African Musician Ali Farka Toure Dies

Two-time Grammy Award winner Ali Farka Toure, one of Africa's most famous performers, died Tuesday in his native Mali after a long illness. He was in his late 60s. Mali's Culture Ministry said Toure died at his home in the capital, Bamako, after a long struggle with an unidentified illness. He was known to be battling cancer.

Toure, one of the original progenitors of a genre known as Mail Blues, played a traditional Malian stringed instrument called the gurke. He was best-known overseas for his 1995 collaboration with American guitarist Ry Cooder on "Talking Timbuktu," which netted him his first of two Grammys.