National Obituaries

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Celebrated actor Valerie Mahaffey, whose stage, film and television work ranged from Shakespeare to the hit 1990s series “Northern Exposure,” died at age 71 after a battle with cancer, according to a statement released Saturday by

ROME (AP) — French scientist Etienne-Emile Baulieu, best known as the inventor of the abortion pill, died on Friday aged 98 at his home in Paris, his institute said in a statement.

MILAN (AP) — Former Inter Milan club president Ernesto Pellegrini has died on the day the team plays the Champions League final . He was 84. “Pellegrini has left us.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Alf Clausen, the Emmy-winning composer whose music provided essential accompaniment for the animated antics of “The Simpsons” for 27 years, has died.

NEW YORK (AP) — Loretta Swit, who won two Emmy Awards playing Maj. Margaret Houlihan, the demanding head nurse of a behind-the-lines surgical unit during the Korean War on the pioneering hit TV series “M.A.S.H.,” has died. She was 87.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — James Talbot, a former Catholic priest convicted of sexually assaulting boys in Maine and Massachusetts after he was exposed by the investigation highlighted in the movie “Spotlight,” has died. He was 87.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — John Thrasher, a former Florida State University president and longtime state legislator, died on Friday. He was 81.

NEW YORK (AP) — Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City's police commissioner on 9/11 and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, the revered Kenyan man of letters and voice of dissent who in dozens of fiction and nonfiction books traced his country's history from British imperialism to home-ruled tyranny and challenged not only the stories to

ST. JOHN'S — A celebrated Swedish-Canadian archeologist who helped unravel the story of the Vikings at the only acknowledged Norse site in North America has died.