Singer Andy Williams, Star of Records and TV, Dies at 84

American popular singer Andy Williams, known for his easy-going style and friendly demeanor, has died after a year-long fight against bladder cancer.

He was 84 years old.

The Iowa-born crooner began singing with his brothers in church choirs and local radio in the midwestern U.S. before taking their act to Hollywood movies and nightclubs.

Williams went solo in the late 1940s. After struggling to make a name for himself, he began appearing on television in New York, grabbing the attention of record companies.

Williams became a household name in the 1960s with his signature song “Moon River.” He hosted a weekly television variety show, where he appeared with some of the top entertainers in show business. His annual TV Christmas specials were a holiday tradition.

Throughout his 75-year career, Williams earned 18 gold records, three Emmy awards, and opened his own theater in Branson, Missouri, where he performed nightly into his 80s.

Actor Michael Clarke Duncan Dies

Oscar-nominated actor Michael Clarke Duncan has died at the age of 54.

Duncan died Monday in a Los Angeles hospital, nearly two months after suffering a heart attack.

The bulky, deep voiced Duncan was nominated as best supporting actor in his role as a death row inmate with magical powers in the 1999 drama The Green Mile.

Duncan later starred in such films as The Scorpion King, Daredevil, and The Whole Nine Yards.

The Chicago native worked as a ditch digger and celebrity bodyguard before becoming an actor.

(Photo by blackurbanite. Michael Clarke Duncan at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California.)

Korea’s Sun Myung Moon, Founder of Unification Church, Dead at 92

Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church and one of the most prominent Koreans in the world, has died. He was 92 years old.

The Unification Church in South Korea said its founder succumbed to complications from pneumonia on Monday in a church-run hospital east of Seoul.

Reverend Moon's global business empire is worth billions of dollars. In the United States, the church controls the Washington Times newspaper and the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan.

The church, established in 1954, has millions of followers worldwide. In recent decades the church staged a number of mass wedding ceremonies for hundreds of church members whom Moon had selected to marry each other. He usually wore an ornate robe while presiding at such ceremonies, with a crown atop his head.

Unification Church members also have been known for their extreme commitment to the organization – in some cases turning over all their earnings to the church. That church's alleged tactics – using deceptive tactics to recruit followers and keep tight control over their lives – prompted critics to denounce the group as a cult more than a religious sect.

Once a staunch anti-communist, Moon was imprisoned in his native North Korea in the late 1940s. However, he later set aside ideology to do business with North Korea's founder, the late Kim Il Sung. A church-affiliated firm, Pyeonghwa Motors, established a carmaking business in partnership with the North Korean state in 1999.

In recent years, several of Moon's children took on influential leadership roles in the church's sprawling empire, and there have been reports of in-fighting among his descendants, often due to disputes where religious and economic interests diverged.

In 1982, Moon was convicted of tax fraud in the United States and he spent 13 months in a U.S. federal prison.

Moon's followers, popularly known as “Moonies” in the U.S., believe that marriage is central to the Unification Church's mission of uniting the world's Christian denominations.

(Photo: Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han.)

Legendary US Songwriter Hal David Dies at 91

American songwriter Hal David, who with composer Burt Bacharach wrote some of the most memorable music of the the 1960s and 1970s, has died from complications of a stroke.

He was 91 years old.

David teamed up with Bacharach in the late 1950s. Working with singer Dionne Warwick, the Bacharach-David songbook became a soundtrack of American life in the late 1960s. Their hits included Walk on By, Alfie, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, and What Do You Get When You Fall in Love.

The team won Oscars and Grammy awards, wrote soundtracks for films and television, and was in demand by other musical icons, such as Frank Sinatra and The Beatles.

President Barack Obama awarded David and Bacharach The U.S. Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song at a White House ceremony in May.

Late Cardinal Calls Catholic Church '200 Years Out of Date'

The former Archbishop of Milan, a one-time candidate for pope who died Friday, said in his last interview that the Catholic Church is “200 years out of date.”

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini died Friday in Milan at 85 after suffering from Parkinson's disease.

His last interview was published Saturday in Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper, in which he had a regular column.

The cardinal noted that churches are “big and empty” while the church bureaucracy grows and the rituals become “pompous.” He accuses the church of failing to keep up with the times.

Cardinal Martini says the recent child abuse scandal obliges the church to transform itself by admitting mistakes and beginning a radical change, starting with the pope and bishops.

Cardinal Martini was regarded as one of the most progressive voices in the church. He held relatively liberal views on such issues as contraception, celibacy for priests, and abortion.

Vatican liberals pushed the cardinal as a candidate to succeed Pope John Paul in 2005 before the more conservative wing prevailed with Pope Benedict.