Former Maltese President Censu Tabone dies aged 98
Mar 14, 2012, 2:15 PM
VALLETTA, Malta (AP) – Former Malta President Censu Tabone, who hosted a U.S.-Soviet summit that declared an end to the Cold War, has died. He was 98.
Tabone’s family said he died at home in St. Julians on Wednesday.
Tabone, an ophthalmologist by profession, was a military doctor during World War II before he contested the election on behalf of the Nationalist Party in 1962.
He was a labor minister in the 1960s and foreign minister in the late 1980s, before being appointed president in 1989.
In December 1989, he hosted a superpower summit of U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who together declared the end of the Cold War.
Tabone is survived by his wife of 70 years, Maria, eight children, 19 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.
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