British newspapers let out a collective sigh of relief yesterday after the inquest into the death of Princess Diana returned a verdict, and called for her to finally be left to rest in peace.
The 11-member jury returned verdicts of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving, blaming chauffeur Henri Paul and paparazzi photographers pursuing her car at high speed.
Jurors added that the fact that Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed were not wearing seatbelts contributed to their deaths.
The Guardian wrote in its editorial that the jury had found that “there was no conspiracy involving the Duke of Edinburgh, MI6 [British intelligence service], Mossad, visitors from Mars or the man on the grassy knoll ... That’s it. The end. Enough. Let it be.”
“The inquest has been a travesty of what should have been a solemn procedure. Thank God it is over. Let us hope we never have to put up with anything like it again,” it said.
During the six-month inquest at London’s High Court, Dodi’s father Mohamed Al Fayed alleged that the couple were killed in an establishment plot involving senior royals including Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip, to prevent her marrying a Muslim.
Several newspapers urged Al Fayed to drop his allegations and accept the verdict of the inquest.
“Mohamed Fayed was understandably grief-stricken by the loss of his son,” the Daily Telegraph’s editorial read.
“But his efforts in the intervening years to sully the reputations of the royal family, the security and intelligence services, the Metropolitan Police, the British judicial system, sundry diplomats and, indeed, anyone who did not share his paranoid convictions, have long since destroyed any residual sympathy for his predicament.”
“Mr Fayed has nowhere else to go ... This must stop here: let the victims of this tragic affair now rest in peace,” it continued.
The Independent’s editorial said “it is to be hoped that this verdict will, at the very least, bring an end to the unedifying soap opera that has accompanied this inquest.”
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