LOS ANGELES (AP) – Keiiti Aki, founder of the Southern California Earthquake Center and one of the world’s leading seismologists, died May 17 from injuries suffered in a fall. He was 75.

The retired University of Southern California professor fell in the street May 13 while returning from the grocery store on the island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, his wife, Valerie Ferrazzani, told The Associated Press Friday in a telephone interview from the island.

During a 50-year career, Aki analyzed seismic waves and studied earthquake prediction, as well as the processes that drive quakes and volcanic activity.

In 1991, he founded the federally funded earthquake center to study Southern California earthquakes and coordinate seismic research.

More than 50 institutions from around the world are partners.

Aki taught at the University of Tokyo and then for 18 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to USC in 1984. He retired in 2000 but since 1995 had lived on La Reunion, where he researched how to predict volcanic eruptions on the island, which has an active volcano.

Aki held many high academic honors, including medals from the American Geophysical Union and the European Geosciences Union.

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Eddie Albert

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Eddie Albert, whose lighthearted portrayals made him a favorite in movies and television for more than 50 years, died of pneumonia Thursday at his home, in the presence of his longtime caregivers and son Albert, a family friend said Friday. He was 99.

Albert achieved his greatest fame on television’s “Green Acres” as Oliver Douglas, a New York lawyer who settles in a rural town with his glamorous wife, played by Eva Gabor. He was nominated for Academy Awards as supporting actor in “Roman Holiday” (1953) and “The Heartbreak Kid” (1972).

The actor moved smoothly from the Broadway stage to movies to television. Besides his 1965-1971 run in “Green Acres,” he costarred on TV with Robert Wagner in “Switch” from 1975 to 1978 and was a semi-regular on “Falcon Crest” in 1988.

He was a tireless conservationist, crusading for endangered species, healthful food, cleanup of Santa Monica Bay pollution and other causes.

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Ruth Laredo

NEW YORK (AP) – Ruth Laredo, the elegant pianist who recorded the entire solo works of Rachmaninoff and the sonatas of Scriabin, died Wednesday in her apartment, her manager said. She was 67.

Laredo, who suffered from ovarian cancer, last performed May 6 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Detroit-born Laredo graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1960. Over the years, she played at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and the White House, playing at solo recitals and with orchestras and chamber music groups.

For the past several years, she gave well-received concerts at the Metropolitan Museum. At those events, called “Concerts with Commentary,” she would not only play the works of a range of composers, but discuss them with the audience. The series was so popular that she started holding them around the country.

She was particularly known for two sets of recordings, the complete solo works of Rachmaninoff and the piano sonatas of Scriabin, both recorded in the 1970s and re-issued in recent years. Laredo also recorded works by Ravel, Brahms, Chopin, and Beethoven, among others, and was nominated for a Grammy award three times.

Her passion for music extended beyond the keyboard. She contributed to “Piano Today” magazine and National Public Radio, wrote a book on becoming a musician and worked as editor of the complete “Rachmaninoff Preludes for Piano.”

AP-ES-05-27-05 2139EDT