Italy's Pannella, champion of abortion, divorce reforms, dies

Marco Pannella, the former leader of Italy's Radical Party and a key player in the country's adoption of social reforms including the right to abortion and divorce, died today, his party said.
Pannella, whose real first name was Giacinto, was 86 and had been suffering from lung and liver cancer.
He was involved in campaigns on virtually every social issue of the post-war period, the most significant being the battles for divorce, which was legalised in 1970, and abortion, legalised in 1978.
The struggles pitted Pannella and like-minded people against the might of the Catholic church.
Pannella also campaigned against hunting and nuclear power, and for gay rights and the decriminalisation of soft drugs.

"A great Italian leader has left us," Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said. "I want to pay tribute on behalf of my government and my party to the life lived by a fighter for freedom who was a lion of a man.