LONDON
British actor Postlethwaite confirmed dead at age 64

Pete Postlethwaite, the Oscar-nominated character actor with the craggy, timeworn face, has died.

Postlethwaite’s death at age 64 was confirmed Monday by Andrew Richardson, a longtime friend and journalist who documented the actor’s fight against cancer. Richardson said the actor died Sunday.

At 24, Postlethwaite left teaching to train at the Bristol Old Vic theater. His was a subtle talent, marked by an ability to completely inhabit a role, to convey a deep sense of burden with a glance or a shrug.

He had a powerful presence and authenticity on screen and on stage.

Director Steven Spielberg, who used Postlethwaite twice, called him “probably the best actor in the world.”

Postlethwaite was part of a small coterie of British actors who came up together through the theater and found a measure of success in Hollywood.

The group included Daniel Day-Lewis and Emma Thompson, longtime friends who starred with him in “In the Name of the Father,” a 1993 classic that earned Postlethwaite a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role as Day-Lewis’ father.

ATHENS, Greece
Scientists discover evidence of early sea voyage to Crete

Archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be evidence of one of the world’s first sea voyages by human ancestors, the Greek Culture Ministry said Monday.

The ministry said U.S. and Greek experts have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old close to shelters on the island’s south coast.

Crete has been separated from the mainland for about 5 million years, so whoever made the tools must have traveled there by sea – a distance of at least 40 miles. That would upset the current view that human ancestors migrated to Europe from Africa by land alone.

“The results of the survey not only provide evidence of sea voyages in the Mediterranean tens of thousands of years earlier than we were aware of so far, but also change our understanding of early hominids’ cognitive abilities,” the ministry statement said.

The tools were found during a survey of caves and rock shelters near the village of Plakias by archaeologists from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the Culture Ministry. Such rough stone implements are associated with Heidelberg Man and Homo Erectus, extinct precursors of the modern human race, which evolved from Africa about 200,000 years ago.

Senior ministry archaeologist Maria Vlazaki said it was unclear where the hominids had sailed from, or whether the settlements were permanent.

“They may have come from Africa or from the east,” she said. “Future study should help.”

LOS ANGELES
Actress Anne Francis, TV’s ‘Honey West,’ dies at age 80

Actress Anne Francis, who was the love interest in the 1950s science-fiction classic “Forbidden Planet” and later was a sexy private eye in “Honey West” on TV, has died at age 80.

Francis died Sunday at a Santa Barbara, Calif., nursing home, said Bill Guntle, a funeral director at McDermott-Crockett & Associates Mortuary in Santa Barbara.

Francis, who had surgery and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, died of complications of pancreatic cancer, her daughter, Jane Uemura, told the Los Angeles Times.

Francis, a stunningly beautiful blonde with a prominent beauty mark, appeared opposite stars such as Spencer Tracy, Paul Newman, Robert Taylor and Glenn Ford in some of the most popular films of the 1950s.

But “Forbidden Planet” and “Honey West” made her reputation.

“Forbidden Planet” was hailed in Leonard Maltin’s “2006 Movie Guide” as “one of the most ambitious and intelligent films of its genre.”

A science-fiction retelling of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” the 1956 film had Leslie Nielsen and other space travelers visiting a planet where expatriate scientist Walter Pidgeon, his daughter (Francis) and their helper, Robby the Robot, built a settlement.

In “Honey West,” which aired from 1965 to 1966, Francis’ private detective character was a female James Bond: sexy, stylish and as good with martial arts as she was with a gun. She was nominated for an Emmy for the role, which lasted 30 episodes.

“A lot of people speak to me about Honey West,” Francis once recalled. “The character made young women think there was more they could reach for. It encouraged a lot of people.”

DOVER, Del.
Body of military expert found dumped in landfill

The body of a military expert who served in three Republican administrations was found dumped in a landfill over the holiday weekend, and investigators said Monday they do not know who might have killed him.

John Wheeler III, 66, was last seen Dec. 28 on an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington. His body was found three days later, on New Year’s Eve, as a garbage truck emptied its contents at the Cherry Island landfill. His death has been ruled a homicide.

Wheeler, who served in Vietnam, helped lead efforts to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington.

The former Army officer lived in New Castle and worked as a consultant for The Mitre Corporation, a nonprofit based in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va., that operates federally funded research and development centers.

Police have determined that all the stops made Friday by the garbage truck before it arrived at the landfill involved large commercial disposal bins in Newark, several miles from Wheeler’s home.

NEW ORLEANS
FEMA hasn’t tried to recoup improper victim payments

The Federal Emergency Management Agency hasn’t tried to recoup about $643 million in improper payments made to victims of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters in the wake of a judge’s order more than three years ago, according to a government audit issued Monday.

The improper payments have gone uncollected for more than three years because FEMA hasn’t given its final approval to a new process for recovering the money, auditors found in a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office.

The federal agency has distributed more than $7 billion in disaster assistance payments since hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.

An estimated 160,000 applicants received about $643 million in improper payments resulting from fraud, FEMA errors or other mistakes.

In June 2007, a federal judge in New Orleans ordered FEMA to halt its debt collection activities until the agency made certain changes to its collection process.

Government lawyers drafted a new process designed to comply with standards set by DHS, but the audit says FEMA’s chief hasn’t signed off on the plan yet.

A new process for recovering improper payments has been awaiting the approval of FEMA’s administrator since late 2008. Current Administrator Craig Fugate was confirmed by the Senate in May 2009.