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The father of the future Queen of Belgium has died.
Count Patrick d”Udekem d’Acoz passed away at the age of 72. He had been in a Belgian hospital since March, with deteriorating health. 
Count Patrick was the one who gave Mathilde away at her wedding to Crown Prince Philippe in December 1999. At the time, King Albert made Mathilde’s father a Count. His family was already aristocratic, but had no title.
Patrick was married to a Polish aristocrat, Anne Komorowski. They had five children, Mathilde being the oldest.
One of the children, daughter Mary Alix died in a car accident in 1997. It was Crown Prince Philippe who helped Mathilde cope and that led to their marriage.
Count d’Udekem d’Acoz died during a stormy period with his two brothers over inheritance and a building permit.
The Queen of Jordan was among 100 of the world’s most well-known and influential women dining at an ritzy Japanese restaurant Tao, in New York last night. They arrived wearing lovely dresses and ate rich Japanese cuisine throughout the night.
But the women were not just there to socialize or to enjoy the rich life.
They were there to promote the health of expectant mothers in developing countries. The dinner was T for the White Ribbon Alliance and Safe Motherhood, the charity that is committed to promoting maternal health and reducing infant mortality.
Besides Queen Rania being in attendance, there was Sarah Brown, the wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Wendi Deng Murdoch, the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, model activist Elle MacPherson, and – to everyone’s surprise – Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate.
The night was dedicated to a discussion on how to reach the goal of the United Nations Millennium Project: to reduce the worldwide maternal mortality rate 75 percent by the year 2015.
Murdoch told the story of how her own mother died in childbirth, while Queen Rania called maternal morality a taboo subject, “If we cannot improve quality of women’s lives, how about their death?” she asked.
The UN estimates that in 2005, a woman died every minute of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth – more than 500,000 women a year.
Almost all of these women, 99 per cent, live and die in developing countries, the UN says.
Queen Rania of Jordan and Dutch Crown Prince Willem Alexander attended the Clinton Global Initiative in New York this Wednesday, which coincides with the General Assembly meeting taking place at the United Nations.
Both had something to say about the state of the world’s needy.
First, Queen Rania. She is spending a busy four day trip to New York, and this meeting was one of them. She spoke at the opening panel which featured U2 frontman Bono, former Vice President Al Gore, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and others.
The Queen spoke about her efforts to improve education in her country. She mentioned her work has made everyone in Jordan now feel they all have a stake in the education process. She has overseen in Jordan to renovate more than 500 schools in five years. “Education is not just the responsibility of the government,” she said. “It’s everyone’s responsibility.”
With global warming, being a major topic of the panel, Queen Rania was asked whether the Middle East would ever start tackling the issue.
Rania has been documenting her New York trip on Slate.com. Click here to read about it.
Later in the day, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of Holland, who is the Chairperson of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, gave a speech about improving water conditions around the world. He explained solving water and sanitation problems will in turn solve other global issues.
“You cannot really achieve major improvements in education, climate change, health or poverty without factoring in water and sanitation: two vital elements of human health, dignity and development!” said the Prince.
To read more about Willem-Alexander’s speech, click here
The future Queen of Belgium made a visit to the Magellan School in the Malloren/Mallores district of Brussels. 
The school has 400 students of 32 different nationalities.
Princess Mathilde was greeted by the young schoolchildren, who sang a song about how they may fight now and then, but always make up.
There was also a teacher’s conference in which the teachers explained to Mathilde that their job isn’t always easy. Having a large multicultural school can be difficult, and some teachers deal with students who have never been to school in their home countries.
The Magellan School receives extra money from the Belgian government in order to provide a social worker. That social worker negotiates between the school and the parents, whose biggest concern is often not the education of their children but finding the money to feed them.
A recent poll shows a majority of Australians want to remove Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state, and become a republic.
Fifty-two percent support a republic, 40 percent do not and eight percent are undecided, the Herald/Nielsen poll of 1,400 voters showed. 
The poll comes as the government and official opposition are both led by republicans for the first time in the history of this former British colony.
The Queen is Australia’s literal head of state, but she represented by a Governor-General, Quentin Bryce .
Australia’s feelings for a republic are nothing new. In 1999, there was a referendum, which failed, and plans for a republic were shelved.
But now there is a new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who is a staunch republican.
But even he is suggesting to hold off plans for Australia to officially break away from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth until after the Queen passes away.
Opinion polls have shown that if her heir-apparent, Prince Charles, is crowned, support for a republic with an Australian head of state would surge.
“We cannot have a successful referendum on the republic during the queen’s reign,” Turnbull said.
“In ’99, I said if you vote no it means no for a long time, and the next chance will come after the queen’s reign has ended.”
Rumor mill is running high in the French Riviera this week, as it is believed Prince Albert II of Monaco may announce his engagement to girlfriend Charlene Wittstock, sometime this week. 
That according to the French magazine, Pointe de Vue. The glossy publication predicts the 50 year old bachelor will finally marry his 31 year old girlfriend of two years next year. The two have been seen in public at major events, such as the Olympics and Monaco’s Red Cross Ball this past summer. Being seen at high profile events like that show Charlene is more than just a fling to the Monagesque Prince.
However, this is not the first time rumors of an engagement were debunked. There have been numerous reports of a wedding in the process for a long while now, only to be met with silence from the tiny principality.
At the same time, Gala has already made a false prediction: the magazine said Wednesday, September 24th would be the day of the announcement – which of course did not happen. Now, Gala is saying it would be within days instead.
 If Prince Albert marries his South African girlfriend, he will then commit to the duty of producing a legitimate heir to the Monagesque principality. He already is the father of two children, both born out of wedlock. While Albert supports his children financially, he cannot make them his heir. Monagesque law only allows heirs who were born within marriage.
Currently, Monaco’s heir is Albert’s elder sister, Princess Caroline. After her come her three children: Andrea, Charlotte and Pierre Casiraghi.
Prince Albert’s reluctance to settle down and to continue to play the field well into his middle ages has been the source of gossip throughout Europe and the United States. He has dated some of the most famous women in the world, such as supermodel Claudia Schiffer, Angie Everhart and Brooke Shields.
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