A royal chauffeur allowed two undercover journalists into Buckingham Palace for cash and let one of them sit in Queen Elizabeth II’s Bentley car, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The News of the World tabloid said the security breach took place after two of its journalists, posing as wealthy businessmen from the Middle East, paid a chauffeur £1,000 (US$1,600).
They got into the palace without being searched or checked, despite walking right past a uniformed police officer in a security booth, the paper reported.
A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said: “Any security matter is taken very seriously and we will look into these allegations.”
WORRIES
London’s Metropolitan Police also said they were worried by the report.
“We are naturally concerned about the issues raised by this story and are liaising with palace officials about their staff security arrangements,” Scotland Yard said in a statement.
The queen was staying at Buckingham Palace at the time of the alleged breach on Friday, the paper said.
As well as the Bentley, which is used for state occasions, the chauffeur also showed the reporters the queen’s personal car — a 2005 V8 Daimler with a floor which has been specially raised to accommodate her short legs, it was reported.
They also saw Princess Anne’s green Bentley on their visit.
PRECEDENT
The incident would not be the first time security at Buckingham Palace and other royal palaces has been violated in recent years.
In 2003, a journalist from the Daily Mirror newspaper got a job as a footman at Buckingham Palace — the monarch’s London residence — with a false reference.
This allowed him access to the queen’s breakfast table and the bedroom where then-US president George W. Bush and his wife were due to stay on an imminent state visit.
At Windsor Palace — the queen’s favorite home, just west of London — two journalists from the Sun newspaper claimed to have smuggled a fake bomb past security days before the wedding of Prince Charles and wife Camilla in the town in 2004.
And in 2003, Aaron Barschak, a comedian dressed as al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, gatecrashed Prince William’s 21st birthday party at Windsor.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
RSS