Russian President Boris Yeltsin confirmed yesterday that he would not run for a third term, saying he would make way for a younger, more energetic candidate.
"My term ends in 2000, I will not, of course, run again. A younger generation will come, more energetic," Yeltsin (66) told children on the first day of their school year.
Yeltsin was elected to a second term a year ago despite worries about his health. Russia's post-communist constitution, passed in 1993, allows the president only two terms in office. But Yeltsin's return to a busy work schedule this year after surgery in November had fuelled rumours that he might run again.
Yeltsin told the children he thought one of them would grow up to become Russian president.
"And by the way, you boys had better not think it's just you - maybe we'll have a female president," he said to laughter and cheers from the hall.
Thousands of Grenadians bid farewell to Sir Eric Gairy, the authoritarian former leader who helped the island to independence from Britain before being ousted by a Marxist coup.
Mourners, many wearing somber black and white hats, filed past Gairy's coffin as it lay in state at the Grenada Trade Centre. He was buried late on Sunday in a seaside mausoleum in St George's, the capital.
"We have lost a great friend, a great statesmen in Sir Eric," said Jerry Romain, general secretary of Gairy's Grenada United Labor Party and a long-time friend. "His love for the poor people of Grenada will never be forgotten."
Gairy dominated politics on the Caribbean island for three decades, and became Grenada's first prime minister after independence from Britain in 1974. But he was accused of numerous human rights abuses.
He died on August 23rd at his home in Grand Anse on the south coast at the age of 75.