LONDON - Britain has come under criticism for inviting the king of Bahrain, whose Gulf state has engaged in a brutal crackdown on political dissent, to a lunch Friday celebrating Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee.
The lunch at Windsor Castle was the largest gathering of foreign royals in Britain since the queen's grandson Prince William was married to Kate Middleton last year. Then, as now, the decision to extend an invitation to members of the Bahraini royal family has angered those who are upset by the deadly violence deployed against demonstrators.
Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa eventually skipped the royal wedding, saying he didn't want the controversy to tarnish the day. But on Friday, Buckingham Palace confirmed that his father, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, attended the queen's lunch, along with some 45 other royal guests. Former Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane said diplomats should have tried to keep Al Khalifa away from the queen, "rather than expose her to having to dine with a despot."
Al Khalifa wasn't the only controversial guest at Windsor Castle. Swaziland's King Mswati, who is accused of living in luxury while his people go hungry, also attended.
A Wallenda plans to cross Niagara FallsNik Wallenda, who has marveled at Niagara Falls since he first visited at age 6, on June 15 plans to walk across the falls on a 2-inch-diameter cable. A national prime-time TV audience will be watching. In explaining why he wants to make the daring walk, he quoted his great-grandfather Karl Wallenda, who said, "Life is on the wire, and everything else is just waiting." Karl Wallenda later died, in 1978, after falling from a tightrope in San Juan, Puerto Rico. But Nik Wallenda completed that same walk and now professes confidence in his ability to cross the falls. A seventh-generation stuntman and scion of the Flying Wallendas family of circus performers, Wallenda, 33, won permission to walk across the falls after waging a binational lobbying campaign.
NOTED: Doug Dillard, who played with his brothers in the bluegrass group the Dillards, performed as a solo artist and collaborated with numerous other country, bluegrass, rock and pop musicians, died Wednesday at 75.
