LONDON – Britain's Conservative-led government on Wednesday announced a modest program of legislation to tighten immigration rules, curb welfare expenses, encourage business and invest in infrastructure — in a speech read by Queen Elizabeth, who sat on a gilded throne wearing a crown studded with 3,000 diamonds.
In a ritual she has enacted dozens of times during her 61-year reign, the queen was driven from Buckingham Palace to Parliament in a horse-drawn carriage, escorted by mounted members of the Household Cavalry, part of an annual pageant of pomp and politics centered on the Queen's Speech, a legislative program written by the government but read out by the monarch before a crowd of lawmakers, ermine-robed peers and ceremonial officials in bright garb evoking centuries past. She was flanked by Prince Phillip to her left and Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to her right as she read her speech, which was written on parchment whose ink takes three days to dry – it took the queen only seven minutes to read it.
'Young and Restless' matriarch dies at 84
Jeanne Cooper, the enduring soap opera star who played grande dame Katherine Chancellor for nearly 40 years on "The Young and the Restless," died Wednesday morning in her sleep. She was 84. The family confirmed the death to CBS, according to a network spokeswoman. The cause of death was not immediately available. In a recurring role on "L.A. Law," she played the mother to Arnie, a character played by her son, actor Corbin Bernsen, and received a 1987 Emmy nomination for best guest actress in a drama. But it was her role on "The Young and the Restless" that made her a TV star intimately familiar to viewers. The actress made an appearance last summer at the Mall of America. Watch the video at www.startribune.com.
'As I Lay Dying' singer arrested: The lead singer of the Grammy-nominated metal band As I Lay Dying was in jail Wednesday in Southern California on suspicion he tried to hire an undercover detective to kill his estranged wife. Tim Lambesis, 32, was stopped by police while shopping in Oceanside, five days after detectives received information that the singer had solicited someone to kill his wife, who lives in the nearby beach town of Encinitas, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. The department would give no further details on the investigation. A man who answered the phone at a number listed in the singer's name in Del Mar said the family was not commenting at this time. Lambesis is to be arraigned on Thursday in Vista.
NEWS SERVICES
