Tuesday, March 12, 2013 CYPRUS MAIL
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Britain
Queen misses Commonwealth service THE Queen has been forced to cancel her appearance at a major service celebrating the Commonwealth as she is continuing to recover from her recent bout of gastroenteritis, Buckingham Palace said yesterday . The Queen had been due to attend the Commonwealth Day Observance at London’s Westminster Abbey that will see High Commissioners from across the globe in the congregation and a key-note address from Sir Richard Branson. The Duke of Edinburgh was to be the only senior royal representative, but the Palace said the Queen would attend an evening reception where she would sign the new Commonwealth charter. The monarch spent 24 hours in hospital last week being treated for the illness which leaves sufferers with vomiting and diarrhoea. Buckingham Palace had said on Friday that the Queen would attend yesterday’s service and it was “business as usual”. The 86-year-
BRITAIN TODAY Huhne, ex-wife get 8 months DISGRACED former British energy minister Chris Huhne was jailed for eight months yesterday for lying to police about a speeding offence in a bizarre tale of adultery and revenge that gripped the British public. Huhne’s ex-wife Vicky Pryce, a prominent economist, was also jailed for eight months for her role in the deception. Prior to the scandal, Huhne, 58, had been seen as a potential leader of the Liberal Democrats, junior partners of the Conservatives in Britain’s ruling coalition government. The pair falsely informed police that Vicky Pryce was driving Huhne’s car when it was caught by a speed camera, so he could avoid a driving ban. The incident remained a family secret for years but came back to haunt Huhne after he left Pryce for his mistress, Carina Trimingham, in 2010. Pryce told two newspapers about the 2003 deception in an act of revenge that landed both Huhne and herself in the dock. The estranged pair sat side-by-side in the glasswalled dock during the lengthy sentencing hearing, but did not make eye contact. Trimingham sat in the public gallery in the packed courtroom. Judge Nigel Sweeney told Pryce she had been driven by an “implacable desire for revenge”.
Freeze chaos FREEZING temperatures meant yesterday was on track to be the coldest March day since 1986, forecasters said. The unseasonably cold weather left travellers battling ice and snow, with the South of England being worst hit. Jersey Airport was shut due to snow, and on the roads there were hazardous conditions on many major routes.
old was struck down by the stomach bug just over a week ago and spent last Sunday night at the private King Edward VII’s Hospital in central London before being discharged on Monday. Concerns were raised about the Queen’s general well-being as it was the first time she had been admitted to hospital in almost 10 years. But she left the hospital looking well and cheerful. Her engagements for last week were cancelled, including a brief visit to Rome to meet Italy’s president. A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: “This time last week she was in hospital but she’s in great spirits and apart from this is in good health and will be going to the reception in the evening. It’s just the tail end of the symptoms, her condition has not worsened at all.” The Palace announced the cancellation in a short statement: “The Queen will regrettably no longer attend the Commonwealth Observance at Westminster Abbey today as she continues to re-
cover following her recent illness. The Queen hopes to undertake some of her official engagements planned for the rest of this week.” Despite missing the Westminster Abbey service, the Queen was still set to sign the Commonwealth’s new charter at Marlborough House in her role as head of the family of nations. For the first time it enshrines a number of principles and values, from gender equality to rule of law, in one document which has been agreed by the 54 member states. The words “other grounds” under the human rights topic have been seized upon by gay rights campaigners, with one group claiming the Queen is supporting lesbian and gay issues, while another suggests she has made no commitment to gay equality. The charter states: “We are implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds.”
The Queen cancelled an appearance at Westminster Abbey to attend a service celebrating the Commonwealth
Antibiotic resistance poses a ‘catastrophic’ death risk Strains of TB, gonorrhoea that are nearly untreatable By Kate Kelland ANTIBIOTIC resistance poses a catastrophic threat to medicine and could mean patients having minor surgery risk dying from infections that can no longer be treated, Britain’s top health official said yesterday. Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, said global action is needed to fight antibiotic, or antimicrobial, resistance and fill a drug “discovery void” by researching and developing new medicines to treat emerging, mutating infections. Only a handful of new antibiotics have been developed and brought to market in the past few decades, and it is a race against time to find more, as bacterial infections increasingly evolve into “superbugs” resistant to existing drugs. “Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat. If we don’t act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an
It is a race against time to find more antibiotics to develop and bring to market said England’s chief medical officer Sally Davies yesterday ordinary infection that can’t be treated by antibiotics,” Davies told reporters as she published a report on infectious disease. “And routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection.”
One of the best known superbugs, MRSA, is alone estimated to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States - far more than HIV and AIDS - and a similar number in Europe. And others are spreading. Cases of totally drug resistant tuberculosis have
appeared in recent years and a new wave of “super superbugs” with a mutation called NDM 1, which first emerged in India, has now turned up all over the world, from Britain to New Zealand. Last year the WHO said untreatable superbug
strains of gonorrhoea were spreading across the world. Laura Piddock, a professor of microbiology at Birmingham University and director of the campaign group Antibiotic Action, welcomed Davies’ efforts to raise awareness of the problem. “There are an increasing number of infections for which there are virtually no therapeutic options, and we desperately need new discovery, research and development,” she said. Davies called on governments and organisations across the world, including the World Health Organisation and the G8, to take the threat seriously and work to encourage more innovation and investment into the development of antibiotics. “Over the past two decades there has been a discovery void around antibiotics, meaning diseases have evolved faster than the drugs to treat them,” she said. Davies called for more co-operation between the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries to preserve the existing arsenal of antibiotics, and more focus on developing new ones. Increasing surveillance to keep track of drug-resistant superbugs, prescribing fewer antibiotics and making sure they are only prescribed when needed, and ensuring better hygiene to keep infections to a minimum were equally important, she said.
Heroine of Swedish love story, British-born Princess Lilian, mourned THE British-born Swedish princess whose secret 33-year romance with her royal husband became Sweden’s bestknown love story, died on Sunday at the age of 97, the court said. Princess Lilian was the commoner wife of Prince Bertil, who died in 1997. They met and fell in love in London during World War Two, but had to keep their relationship secret for decades for the sake of the crown and to avoid a constitutional crisis. “It is with sorrow that I have learnt that H.R.H. (Her Royal Highness)
Princess Lilian is dead,” Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said in a statement. The royal court said in a statement that the princess, born Lillian Davies to a working class family in Swansea in August 1915, died peacefully in her sleep in the afternoon at her home in Stockholm. Local media said members of the royal family had managed to make their farewells to Lilian before she died. Lilian, a divorcee, and Prince Bertil had to keep their love secret as Bertil’s elder brother and heir to the throne, Prince Gustaf Adolf, had died in a plane
crash in 1947 while the next brother, Sigvard, waived his right to the throne by marrying a commoner. That left Bertil next in line until his infant nephew, Crown Prince Carl Gustaf came of age. If Prince Bertil had married a commoner he would have had to renounce his right to the throne, probably sparking a constitutional crisis. It was not until after the crown prince became king in 1973, and married a few years later, that Prince Bertil and Lilian could finally get married themselves and appear in public.
Princess Lilian has passed away at the age of 97