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Norway’s future King is one of the speakers at this week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Crown Prince Haakon was there to talk about his involvement with Global Dignity, a non-for-profit organization which is aimed at helping to solve world problems, while connecting with every person’s common need for respect and dignity. 
Other world leaders involved in Global Dignity include Professor Pekka Himanen, a leading philosopher and author, and “silver rights” entrepreneur John Bryant. Also getting into the organization is South African Nobel Laureate, Bishop Desmond Tutu.
The group has been speaking not only at the Forum, but also at schools in the surrounding area. There, they have been discussing with students on the importance of people living their lives with dignity.
Desmond Tutu appears to enjoy the company of Haakon.
“I and many more leaders were like him. He is fantastic, is he not?” Desmond Tutu said on his way out from school Aulaen where the two, a few hundred students and celebrities such as Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel had told each other stories about human dignity.
The starting point was an initiative that the Crown Prince has to lead, how he travels around and asks young people to formulate what they believe the world is and how they can help others.
“I am very fond of him, and I think many are. He could only be new to be a prince. It is nothing other than the heart that drives him, “said Tutu, before he adds:
“What kind of water you have in Norway which makes that he be like that?”
Inside the hall, a stone from the security zone around the center to meet the world economic forum, the Crown Prince was introduced as “not only a Prince, but also a nice and cool guy.”
To learn more about Global Dignity, click here
 The future Queen of Sweden is in the Italian territory of Sicily for a few days. She is there mainly to receive recognition for her work with dyslexia and disabled people.
Crown Princess Victoria arrived Thursday, and immediately went on tour of the various ancient sites on the island. One of them was the Greek theater in Taormina. There, the Crown Princess took out her trusty camera and shot away at the ruins.
Friday, Victoria was in Messina, where she received he International Prize Bonino 2009 for her work with dyslexia issues. The Princess herself suffers from the reading disability, and has been very open about it.
Later, she went on to Instituto Don Orione, a center for disabled children in Messina. She was greeted by Father Don Felice, the founder of the center. Victoria met with youths and their families.
In her speech, Victoria spoke only English, but ended it with a “grazie.”
On Saturday, the Princess continued her tour of Sicily, this time visiting the volcano at Etna.
Crown Prince Felipe and Crown Princess Letizia inaugurated the International Tourism Fair in Madrid on Wednesday. The fair (FITUR) showcases thousands of companies from around the world, and gives visitors the chance to visit many countries without ever leaving Madrid.
The fair has been a success so far, despite the global economic crisis.
The fair hosts 11,137 firms, nine less than the 28th FITUR and half are Spanish, within an area of 87,520 sq. meters (17,000 meters smaller as well).
The above is owed to the absence of big Spanish firms like Iberia, Globalia and Iberojet, despite new comers Gabon, Bosnia Herzegovina, Nigeria, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Botswana, Reunion Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
The agenda involves business meetings, forums and conferences, including tourist municipalities: competition threatened by financial distress and research methods and techniques.
There is a even a booth dedicated to bringing the Summer Olympics to Madrid in 2016.
Felipe and Letizia left with their hands full of gifts and ears of pampered flattering. And that in its journey from one point to another, crossed with a myriad of fans who greeted them and provided them with many expressions of affection.
They dress well and buy couture. So why wouldn’t a royal design clothes as well?
That is what Italy’s Prince Emmanuel Filiberto of Savoy intends to do. He plans to launch a clothing line called “Prince of Italy” and the line will bear his family’s bear of arms.
“I have always been very demanding about clothes and I told myself I would like to wear the clothing I created,” the 36 year old royal told the weekly gossip Di Piu.
The line will bear the “Made in Italy,” stamp — specifically in the southern city of Bari — to “showcase Italian excellency.”
His summer collection will be on sale in shops soon, he said, adding the clothes would be fashioned by designer Raimondo Ciofani, but “under my instructions and according to my style.”
Prince Emmanuel, the grandson of Italy’s last monarch King Victor Emmanuel III, is just another royal who bitten by the fashion bug. Crown Princess Marie Chantal of Greece has her own high fashion line for children, plus a boutique for those clothes that bears her name.
Italy’s royal family were deposed after World War II due to Victor Emmanuel’s ties to dictator Benito Mussolini. Male members of the house of Savoy were prohibited from setting foot in Italy until 2003.
The reigning Prince of Monaco celebrated his country’s patron saint, Devote. Prince Albert precided over the festivities that began Tuesday night, and ended Wednesday.
At 7pm Tuesday, the Prince performed the ritual of setting on fire a fishing boat in front of Eglise Sainte Devote. It done in memory of the burning of Florentine captain Antinope’s ship on the beach of Monaco, when he was caught after stealing the relics of Sainte Devote. This has been a tradition since Prince Louis II began it in 1924.
The burning of the boat was followed by fireworks.
The next day, Prince Albert oversaw the welcoming of the relics of Sainte Devote at the church, proceeded by a procession through the streets of Monaco.
Sainte Devote has been the patron saint of not only Monaco, but its ruling family, the Grimaldi’s, since the 16th century. It is said during a war between Monaco and Genoa, that Sainte Devote appeared to the princely family and promised them protection and victory. Six months later, the prophecy came true.
To learn more about Sainte Devote and her following in Monaco, click here
A tree once planted by Marie Antoinette at Versailles has fallen over.
The 223 year old high purple beech toppled after a devastating wind storm pounded France this week.
“Imagine how an old tree in Versailles is vulnerable to the wind,” gardener Alain Baraton told AP Television News on Tuesday. “That was all it took to cause the tree to fall and crash.”
The tree’s collapse, which also exhumed a jumble of roots, earth and grass, was the latest blow to the ex-queen’s Versailles vegetation after her most cherished oak tree died in a 2003 heat wave.
The beech, a facus sylvatica purpura, featured its own plaque showing that it was planted in 1786. A decade ago, it had been damaged but survived an even more destructive storm that knocked down thousands of trees at Versailles.
21 people have been killed by the deadly wind storms in both France and Spain.
As for the tree, well, it is to be treated like all trees. It will be cut up and sent to paper makers.
After five years and many ups and downs together, it appears that Prince Harry and Chelsy Davy have parted. The British media – from the News of the World to the BBC – are flooded with the story. The Daily Mail is even reporting that Ms. Davy has changed her Facebook status to “single.” 
It is being reported that the split was amicable, and came over a discussion that went on for several days.
The pair had had a close yet tumultuous relationship, marked by long distance to loving gestures caught by photographers to Harry’s flirtatious behavior towards other women that threatened the relationship.
The two first met in 2004 when Chelsy was a 19-year-old pupil at the exclusive Cheltenham Ladies College, close to Prince Charles’s Highgrove estate.
Prince Harry was reportedly smitten early on. In interviews, he had trouble holding back his feelings for Chelsy.
“I would love to tell everyone how amazing she is but once I start talking about that, I have left myself open,” he once said.
As much as in love the two were, the relationship was difficult from the beginning. Chelsy was based in South Africa where she attended Cape Town University, while Harry was training at Sandhurst in the UK. The couple would only meet every few months for romantic trips.
 At the same time, Chelsy was considered to be a controversial first serious girlfriend for the third in line to the throne. Her father, millionaire safari operator Charles, ran a game farm in Zimbabwe with reportedly close ties to dictator Robert Mugabe’s regime.
She also seemed unfit to be a royal girlfriend. Her love of drinking and partying were well documented by the British press, and her fashion style was questioned.
Prince Harry didn’t seem to be an ideal boyfriend at times. He visited a strip club, and had to repeatedly deny cheating on Chelsy.
Then in June 2007 the Prince, at the time a second lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry, was pictured being kissed by two bar girls while on Army training in Canada.
There were further embarrassing reports that he had invited a third barmaid back to his rented house and ‘cavorted’ in front of her in a blue and orange sarong before whipping off his boxer shorts and spanking her.
But the pair lasted. Even Prince William once told a reporter that his brother was “madly in love.”
The couple often were photographed in public. They were seen kissing at a sporting event in the Carribean, leaving night clubs, and being lovey-dovey during the Concert for Diana in July 2007.
Chelsy was even Harry’s guest at the wedding for his cousin, Princess Anne’s son Peter Philips in May 2008. She was also present when Harry earned a medal for his service in Afghanistan last year.
In 2007, Chelsy moved to the UK to study law at Leeds University to study law, and to be closer to her boyfriend. But homesickness and Harry’s military training proved to be struggle for her and Harry.
It is perhaps the military that drove the two apart. The Prince, promoted to lieutenant last April after a ten-week tour of Afghanistan, was also said to be worried about the strains on the relationship after recently starting an arduous 18-month training course with the Army Air Corps.
A military source told The Mail, “Harry’s training is going to be seriously demanding and he has been told there will be little time for girlfriends and socializing.
“He is living in a modest room with a single bed and won’t be allowed to drink from Monday to Friday, and he will need to knuckle down.”
Last night a senior Royal source confirmed the couple had separated, just three weeks after they returned from a romantic break in Mauritius.
The King of Spain is on a three day state visit to Libya. A few hours ago, he was greeted by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as he arrived in Tripoli with about a dozen Spanish business leaders. 
Libya has been welcoming many European leaders and business people as of late, after years of sanctions and diplomatic isolation. This is due to Libya renouncing banned weapons programmes and agreeing to settle compensation claims for bombings and attacks for which it was blamed by the West.
Spain maintained ties to Libya despite the global rejection. It is expected Spain will help the North African country in its reconstruction. In fact, joint business between the two nations is expected to amount to over $17 billion.
New deals might be announced during the king’s trip, his first official visit to Libya in a 33-year reign, a Spanish foreign ministry spokesman said. Gaddafi visited Spain in 2007.
“The first priority is to get to know each other better and decide the areas where Spain can invest,” the spokesman said. “But we also expect some matters to be settled right now.”
The Spanish king was due to dine with Gaddafi at the Libyan leader’s official residence in Tripoli later on Friday. He was accompanied by executives of 15 Spanish companies involved in oil and gas, environment and construction.
Crown Prince Philippe and Crown Princess Mathilde visited a day care center in Dendermonde today – but not just to make a personal appearance. They were there to meet with the police and medical personal involved in the stabbing attack at this day care center, that left three dead, and 12 wounded – ten of them children. 
According to reports, a red haired man wearing black and white makeup went on a rampage at the Zonnebloem center. He killed two young children and a female worker.
“An act of great brutality has happened here against our weakest citizens,” said mayor Buyse Piet. “The whole city is united in support for the parents who are in deep grief.”
Prosecutor Christian Du Four said the attacker rode his bike up to the Fabeltjesland center about 10 a.m., entered and immediately began slashing a knife around. The dead included two children — ranging in age up to 3 — and a woman working in the center.
In the mayhem that ensued, the attacker simply walked out and got back on his bicycle before being arrested in a nearby supermarket shortly afterward, Du Four said.
Sobbing parents rushed to the scene and to nearby hospitals. Shocked rescue workers spoke of finding crying, bleeding toddlers scattered inside the center. Medical workers at six hospitals sprung into action, performing emergency operations to save the 10 children and two adults badly wounded in the attack.
 The shocking assault caused panic and outrage in the town 20 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of Brussels, where the day care center sits on a residential street.
“(It’s) something you hear about from America, not here,” said bake shop owner Bie Hoornaert.
Philippe and Mathilde spoke to the police and rescuers at the center. The Crown Princess looked very distraught as she surveyed the scene.
The royal couple are parents to four children, some about the same age of the children at the day care center.
The two are planning to meet with the parents of the wounded and murdered children.
Already, the day care center has become a memorial site, with locals laying down flowers.
Residents told The Associated Press the suspect was a local man with a history of mental illness.
“People are totally in shock,” said Leene Du Bois, a spokeswoman for the regional government of Flanders. “Nobody would have imagined anyone could do so much harm. There is much grief.”
King Abdullah II of Jordan has ordered his government to facilitate the entry and residency of the near half a million Iraqi refugees in his country. 
The King issued instructions for authorities to take “urgent and immediate steps” to allow such rights for the Iraqis as residency permits, the royal court said.
He made the remarks as he presided over a meeting of top officials to discuss moves for easing measures which have been adopted by the Jordanian border authorities over the past months to limit the influx of Iraqis to the Hashemite Kingdom.
Abdullah said he was keen to take all needed steps to ease the movement of the Iraqis, who are welcomed guests and enjoy care and respect upon arrival in the kingdom.
Prime Minister Nadir Dahabi said the government will evaluate the current procedures regarding entry of Iraqis and amend them to remove all obstacles hindering their movement and entry into the kingdom.
Jordan became flooded with Iraqi refugees after the United States and other countries invaded Iraq in 2003.
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