Heath Ledger's daughter to inherit $16M

People

Heath Ledger's 2-year-old daughter, Matilda Rose, is to inherit the late actor's entire $16.3 million estate, Heath's dad, Kim Ledger, has confirmed. Heath Ledger, who died from a prescription-drug overdose in January at the age of 28, wrote a will before his daughter's birth leaving everything to his parents and three sisters. But Kim Ledger tells Australia's The Sunday Times that the family have given it all to Matilda. Meanwhile, Minnesota-based ReliaStar Life Insurance has balked at paying Matilda her father's $10 million policy on the grounds that he committed suicide. The New York Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death accidental.

For the record

World's biggest puzzle

Some 15,000 enthusiasts have assembled the world's largest jigsaw puzzle in the southern German town of Ravensburg, Europe's biggest puzzle maker said. Puzzle maker Ravensburger said 1,141,800 pieces were put together in only five hours Sunday, forming a nearly 6,500-square foot puzzle that nearly covered the town square. A notary has submitted the result to the Guinness World Records. The current record is a 212,323-piece puzzle measuring some 35 feet by 38 feet put together in Singapore in 2002.

Publishing

Stranger than fiction

The U.S. publisher of a controversial novel about the Prophet Muhammad closed its offices Monday as a "precautionary action" but emphasized that no threats had been received and that "The Jewel of Medina" would be released Oct. 15 as planned. Beaufort Books took on Spokane author Sherry Jones' novel after it was dropped by Random House over security concerns. In London, police said they arrested three men Saturday on suspicion of terror links, relating to a fire at the home and office of publisher Martin Ring, whose Gibbon Square announced earlier this month that it would issue "The Jewel of Medina," a fictionalized version of Muhammad and his child bride, Asia.

Passages

Konstantin Pavlov, 75, a poet and screenwriter who became one of Bulgaria's most prominent intellectuals with his rare defiance of the country's communist regime, died Sunday after a long illness.

Today in History

1846: Boston dentist William Morton used ether as an anesthetic for the first time as he extracted an ulcerated tooth from merchant Eben Frost.

1955: Actor James Dean, 24, was killed in a two-car collision near Cholame, Calif.

1998: Both President Clinton and Republicans claimed credit for news that the government would run a surplus of about $70 billion in the current fiscal year.

Today's Birthdays

Author Elie Wiesel, 80. Actress Angie Dickinson, 77. Singer Johnny Mathis, 73. Singer Marilyn McCoo, 65. Actor Vondie Curtis-Hall, 52. Actress Fran Drescher, 51. Actor Ashley Hamilton, 34. Tennis player Martina Hingis, 28.

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