corner", "Aztlan", and "Dos mundos" were international success.
The same year, he studied orchestration with Dr. Albert Harris.

He worked with Paul Anka and trumpet player Herb Alpert from 1982 to 1983. He returned to Mexico City in 1986 to compose concert music. He has been active in the worlds of jazz music and classical music. He was nominated for two Latin Grammy Awards dor best classical music Cd in 2001 with his album Gauguin and in 2004 with his Musica de Cámara (Chamber Music).Most recently he released the album Oinos with his jazz trio including world famous bass player Eddie Gomez and drummer Gabriel Puentes from Chile.
A reformed version of Sacbe, as a trio with his two brothers, have performed at the Riviera Maya Jazz Festival,^[1] at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, at Haitis Port Au Prince Jazz Festival and at the Philippines Jazz Festival in Manila and at the Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta. He is currently traveling with Doc Severinsen's band (trumpet player that used to be musical conductor for the Tonight Show Band when Johnny Carson was the host), he has also established a very important educational website called musycom.com that gives free music lessons over the internet. Eugenio passed away 8 of February 2011 in Mexico City.3

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Maria Altmann, Austrian-born American art heiress, died after a long illness she was , 94

Maria Altmann  was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Austria, noted for her ultimately successful legal campaign to reclaim five family-owned paintings by the artist Gustav Klimt, stolen by the Nazis during World War II, from the Government of Austria  died after a long illness she was , 94.

(February 18, 1916 – February 7, 2011)

She was born Maria Victoria Bloch, in Vienna. The family name was changed to Bloch-Bauer the following year.^[1] She was a niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy Jewish patron of the arts who served as the model for some of Klimt's best-known paintings, including two of those eventually recovered by her niece. After an Austrian researcher questioned the Austrian state's ownership of the paintings in 1998, Maria Altmann experienced some years of fruitless negotiations and efforts to litigate in the Austrian court system, before a 2004 ruling in her favor by the United States Supreme Court opened the door to an Austrian arbitration process. The arbitration panel of three Austrian judges in turn ruled in 2006 that the art must be returned to Altmann and other family heirs. Altmann died on 7 February 2011, shortly before her 95th birthday. Obituaries appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and many other publications internationally.^[2]

Background to the Klimt case

In 1937, Maria married Fredrick ("Fritz") Altmann. Not long after their Paris honeymoon, the 1938 Anschluss incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany (in Maria's later account: "The women were throwing flowers, the church bells were ringing. They welcomed them with open arms. They were jubilant"). Under the Nazis, Fredrick was arrested in Austria and held hostage at the Dachau concentration camp to force his brother Bernhard, by then safely in France, to transfer the Bernhard Altmann textile factory into German hands. Fredrick was subsequently released and the couple fled for their lives. They made a harrowing escape, leaving behind their home, loved ones and property, including jewelry that later found its way into the collection of Hermann Göring. Many of their friends and relatives were either killed by the Nazis or committed suicide. Traveling by way of Liverpool, England, they reached the Unied States and settled first in Fall River, Massachusetts, and eventually in Los Angeles, California. Maria became a naturalized American citizen in 1945; the couple had four children.
Maria's uncle, Czech sugar magnate Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, owned a small collection of artwork by the Austrian master Gustav Klimt, including two portraits of his wife, Adele Bloch-Bauer. In her will, Adele, who died in 1925, well before the rise of the Nazis, had "kindly asked" her husband to leave the Klimts to the Austrian State Gallery upon his own death; a much-debated point in more recent years has been whether this request should or should not be considered legally binding upon her husband. In any event, following the Nazi Anschluss of 1938 and Ferdinand's flight from Austria, the paintings were looted, initially falling into the hands of a Nazi lawyer. Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer died in 1946, soon after World War II, leaving his estate to a nephew and two nieces, including Maria Altmann. By this time, five of these paintings had made their way into the possession of the Austrian government.^[3]
With Austria under pressure in the 1990s to re-examine its Nazi past, the Austrian Green Party helped pass a new law in 1998 introducing greater transparency into the hitherto murky process of dealing with the issue of restitution of artworks looted during the Nazi period. Inter alia, by opening the archives of the Ministry of Culture for the first time, the new law enabled the Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin to discover that, contrary to what had been generally assumed, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer had never in fact donated the paintings to the state museum.^[4]
On learning of Czernin's findings, Altmann at first sought to negotiate with the Austrian government about receiving some of the paintings back. At this stage she asked them only for the Klimt landscapes belonging to her family, and was willing to allow Austria to keep the portraits. Her proposal was not, however, treated seriously by the Austrian authorities, and no common ground was reached. In 1999 she sought to sue the government of Austria in an Austrian court. Under Austrian law, however, the filing fee for such a lawsuit is determined as a percentage of the recoverable amount. At the time, the five paintings were estimated to be worth approximately USD $135 million, making the filing fee over USD $1.5 million. Although the Austrian courts later reduced this amount to $350,000, this was still too much for Altmann, and she dropped her case in the Austrian court system.
In 2000 Altmann filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). The case, Republic of Austria v. Altmann, ended up in the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in 2004 that Austria was not immune from such a lawsuit. After this decision, Altmann and Austria agreed to binding arbitration by a panel of three Austrian judges.^[5] On 16 January 2006, the arbitration panel ruled that Austria was legally required to return the art to Altmann and the other family heirs, and in March of the same year Austria returned the paintings.
The works are:

Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907 Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912 Buchenwald/ Birkenwald, 1903 Apfelbaum I, 1912

Häuser in Unterach am Attersee, 1916

The paintings were estimated to be collectively worth at least US$150 million when returned. In monetary terms this represented the largest single return of Nazi-looted art in Austria. The paintings left Austria in March 2006 and were on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until June 30, 2006. There were unsuccessful attempts by Austrians to buy some of the works back. Months after the Austrian government returned Altmann's family's belongings, she consigned the Klimt paintings to the auction house Christie's, to be sold on behalf of her family. The sale of the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) to cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder for $135 million was at the time the highest sum ever paid for a painting. Since July 13, 2006, the painting has been on public display in the Neue Galerie in New York City, one of the leading centers internationally for early twentieth century German and Austrian art, which was established by Lauder in 2001. The four additional works by Klimt were also exhibited at the Neue Gallerie for several weeks in 2006.^[6]
In November 2006, Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) was sold at auction at Christie's in New York fetching almost $88m. In total the four remaining paintings sold for $192.7 million and the proceeds were divided up among several heirs.

Film

Altmann's story has been recounted in three documentary films. Adele's Wish by filmmaker Terrence Turner, the husband of Altmann's great-niece, was released in 2008. The film features interviews with Altmann, her lawyer (E. Randol Schoenberg), and leading experts from around the world. Altmann's story was also the subject of the film Stealing Klimt, which was released in 2007. That film also featured interviews with Altmann and others who were closely involved with the story. The documentary The Rape of Europa, which was about Nazi plunder of European art generally, also included material about Altmann.

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Bobby Kuntz, American CFL player (Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton Tiger-Cats), died from Parkinson's disease he was , 79

Robert John "Bobby" Kuntz Sr. , was a former professional Canadian football linebacker who played eleven seasons in the Canadian Football League for the Toronto Argonauts and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats died from Parkinson's disease he was , 79. He was a part of the Tiger-Cats 1963 and 1965 Grey Cup winning teams.

(January 10, 1932^[1] – February 7, 2011)

Kuntz's football career began ^[2] when he moved from Cleveland to Kitchener, Ontario. He was discouraged by football coaches in Cleveland, but at St. Jerome's High School he found Clem Faust, a coach willing to support his desire to play. After playing for McMaster University in Hamilton, and a senior football team in Ontario, he was signed by the Argonauts in 1955 to play his first full season in the CFL. 10 years later, his older brother David died and he was forced with a difficult decision to return home to join the family electroplating business or continue playing football. His decision to return home was short-lived, after only a few months he was coaxed out of retirement by Jim Trimble, coach of the Argo's main rival, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
During his time in the CFL, Bobby was a fan favourite, particularly in his hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Upon his return home after retirement, and rejoining the family business, he become heavily involved in the community.^[3] Bobby was a founding member of St. Francis Assisi Parish, and involved with St. Mary’s General Hospital Foundation, Mosaic Counselling and Family Services, the United Way, the Congregation of the Resurrection and St. Jerome’s University.
Kuntz was the co-owner of the family's surface finishing company Kuntz Electroplating. He was involved with the business from his retirement in 1966 from football until shortly before his death along with his brother Paul who predeceased him in early 2011.^[4] Bobby was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease in 2000, and lived in nursing homes in the last years of his life.^[5]
On February 7, 2011, Kuntz died due to complications from Parkinson's disease at the age of 79 in Waterloo, Ontario, surrounded by his wife and children.^[6]
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Eric Parsons, British footballer died he was , 87.

Eric "Rabbit" Parsons was a footballer who played for West Ham United, Chelsea and Brentford died he was , 87..

(9 November 1923 - 7 February 2011) 

A winger and crowd favourite whose blistering pace earned him the nickname "the Rabbit", Parsons started his career with West Ham United, spotted by the club during a game against West Ham Boys at Upton Park while playing for Worthing Boys. He played his first game for the Irons on 4 January 1947, in a Division Two game against Leicester City, then his second a week later against the same club in the FA Cup. He was an ever-present during the 1947-48 and 1948-49 seasons, and made a total of 152 appearances for the club, scoring 35 goals. His last game came against Notts County on 25 November 1950.
He served in Montgomery's Eighth Army during the Second World War.
Parsons joined Chelsea in November 1950 for a then club record fee of £23,000. A pacy winger, Parsons was unfortunate to play in an era of great English wingers, such as Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney, which limited his international opportunities to two "England B" caps. Nevertheless, Parsons formed an important part of Ted Drake's Chelsea side of the early 1950s, as both goalscorer and creator. Despite this, he was occasionally barracked by sections of the Chelsea crowd. He played in every game of Chelsea's Championship-winning side in 1955 and contributed 11 goals, including two in the 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday which clinched the title. During the title celebrations and speeches following the win over Wednesday, he finally won over the crowd at Stamford Bridge, who chanted "We want Rabbit." ^[1]
Parsons left Chelsea in 1956 for Brentford. He sustained a broken leg while at the club, but still managed to take his total to over 400 League appearances before retiring from football. When Chelsea won the Premier League title in 2004-05 Parsons was among several surviving members of the 1954-55 title-winning side to be invited to the trophy presentation at Stamford Bridge. He continued to live in his home town of Worthing and died on 7 February 2011.

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Andrée Chedid, Egyptian-born French poet and novelist died she was , 90

Andrée Chedid  was a French poet and novelist of Lebanese descent died she was , 90.



(20 March 1920 – 6 February 2011)

Life

Chedid was born in Cairo on 20 March 1920. When she was ten, she was sent to a boarding school, where she learned English and French. At fourteen, she left for Europe. She then returned to Cairo to go to an American university. Her dream was to become a dancer. She got married to a physician when she was twenty-two, with whom she has two children: Louis Chedid, now a famous French singer, and Michèle. Her work questions human condition and what links the individual to the world. Her writing seeks to evoke the Orient, but she focuses more in denouncing the civil war that destroys Lebanon. She has lived in France since 1946. Because of this diverse background, her work is truly multicultural. Her first book was written in English: On the Trails of my Fancy. She has commented about her work that it is an eternal quest for humanity.
Andrée Chedid is the grandmother of the French rock star -M- (Louis Chedid's son) for whom she has contributed song lyrics including that of Bonoboo on the album Je dis aime.
She died on 6 February 2011 in Paris at the age of 90.^[1]

Awards and Honours

• 1976 Mallarmé prize
• 2002 Prix Goncourt for poetry
• 2009 Grand Officier de la Légion d'honneur

Works

• À la mort, à la vie: nouvelles. Paris: Flammarion, 1992.
• L'Autre: roman. Paris: Flammarion, 1969.
• Cavernes et soleils: poésie. Paris: Flammarion, 1979.
• Cérémonial de la violence. Paris: Flammarion, 1976.
• La Cité fertile: roman. Paris: Flammarion, 1972.
• Le Dernier candidat. Paris: Éditions théâtrales Art et comédie, 1998
• Le Message. Paris: Éditions Flammarion, 2000
• L'Enfant multiple. Paris: Flammarion, 1989.
• La Maison Sans Racine. Paris: Flammarion, 1985.
• Le Sommeil délivré. Paris: Flammarion, 1952.
• Le Grand Boulevard.Paris :Flammarion,1996

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Josefa Iloilo, Fijian politician, President (2000–2006; 2007–2009) died he was , 90.

Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, CF, MBE, MSD, KStJ  was the President of Fiji from 2000 until 2009, excluding a brief period from 5 December 2006 until 4 January 2007 (see below) died he was , 90.. He held the traditional title of Tui Vuda, the paramount chief of the Vuda district in Ba Province on Fiji's northwest coast. Like many Fijian people, he rarely used his surname and was known simply as Josefa Iloilo. He announced on 28 July 2009 that he would be leaving office on 30 July.^[2] At the age of 88, he was the world's oldest head of state.
On 5 December 2006, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, seized power in a coup d'état and assumed presidential powers. This followed failed attempts on Iloilo's part to mediate a solution to the long-running impasse between the military and the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. However, his powers were restored by Bainimarama on 4 January 2007. Iloilo also endorsed Bainimarama's coup on the same day, in his first public address since the coup.^[3] He appointed Bainimarama as Prime Minister the following day.
After Fiji's Court of Appeal had ruled that the removal of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and the appointment of Fiji's interim regime following the military coup in 2006 was unlawful, on April 10, 2009 Iloilo dismissed the judges and abrogated the country's constitution. Iloilo claimed to have the "full support" of the security forces and directed the military to take "all reasonable steps" to maintain law and order.^[4]

(29 December 1920 – 6 February 2011)

Career

After working as a teacher and civil service administrator, Iloilo later became a member of the House of Representatives. He subsequently served as a Senator in the 1990s, and was President of the Senate prior to his becoming Vice-President of Fiji on 18 January 1999. He was in this position under President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in 1999 and 2000, when Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's government was overthrown by Fijian nationalists led by George Speight in the Fiji coup of 2000. He was sworn in as President on 13 July 2000, but legal experts consider that he was constitutionally the President as of 29 May, the date on which Ratu Mara had been removed from office by the military, and to which his resignation in December that year had been backdated. Iloilo refused to intervene directly in the disputes among politicians, but quietly reached out to disaffected factions, including the Indo-Fijian community. In 2001, he persuaded the military to allow a return to democracy.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Political controversies

On 20 June 2005, the Fiji Times reported that "a reliable source" close to the government had accused Iloilo of refusing to discipline Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, for his public criticism of government policies. The source said that Iloilo had refused repeated requests from the Home Affairs Minister, Josefa Vosanibola, to take disciplinary measures against Bainimarama for publicly opposing the early release of prisoners convicted of coup-related offenses, as well as the proposed establishment of a Reconciliation and Unity Commission (called the "Reconciliation Bull" by Bainimarama) with the power (subject to presidential approval) to compensate victims and pardon convicted participants in the coup. The source said that the President's refusal to act was making the Home Affairs Minister look foolish and incompetent, and suggested that Iloilo was not following the Constitution. As President, Iloilo was the Commander-in-Chief of the Military, but, according to the source, was required by Section 96 of the Constitution to act on the advice of the appropriate Cabinet Minister, in this case the Home Affairs Minister.
According to an unconfirmed report in the Fiji Times on 25 June, Iloilo and his Vice-President, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, had asked Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to withdraw the government's controversial legislation to establish a Reconciliation and Unity Commission, with the power to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the 2000 coup. The Prime Minister reportedly replied that he would "consider" the matter. Spokesmen for the President and Prime Minister have declined to confirm or deny the report, which was written by freelance journalist Wainikiti Bogidrau, the wife of senior army officer, Major Setareki Bogidrau. On 27 June, the Fiji Labour Party claimed on its website to have known of the meeting before the article was published, and further alleged that the Prime Minister had intended to ask the President to use his position as Commander-in-chief of the Military to curb Bainimarama's public criticism of the bill, and that he was taken aback by the President's request to withdraw the legislation.
In his traditional speech opening Parliament on 1 August, Iloilo said that the government had introduced it for the purpose of fostering unity and stability. His speech welcomed the public debate, saying that reconciliation was "a difficult but necessary process", and it called on parliamentarians to uphold the law. He also said "As parliamentarians you must carefully examine your conscience on the deliberation of sensitive issues and not be swayed by divisive racial remarks which have been a common and unfortunate hallmark of debate in our Parliament."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Views on the chiefly system

In an opening address to the Great Council of Chiefs on 27 July 2005, Iloilo told his fellow-chiefs that they needed to adapt to the modern era, or else risk "simply becoming decorations."
Iloilo recalled warnings from Fiji's first modern statesman, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna (1888–1958), that the chiefs risked becoming an irrelevance if they did not take their leadership role seriously and prove that they had the qualifications and authority that their ancestors had possessed. "We should never forget Ratu Sukuna's warning about the dangers of chiefs simply becoming decorations. He said if that happened they were finished. He declared chiefs could only be sure of their people continuing to follow them as long as they appreciated that chiefly authority was better than anyone else's." He called on chiefs to be educated and trained for leadership. "Before we are in a position to advise our people on the right course we must also make sure that we have the knowledge and the awareness required to fulfill this duty properly. If we do not have this, we can not lead. When we are equipped with leadership skills that complement traditional rank, we are appropriately prepared to provide the inspiration, the motivation and guidance expected of us."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Personal life

Iloilo was a lay-preacher for many years, and was Vice-President of the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma in 1997 and 1998. In September 2004, he hosted a state dinner for the Argentine-born American evangelist Luis Palau. He delivered the opening address at Fiji's National Day of Prayer on 15 May 2005, which was also observed in may other countries. He called on Fijians to seek God's wisdom to find the way forward for the nation, and said he considered prayer to be "as important to our nation as breath is to our lives". Reminding Christians of the Jewish Year of Jubilee, a year for cancelling all debts owed by one's fellow-man, Iloilo called on the people to pursue both personal and national reconciliation and forgiveness, saying that they would reap what they sowed. "Whatever you sow you shall reap. If you sow the seeds of harmony, peace and goodwill you will reap the fruits thereof. If you sow the seeds of discord, hatred and injustice you cannot expect to reap good results."^[5][6]

[edit] Second term: 2006-Present

• See main article: Fiji presidential election, 2006.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of Iloilo's family told the Fiji Times on 29 November 2005 that he did not intend to seek another term when his present term ended on 13 March 2006. The family member said that Iloilo had already hinted of his plans during a speech at the 2005 Fiji Business Excellence Awards in Nadi, in which he said it might be his last official function. His plans to retire were motivated not by concerns about his health, but by his desire to spend more time with his family and tribe, of which he was the Paramount Chief, the source said at the time. On 2 February 2006, however, the office of the Great Council of Chiefs announced that Iloilo had indicated his willingness to serve for another term. He celebrated his 85th birthday at Lautoka's First Landing Resort] on 29 December 2005.
The Great Council of Chiefs met at the Tradewinds Convention Centre in Lami on 8 March and re-elected Iloilo to another five-year term. On 5 December 2006 Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, seized power in a coup d'état and assumed presidential powers. This followed failed attempts on Iloilo's part to mediate a solution to the long-running impasse between the military and the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. However, his powers were restored by Bainimarama on 4 January 2007. Iloilo also endorsed Bainimarama's coup on the same day, in his first public address since the coup.^[7] He appointed Bainimarama as Prime Minister on 5 January.

[edit] Suspension of Fijian Constitution

Main article: 2009 Fijian constitutional crisis

The Court of Appeals ruled on 9 April 2009 that Bainimarama's government was illegal; the court also ruled that Iloilo should appoint a new Prime Minister, while specifically excluding both Bainimarama and Qarase. Iloilo then announced on 10 April that he was abrogating the constitution and dismissing the judges; according to Iloilo, the court's decision left Fiji without a government, but "the machinery of government must continue". He said that he would soon appoint a new interim government and that a new election would be held by September 2014.^[8] He subsequently re-appointed Prime Minister Bainimarama, with a mandate to pursue his reforms and bring about democratic elections no later than 2014.
Prominent Fiji academic Brij Lal, co-author of the abrogated Constitution, voiced strong criticism against the President's actions:

"This was all a total charade, just a hoax that spits in the face of democracy. The President is a senile old man, a puppet in the pocket of the military. It was planned all along that he would look after Bainimarama and strengthen the regime, and no justice would be done."^[9]

[edit] Retirement and death

Interim Prime Minister Bainimarama announced on 28 July 2009, that President Iloilo had informed him that afternoon of his intention to retire from office on 30 July.^[10] No reason was given, but media outlets pointed out that at the age of 88, he was the world's oldest Head of State. Vice-President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau would serve as Acting President until Cabinet announced, and the Chief Justice formally appointed a substantive President, as stated by Acting Prime Minister Bainimarama. Iloilo, was at the time of his retirement as the President of Fiji 88 years old and there had for a long time been speculation about the state of his health. He suffered from Parkinson's Disease and during his presidency required regular medical treatment in Australia. lloilo died on 6 February 2011 at the age of 90.^[1]
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