Britain reflected on Saturday on the memorial service marking 10 years since the death of Diana, princess of Wales, and its calls for her to be allowed to rest in peace at last.
"Let it end here," said the Bishop of London Richard Chartres, in a plea for the wrangling over her tragic death in a Paris car crash at the age of 36 to finally come to a halt.
"Let this service mark the point at which we let her rest in peace and dwell on her memory with thanksgiving and compassion," Chartres said in Friday's service in words that seemed to strike a chord.
Newspapers generally agreed with the bishop's sentiments, an attempt to draw a line under the episode in 1997 which sent a thunderbolt through British society, not to mention the royal family.
The press also had high praise for Diana's son Prince Harry as it reflected on his maturity. The young army officer made a touching speech about her, a decade on from being the heartbroken 12-year-old boy burdened with the awful task of walking behind his mother's coffin as the world watched on.
The memorial service, involving 500 guests at the Guards Chapel in central London, was organized by Harry, 22, and his elder brother, Prince William, 25, exactly 10 years to the day since their mother died.
"It is not an exaggeration to say that the service ... will have healed decade-old wounds," said The Daily Telegraph in its editorial.
The Daily Mail said: "It is time to let go," while The Sun said "a loud `Amen'" to Chartres' plea.
Both that tabloid and the Daily Express praised Harry as a "fine young man" who was a living tribute to Diana's qualities as a mother.
In his heartfelt address, Harry voiced the loss he and his brother still feel as he called Diana "the best mother in the world."
"We would say that, wouldn't we? But we miss her," he said.
He explained: "William and I can separate life into two parts."
"There were those years when we were blessed by the physical presence beside us of both our mother and father and then there are the 10 years since our mother's death," he said.
The service was attended by their father Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Diana's two sisters and brother, plus her friends like pop star Sir Elton John.
It was the main event to commemorate the anniversary, although a crowd of her supporters also gathered outside London's Kensington Palace, her former home, to pay their own tribute.
Harry said his mother would "always be remembered for her amazing public work."
He concluded his speech by saying: "She made us and so many other people happy -- may this be the way that she is remembered."
It was another attempt to put a stop to the swirl of conspiracy theories, focus on her death and wrangling over her legacy.
Members of the public were not admitted, but hundreds gathered outside the chapel to listen to the service through loudspeakers. Harry's address earned applause and reduced many of them to tears.
William read a Bible passage, while Diana's sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale quoted from a poem.
Conspicuous by their absence were Charles's second wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall -- described by Diana as the third person in her marriage after a long-term affair with Charles -- and Mohamed Al Fayed, father of the princess's boyfriend Dodi Fayed who also died in the crash.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS