'Absurd' playwright dies

The Romanian-born French playwright Eugene Ionesco, one of the giants of the theatre of the absurd, died yesterday, aged 81, Reuter reports from Paris. Ionesco used the stage to portray man's lonely anguish in bizarre and often hilarious plays. He emigrated to France in 1936. A militant anti-Communist, Ionesco long campaigned from exile against the authoritarian regime of Nicolae Ceaucescu.

Obituary, page 14