Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State, is dead

Madeleine Albright in Washington, DC., January 10, 2017. SAIT SERKAN GURBUZ / AP Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold this position in a US government, died on Wednesday March 23 at the age of 84. Head of diplomacy between 1997 and 2001, in the administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright died of cancer, her family announced in a press release which salutes “a tireless defender of democracy and human rights” . Read also Article reserved for our subscribers Madeleine Albright, draped in America Madeleine Albright is the daughter of a Jewish family who twice had to flee their country, first driven out by the Nazis then by the Communists, before choosing exile, definitive, in America. She was born Marie-Jana Körbelova on May 15, 1937, in Prague, then capital of Czechoslovakia, daughter of Czech diplomat Josef Korbel, whose last post was that of Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Yugoslavia in 1948. Before taking the head of American diplomacy, she held the position of United States Ambassador to the UN (1993-1997), where she left her mark, notably during the American offensive in Kosovo. US Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price called his death “devastating”. “She was a pioneer,” he said. “As the first female Secretary of State, she literally paved the way for much of our profession. In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded him the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, declaring that his life and career were an inspiration to Americans. Le Monde with AP, AFP and Reuters