Mr. Sheehan’s perceptive, literate dispatches from the Middle East, Africa and Central America explored the political machinations of the powerful and the misery of the powerless.

Mr. Loomis extended the reach and defended the independence of the Voice of America in the late 1950s and early 1960s before resigning in a clash with President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Mr. Kavaja was a Yugoslav-born anti-Communist whose hatred for the dictator Tito spurred him to a career of violent subversion and terrorism.

Mr. Rakowski was for decades the editor of an influential weekly newspaper and was known for his carefully calibrated criticism of the Communist government.

Mr. Li had been a leading member of the group of conservative veteran cadres who supported the military assault on the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Ms. Makeba was a South African singer whose voice stirred hopes of freedom in her own country even though her music was formally banned by the apartheid authorities she struggled against.

Ms. Makeba was a South African singer whose voice stirred hopes of freedom in her own country even though her music was formally banned by the apartheid authorities she struggled against.

Mr. Leccisi became known as “the Body Snatcher” in 1946 when he and two followers stole the corpse of the fascist dictator Mussolini from a pauper’s grave.

Mr. Mirghani, a former president of Sudan, is perhaps best remembered for a peace agreement he signed in Ethiopia in 1988.

Mr. Piccard was a scientist and underwater explorer who plunged deeper beneath the ocean than any other man.