Prince Harry to train as pilot at Barkston Heath
December 31, 2008
The Grantham Journal – December 30, 2008.
Emmanuel Filiberto’s dancing rage
December 31, 2008
M&C – December 31, 2008.
Italy’s Emmanuel Filiberto, the Prince of Venice and Piedmont, has caused outrage by agreeing to take part in the local version of British TV talent show ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
Challenges await new Belgian leader
December 31, 2008
Herman Van Rompuy, left, was sworn in Thursday by King Albert of Belgium. Van Rompuy has a reputation of being a hard-liner. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)
Reuter, The Associated Press – December 30, 2008.
Brussels – A Flemish Christian Democrat, Herman Van Rompuy, was named Belgian prime minister Tuesday to head a revived five-party coalition in a country facing recession and a bank crisis.
Van Rompuy replaces a fellow party member, Yves Leterme, who resigned on Dec. 19 over allegations of political meddling in the bailout of Fortis, the stricken bank.
King Albert “received Mr. Herman Van Rompuy this afternoon at the Chateau de Laeken and named him prime minister,” the palace said in a statement. The swearing-in ceremony followed and the parliamentary vote of confidence will take place Friday.
Tributes to Harold Pinter and Ted Lapidus – Hommages à Monsieur Lapidus et Mister Pinter
December 31, 2008
The Independent – December 26, 2008 – By Arifa Akbar, Arts correspondent
BBC – video, his life in picture
Le Figaro – Harold Pinter, l’homme en colère.
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The Daily Mail - Ted Lapidus, ‘poet of French couture’
The Times - Ted Lapidus: French haute couture designer
Le Figaro – Ted Lapidus, Le «couturier de la rue»
Queen Rania and King Abdullah give blood for Gazans
December 30, 2008
Jordan's Queen Rania donates blood for Palestinians of the Gaza strip, in Amman December 30, 2008.
AFP – December 30, 2008.
Amman – Jordan’s Queen Rania donated blood on Tuesday for Palestinians in the battered Gaza Strip, where more than 350 people have been killed in a deadly four-day Israeli aerial bombardment.
MPs want royal budget details
December 30, 2008
The Copenhagen Post, Denmark – December 19, 2008.
Several MPs are questioning the inclusion of royal expenses in the Defense Ministry budget Opposition party politicians have called for more transparency in the royal family’s finances which totalled 93 million kroner last year. Queen Margrethe II receives a large…
Queen Elizabeth gags royal household staff
December 30, 2008
New Kerala – London – December 28, 2008.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has banned staff from revealing details of their work in a bid to prevent further embarrassing leaks of the goings-on in the royal household, according to reports Sunday.
A Queen at home : Queen Savang Vadhana Museum
December 30, 2008
Queen Savang Vadhana Museum
The Nation – December 30, 2008 – By KUPLUTHAI PUNGKANON
The doors of a royal treasure trove in Bangkok are about to swing open
From the reign of her father King Rama IV to the modernisation of Siam under the reign of her grandson, His Majesty the King, Queen Savang Vadhana witnessed six monarchs of the Chakri Dynasty take the throne.
Artist lands role as the Queen’s official sculptor in Scotland
December 30, 2008
The Herald – December 30, 2008 – By Phil Miller, Arts Correspondent.
Stoddart left ‘thunderstruck’ by lifetime appointment
A SCOTTISH artist has been chosen to be the Queen’s official sculptor in Scotland. Alexander Stoddart, a sculptor known for his neo-classical, monumental approach to his art, is to be Her Majesty’s Sculptor in Ordinary in Scotland, one of only two posts for the arts in the Royal Household in Scotland.
Book claims Aitken is of royal blood
December 30, 2008
Daily Mail – December 30, 2008 – By Richard Kay.
HIS LIFE has had more twists and turns than a penny dreadful: tipped as a future prime minister — he even dated the daughter of one — only for his political career to end in disgrace with a jail sentence for perjury.
But even Jonathan Aitken, whose ability to reinvent himself is matched only by his languid confidence, would surely draw the line at the latest extraordinary claim about him — that he is the illegitimate son of the late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.
