Britain's royal coroner asked police to look into theories a conspiracy led to the car crash in Paris that killed Princess Diana and boyfriend Dodi Fayed, saying on Tuesday he was obliged "to separate fact from fiction and speculation."
Coroner Michael Burgess' request -- part of the opening of official inquests into their 1997 deaths -- came as a tabloid newspaper reported Diana believed Prince Charles was plotting to kill her by staging a car accident. Fayed's father said he suspects not only Charles, but also his father, Prince Philip.
A French investigation found the crash was an accident and that driver Henri Paul, who also died, had been drinking. But more sinister explanations for the crash abound, and Burgess said he asked police to investigate whether he should take them up in his inquests.
"I'm aware that there is speculation that these deaths were not the result of a sad but relatively straightforward road traffic accident in Paris," Burgess said.
"I have asked the Metropolitan Police Commissioner [Sir John Stevens] to make inquiries. The results of these inquiries will help me to decide whether such matters will fall within the scope of the investigation carried out at the inquests," he said.
The coroner immediately adjourned his long-awaited inquiry -- Britain's first investigation of the crash -- for at least a year to 15 months, saying he needs that time to review evidence gathered by French authorities and conduct his own investigations.
He acknowledged that "it would have been desirable for these inquests to have been heard and completed long ago." That was impossible because he must rely heavily on French evidence that will not be available to him until all legal proceedings connected to the case there are finished, he said.
On Tuesday, the Daily Mirror tabloid reported that Diana, in a letter to her butler Paul Burrell, claimed her ex-husband "is planning `an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry" his longtime girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles.
Charles' office said it would not comment on the charge. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, told Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends that the report was "disgraceful" and "absolutely outrageous."
The paper reported the letter in October last year but did not originally identify Charles as the person Diana suspected.
Egyptian-born billionaire Mohammed al Fayed, Dodi Fayed's father, reiterated his belief that Diana, 36, and Dodi, 42, were victims of a plot and said he thought Charles and his father, Prince Philip, were involved.
"It's absolute black and white, horrendous murder," al Fayed told reporters at the formal opening of the separate inquest into his son's death in Reigate, outside London, hours after Burgess opened the Diana inquiry.
"It's the head of the royal family and I suspect not only Prince Charles" but also Queen Elizabeth's husband, Philip, whom he described as "racist at the core." Al Fayed has in the past said Philip plotted against Diana because the royal family objected to her relationship with a Muslim.
The palace dismisses such charges.
Al Fayed has campaigned for a full public inquiry into the deaths.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
RSS