ABC News Anchor Dies of Cancer

Peter Jennings, one of the dominant figures of American television news whose career spanned five decades, died, aged 67, of lung cancer on Sunday at his home in Manhattan.

The suave host of ABC's World News Tonight disclosed he was suffering from the disease four months ago, and signed off from his final broadcast by telling viewers that he hoped to return to the anchor desk as strength and health permitted.

But he never did. He was the last of a triumvirate of news anchors that dominated American television news for more than 20 years. Tom Brokaw stepped down in December after 21 years as anchor of NBC Nightly News, while Dan Rather ended his 24-year career as lead anchor on CBS in March.

Jennings, a high school dropout from Canada, joined the ABC network in 1964 and presented the prime-time news from 1965 to 1967 and again from 1983. During his tenure at ABC he broadcast from almost every major world capital and war zone, including Vietnam and Iraq.

In the 1960s he established the first American television bureau in the Middle East, and had a major role in the network's coverage of the summer Olympics in Munich, when Israeli team members were taken hostage, hiding with a camera crew in the athletes' quarters for a close view of the action.