Bertram (Jimmy) James, 92, one of the few British prisoners to avoid being executed for joining in the "great escape" from a German prison in World War II, died Jan. 18 at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shrewsbury, in central England, following a brief illness. A funeral was held Thursday.

James was a pilot on a Wellington bomber shot down near Rotterdam in the Netherlands on June 5, 1940, and was captured the next day. Despite attempts to escape, he spent five years as a prisoner of war.

Sent to Stalag Luft III, near Zagan in Poland, in 1943, James joined in plans for a mass escape and was put in charge of dispersing 40 tons of sand taken from one tunnel. On the night of March 24, 1944, James was the 39th man to escape. He caught a train headed toward the Czech border but was recaptured two days later.

The Rev. Marcial Maciel, 87, a Mexican priest who founded the Legionaries of Christ religious order and who became the most prominent Catholic official to be disciplined by the Vatican over sexual abuse allegations, died Wednesday of natural causes in Houston, where he was living, said Javier Bravo, spokesman for the order in Mexico.

Founded six-plus decades ago, the Legionaries became one of the fastest-growing Catholic orders. But Maciel's final years were spent fending off accusations by former seminarians that he had sexually abused them. Church officials have not said whether the accusations were determined to be true. In 2006, the Vatican said he was asked to conduct "a reserved life of prayer and penance, renouncing every public ministry."

ASSOCIATED PRESS