Ghanaian President John Atta Mills Dies at 68

Ghanaian President John Atta Mills, who died Tuesday, oversaw a generally peaceful and prosperous time for his country during his one term in office.

Mr. Mills became the country's third democratically-elected president in 2009 after defeating ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in a run-off election.

In July 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama visited Ghana and proclaimed the country a model for other African countries.

Eighteen months later, Mr. Mills turned the valves at a ceremony marking Ghana's new status as an oil-producing nation. The oil fueled economic growth of more than 16 percent in 2011, though analysts warned that oil production could have harmful effects, as it has in other African countries.

Mr. Mills was born July 21, 1944 in Ekumfi Otuam in Ghana's Central Region.

Before his political career, he was an accomplished scholar receiving both a bachelors and law degree from the University of Ghana, a doctorate from the University of London, and the prestigious Fulbright scholarship to Stanford University in the United States.

Mr. Mills served as Ghana's vice president during the administration of Jerry Rawlings from 1997 to 2000.

He had been nominated by the ruling party to run for president again in an election expected later this year.

The president leaves behind a wife and a son.

First Female US Astronaut Sally Ride Dies at 61

Former U.S. astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died Monday after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 61 years old.

Ride, who earned four degrees, including a doctorate in physics, from Stanford University was part of the first NASA class for astronauts to accept women in 1978.

She joined four male astronauts on the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger in June 1983 and became a hero to young girls across the United States as the first American woman in space.

Ride flew on Challenger again in 1984. She was a member of the panels that investigated the Challenger accident in 1986 and the destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.

She also founded a company whose mission was to motivate girls and young women to pursue careers in science, math and technology.

President Barack Obama issued a statement calling Ride “a national hero and powerful role model” who advocated a greater focus on math and science in U.S. schools.

Revered Authority on Jewish Law Elyashiv Dies at 102

Thousands crowded the streets of Jerusalem Wednesday for the funeral of one of the world's top authorities on Jewish law, Israeli Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.

The rabbi died earlier Wednesday of heart failure at age 102.

The Lithuanian-born Rabbi Elyashiv came to what is now Israel as a child. After retiring as a judge in the rabbinical courts, he dedicated his life to the study of the book of Jewish law and customs known as the Talmud.

He became the preeminent authority on Jewish law. Hundreds of people would line up for hours outside his tiny Jerusalem apartment for advice or to spend just a few moments with the rabbi.

He also led a small ultra-Orthodox party in the Israeli parliament.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country has lost an unmatched authority who left a deep mark on the Israeli people.

Country Music Pioneer Kitty Wells Dies at 92

American singer Kitty Wells, whom fans and critics call the first female country music superstar, has died at 92 following a stroke.

Wells rose to the top of the country music charts at a time when nearly every big name in the genre was a man. She was the first female country soloist to sing about such themes as heartbreak and cheating spouses.

Wells' 1952 record of It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels was the first country music recording by a woman to reach number one.

Fans named Wells the top female country music artist from 1953 to 1968. She continued performing into her 80s.

Oscar-Winning Film and Stage Actress Celeste Holm Dies at 95

Academy-award winning actress Celeste Holm, whose career in the theater, movies and television spanned 60 years, has died in New York at age 95.

Holm first won national attention in the original cast of the Broadway favorite Oklahoma in 1943. Five years later, she took home an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for the film Gentleman's Agreement, a damning look at anti-Semitism.

Holm was nominated two more times for the Academy Award, and she co-starred with Frank Sinatra in the classic films High Society and The Tender Trap.

Holm was a hard-working fundraiser for the arts and theater, but a bitter legal fight with her sons over her wealth cost her most of her savings.

Oscar-Winning Actor Ernest Borgnine Dies at 95

Hollywood actor Ernest Borgnine, who could play heartbreaking sensitive roles as easily as he portrayed hulking bullies, has died at 95 in a Los Angeles hospital.

Borgnine entered dramatic school after serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He nearly gave up acting after failing to make much money with small parts on the stage and early television in New York.

After moving to Hollywood, Borgnine won attention for his role as Fatso Judson — the mean-spirited sergeant who beat Frank Sinatra to death in the film From Here to Eternity.

But Borgnine's portrayal of Marty, a sad lonely and homely butcher pestered by his worried mother, won him the 1955 Academy Award for Best Actor and made him a major film star.

Borgnine also won millions of fans as star of the popular television comedy series McHale's Navy from 1962 until 1966, and the 1980s adventure series Airwolf.

US TV Legend Andy Griffith Dead at 86

American actor Andy Griffith, unforgettable as the small-town sheriff in the 1960s television series The Andy Griffith Show, has died at the age of 86.

The sheriff of Dare County, North Carolina issued a statement from Griffith's family confirming his death Tuesday on Roanoke Island.

The North Carolina born Griffith began his career as a high school music teacher. He later moved to New York, where he recorded a comedy monologue of a country boy describing his first football game. The record became a hit and led to roles on Broadway and the movies.

He used his southern hometown as the model for the 1960 television comedy series, The Andy Griffith Show. Griffith played Sheriff Andy Taylor — an earthy small town officer raising his son with the help of his matronly Aunt Bee and his nervous excitable deputy Barney Fife, who was only allowed to carry an unloaded gun.

At a time of student protests, assassinations, and racial tension, the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina was an oasis of sanity and simplicity for millions of U.S. television viewers.

The town's only criminal was Otis, the drunk who let himself in and out of jail with a key provided by the sheriff. When a true lawbreaker ventured into Mayberry, Sheriff Taylor always outwitted him with common sense and one of Aunt Bee's picnic baskets.

The Andy Griffith Show ended its run in 1968 when it was the top-rated American television show. But it has been rerun ever since, making fans out of later generations.

Griffith later played another popular TV character, Matlock, a country-bred Harvard-educated lawyer. That series ran from 1986 until 1997.

Griffith was also a Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer. Former President George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.

President Barack Obama calls Griffith a performer of extraordinary talent whose characters warmed the hearts of Americans everywhere.