US singer Eartha Kitt dies at 81
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7799852.stm

American singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died at the age 81, a family friend has said.

Kitt was said to have been suffering from colon cancer.

She was one of the few artists to be nominated in the Tony, Grammy and Emmy award categories and was a stalwart of the Manhattan cabaret scene.

She famously played Catwoman in the 1960s Batman television series and was known for her distinctive, feline drawl.

Kitt was blacklisted in the US in the late 1960s after speaking out against the Vietnam War at a White House function.

However, she returned triumphantly to New York's Broadway in a 1974 production, Timbuktu!, and continued to perform regularly in theatre shows and concert halls.

She rose to the top of the entertainment world from humble origins.

Her mother worked on a cotton plantation and was just 14 when she gave birth.

Kitt was then given away at the age of eight and sent to live with an aunt in New York.

UK playwright Harold Pinter dies

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7799708.stm

Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, who had cancer, died on Christmas Eve aged 78.

He wrote more than 30 plays including The Caretaker and The Birthday Party. His film scripts include The French Lieutenant's Woman.

His style was so distinctive, "Pinteresque" entered the Oxford English Dictionary.

His wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, said: "He was a great, and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years."

He had been due to pick up an honorary degree earlier this month from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London but was forced to withdraw due to illness.

BBC Creative Director Alan Yentob told the BBC: "He was a unique figure in British theatre. He has dominated the theatre scene since the 1950s."

Michael Billington, Pinter's friend and biographer, said he was "devastated and saddened" by the news.

He told the BBC: "Harold had been ill for a very long time, but he had a titanic will and one imagined he would go on fighting.

"He was a fighter in the field of politics, he fought strenuously against American and British foreign policy, but also in his work you see this, there is a combative spirit in his work.

"He was a generous and loyal man and very attached to the people whom he sincerely liked."

So 2 down, one to go. All things go in threes.

That sucks, Eartha Kitt was awesome.

loved her voice. RIP..............

Never heard about her before...

May she rest in peace

yeah pretty sad R.I.P.