Italian activist Emma Bonino dies at age 78

ROME:

Italy's Emma Bonino, a long-time radical activist and one of the country's most popular political figures, has died aged 78.

A veteran of battles for the right to divorce and abortion, Bonino was a former member of Italy's Radical Party. She served as a European commissioner and a foreign minister in Italy but was best known as a militant feminist with an inexorable dedication to political and humanitarian causes.

Born on a farm in Bra in northwest Italy in 1948, Bonino graduated with a degree in foreign languages and literature at Milan's Bocconi University before joining the Radical Party. In 1975 she founded the Centre for Information, Sterilisation and Abortion (CISA) before running for parliament and being elected an MP for the Radical Party in 1976.