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Spain’s Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia were in Paris Thursday to attend the 7th annual International Congress on Victims of Terrorism. They were there as guests of honor, and Felipe made an opening speech in which he urged for greater efforts to combat terrorism effectively, a phenomenon which he said is not justified by “any idea or belief political project”.
 Click here for more photos at Zimbio.com “No terrorist can escape or hide their responsibility to the law,” said the Spanish heir to the throne, in a speech that alternated between French and English.
“Nobody is entitled to claim the right to take the life of any human being, nor to undermine their integrity or their freedom,” he added.
“The alleged terrorists, kill, injure, kidnap and threaten, to achieve their ends or to impose their ideas in an absolutely unacceptable. As an expression of totalitarianism, hatred, cowardice and intolerance, rejection and deserves our strongest condemnation.”
Prince Felipe also reflected on the victims of 9/11, who were killed in the attacks 10 years ago this week.
“Each of the victims and their families put names and faces to the deep human pain and irreversible and irreparable damage it generates. With them we owe a great debt owed immense solidarity, support and gratitude.”
On Sunday, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Felipe and Letizia took part in a memorial service in Madrid in which they planted 10 American oak trees in memory of those who died that day.
Spain is no stranger to terrorism. It has seen attacks over the years by Basque separatist groups, and in March 2004, Islamic radicals bombed a Madrid train station during rush hour, killing about 200 people.
Source: EFE
Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria began her four day visit to the United Arab Emirates Monday. Her official visit consists of going to four of the seven emirates, meeting with sheikhs, touring medical facilities and promoting Swedish products.
 KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images She started her trip by attending the opening day of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, where she was its keynote speaker.
“I am delighted to once again visit the United Arab Emirates,” Victoria began her speech. “Additionally, to be given the opportunity to take part in the World Future Energy Summit is a great honor for me. I would like to thank His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, for hosting this important Summit.”
The Crown Princess went on to discuss renewable energy and eco-friendly technology in Sweden.
“My country, Sweden has the highest share of renewable energy within the European Union. Both Sweden and Europe have high ambitions to further increase our share of renewable energy by 2020. In the area of green technology and sustainable cities, Sweden has well developed and extensive district heating networks, which can use the local available energy sources such as waste heat and other renewables. Heating may not be the most dire need here in the United Arab Emirates but the same principle may be used in the district cooling networks, which I know are more useful in this region. So one could say, that cooling is a hot issue.
“Furthermore, over the past decades the economy in Sweden has continued to grow. This growth has occurred at the same time as our energy efficiency and share of renewable energy have increased significantly. But nothing happens in isolation — we need to work across national borders. We have many things in common and important lessons to learn from each other. Both success stories and mistakes are of value in this process.”
Victoria then talked about how all members of society need to play a role in creating an environmentally aware community. She even pointed out that such action takes individual responsibility in order to make it happen.
“To be able to meet the long term challenges of climate change and also to address global and regional energy challenges, we need to work closely together,” Victoria said as she closed her speech.
Following her opening of the summit, the Crown Princess then officially opened the Swedish pavilion at the location, and attended a panel with young future energy leaders.
Later on, she visited the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Masdar Institute and inaugurated the Swedish SymbioCity Office at Masdar City. Crown Princess Victoria also opened the new IKEA store on Yas Island.
Tuesday saw her go to Dubai, where she went to the Swedish LEED Platinum certified ESAB facilities in Jebel Ali Free Zone and stopped by the Scandinavian Seaman’s Center.
On Wednesday, Victoria will go to Ajman and visit the Rashid Centre for Diabetes and Research which is working in cooperation with Swedish Global Health Partners.
As for Thursday, Victoria will end her visit by going to the Fujairah emirate and see the EWW-WWF Wadi Wurayah Mountain Protected Area.
It is not known why her husband, Prince Daniel, did not accompany her on this trip.
Sources: Kungehuset.se, Embassy of Sweden Abu Dhabi
At the beginning of this weekend, Spain’s King Juan Carlos was present for the 20th Ibero American Summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina. All Latin American nations, plus Spain, Portugal and Andorra, meet to discuss issues meaningful to each country. This year, the topic was “Education for Social Inclusion”.
 DANIEL GARCIA/AFP/Getty Images But this year’s summit also touch on something more personal for each attendant, particularly Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, who’s husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, died in October of a heart attack.
King Juan Carlos gave his tribute to Kirchner, saying he “put a special emphasis on recovery and progress” and built a more prosperous region and solidarity, and became a human rights defender for freedom and justice. The King also expressed his “sincere gratitude” for the “many expressions of personal friendship and to Spain,” the late president, who said “now occupies a prominent place in the history of Argentina and the whole of Latin America.”
After the two day summit, King Juan Carlos, along with Queen Sofia, will travel to Brazil Sunday to say farewell to President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who has completed his presidency.
Source: ¡Hola!
Last week, several royal women attended a conference in Belgium about the risk European children face while living on the streets. It was set up by Belgian Queen Paola, who is the as Honorary President of the NGO Child Focus, an organization dedicated to finding missing children.
 REUTERS/Thierry Roge For two days – November 17th & 18th – renowned experts on child rights discussed the problem of the disappearance and sexual exploitation of children in different parts of the world. Participants included representatives from all European Union countries as well as members of various NGOs engaged in advocacy for children and international organizations.
The royals in attendance were: Queen Silvia of Sweden, Infanta Cristina of Spain, Britain’s Duchess of Gloucester, and Princesses Mathilde, Astrid and Claire of Belgium.
The non-royals present were: Ms Vike-Freiberga (former president of Latvia), Mrs. Chirac, Ms. Barroso, Mrs. Van Rompuy, Mrs. Tusk (wife of the Polish Prime Minister), Mr Barrot (former Vice-President of the European Commission) and Mr. Flick (former President of the Italian Constitutional Court).
In her speech at the opening of the conference, Queen Paola thanked everyone for coming, saying: “I’m also deeply touched to be joined by several outstanding personalities, who have demonstrated so many times their strong and lasting involvement in the defence of children’s rights. I hope their support will continue to open many doors.
“During these last years, with the help of all of you present here, many concrete projects aimed at fighting all forms of child abuse have been set up in Europe. The single European telephone number is certainly a key achievement, and we can only wish that other Member States will rapidly join the 13 countries where the number is already in operational use. ”
 Mark Renders/Getty Images Switching to French, one of Belgium’s main languages, Paola continued.
“Despite the large number of runaways, very little attention is paid to this issue, so we wanted to treat it in this conference.
“It is a common theme you’ll say, running away adolescents, both go through there, and most come back in 48 hours at home.
“Indeed, nearly 50% of cases handled by Childfocus each year involve runaways. And fortunately, most kids go home, without encountering major problems.
“But among this large number of runaways, many still find themselves in risky situations because they are not home a loving home that welcomes them, because they are victims of bad company on the Internet before their running away, because they are not sufficiently attentive to the dangers.
“Moreover, the ease of communication, open borders, single currency are all factors that increase the pitfalls that await. And the largest group of runaways are between 13 and 15 years!”
Switching to Dutch, the Queen said: “Every year in Belgium between fifteen hundred and two thousand young people who have no other language than their mother tongue. They are often physically and psychologically traumatized by a long journey. Almost half of these young people will disappear within two days back from the reception center and thus on the street.
“This is why the theme of runaways increased surveillance, including at European level. I sincerely hope that these two days some new ideas and contribute to an early European coordination.
After thanking everyone, the conference began. It discussed the statistics of runaway children, which was sent to NGOs and governments. All other findings were sent to the Council of the European Union.
Sources: ¡Hola!, Monarchie.be, The Royal Forums blog
 Hola! Magazine During the past few days, Luxembourg’s Grand Duchess Maria Teresa has been in Barcelona to chair the International Meeting for Peace. Accompanied by her son, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, Maria Teresa has been attending seminars and round tables going over how to obtain peace in the world.
The International Meeting for Peace brings together representatives of various religions and is organized by the San Egidio community under the slogan: “Living a time of crisis. Poor family, family of God.” San Egidio works closely with the Vatican.
Monday’s meeting, which began the three-day conference, held at the Palacio de la Música of Barcelona and focused on the Mideast Peace Process.
For Tuesday, Maria Teresa and Guillaume were at the round table “Secular and Religious Believers, Common Challenges” in which included hundreds of religious leaders.
Among the attendees of the conference were also the presidents of Cyprus and Montenegro, the chief rabbi of Israel, the president of Catalonia, Jose Montilla and the mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu.
Source: ¡Hola!
Monday marked the beginning of the 30th annual International Arab Children’s Congress, taking place in Amman. Started by the late King Hussein in 1980, the Congress seeks to discuss and bring about solutions to global issues young people are facing.
 REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed The King’s widow, Queen Noor, was at the Congress’ opening ceremony which featured Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram, who is UNICEF’s regional goodwill ambassador to the Middle East and North Africa.
Each year, the Congress focuses on a different issue. For 2010, the topic is the environment. During this week, 150 participants from 20 countries, between the ages of 14 and 16 will come up with ways to protect the planet, discuss how harming the environment harms its inhabitants and talk about alternative energy.
“[Environment] is a topic of critical importance to many of our countries, given the fragile nature of our geographies, the chronic shortage of water in many regions, and increasing population pressures,” Queen Noor said in a statement issued by the King Hussein Foundation’s National Center for Culture and Arts (NCCA)
“The goal of the congress is to raise awareness of this issue, and promote better understanding of the dangers we all will face if this threat is not tackled immediately and boldly. We hope to inspire our network of future leaders to clearly and courageously insist that in the future, the air that we breathe will be clear, the water we drink will not be contaminated, and the food that we eat will be safe,” Queen Noor added.
Originally meant for Arab children, the Congress expanded to include European and Asian youths in 2004 for its annual gathering.
Source: Jordan Times
The leaders of six Gulf nations gathered in Riyadh for the 12th annual Gulf Cooperation Council. Royals from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates came to Dirriyah Palace to discuss among Iran, Iraq, Yemen and the Mideast peace process.
 Xinhua/Saudi Photo Agency All those in attendance agreed to back the U.S.-backed Mideast peace process, which broke down last year. They also called for a revival of the peace talks and for Israel to stop settlements in Palestinian territories.
In addition, the Gulf leaders sided with Kuwait in an alleged Iranian spy group discovered in that country. The secretary-general of the GCC, Abdulrahman al-Attiyah, said “The security of the Gulf region is a red line. The security of the Gulf cannot be divided.”
“But our Kuwaiti friends want to handle it themselves for the moment,” he added.
As for Iraq, the GCC members called for all neighboring countries and the international community to help the troubled nation to get back on its feet.
The GCC was hosted by Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz. Crown Prince Sultan and Prince Naif were present. The monarchs of Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait were there, while the UAE was represented by its Vice President, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum of Dubai. Oman was the other country at the summit, but its deputy prime minister was there instead of its Sultan.
Sources: Arab News, Saudi Gazette, AFP
The Queen of Spain traveled to Nairobi Wednesday to go to the Regional Microloan Summit for Africa and the Middle East. Queen Sofia is there to reaffirm how Spain is committed to Kenya’s economic development, and also to see how the NGO Jamii Bora is helping in this.
 SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images When the Queen attended the Summit, the largest on the African continent, she was joined by the Netherlands’ Crown Princess Maxima, who uses her position to promote microfinance.
In her speech, Queen Sofia called microfinance “one of the most powerful engines and solidarity” for Africa’s fight against poverty. She praised Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus for being “able to give shape to an idea so simple and yet so great.”
 SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images The Queen did not forget to also highlight the contribution of private banks and savings banks, with a special reference to Microbank created in 2008 by La Caixa, which has already granted over 60,000 micro-, before inviting all delegates to the World Summit Microcredit will host Spain in the next 14 to 17 November in the city of Valladolid.
“It will be the first time that such a summit is held in a European country,” recalled Queen Sofia, to the applause of the audience, thanking the solidarity of the many anonymous partners through microcredit have helped ” to so many women to regain their dignity. ”
After the summit’s opening ceremony, Sofia went to the Mathare Valley shantytown, just outside of Nairobi. She toured the slum, getting an idea of how the people are starting to benefit from microfinance. The Queen tested food made by a member of Jamii Bora, which that cooks meals at home and sells them for one US dollar to residents.
Tomorrow, Queen Sofia will head to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to see how Spanish funds help the people in that city get out of poverty.
Sources: El Mundo, Latin American Herald Tribune
 JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images This weekend, the King of Jordan was at the 22nd Arab Summit held in Sitre, Libya. It was there that King Abdullah II spoke of his commitment to the Mideast peace process, and reiterated his call for a Palestinian state.
“Israel must know that it will never have security unless the Palestinians also have their right to security, freedom and a state… and it must choose between remaining an isolated fortress or living in peace with its neighbors,” the King said in a speech.
Abdullah also said Israel was “playing with fire” by building settlements in East Jerusalem, which is where many Palestinians live. He urged the world to put pressure on Israel to stop the constructions.
But he also mentioned how the Arab world needs to stand together for the sake of the peace process and other plans.
“It is in this context that we support every effort that seeks to clear the Arab atmosphere, achieve Arab solidarity and overcome all differences that lead to external interference in our affairs… not for the sake of championing our just causes but to achieve ambitions of hegemony and influence,” King Abdullah said.
The King also discussed Iraq, and how fellow Arabs need to help the country secure itself.
“I must stress here that what we have done for Iraq is below our expectations… for Iraq needs more than moral support… Iraq needs effective assistance on the ground,” the King said.
Sources: The Jordan Times, AFP
 Michael Loccisano/Getty Images North America The Queen of Jordan was one the guests in this weekend’s “Women and the World” summit in New York City, which was hosted by The Daily Beast‘s Tina Brown. On Saturday, Queen Rania was interviewed by CBS anchor Katie Couric about the importance of educating girls.
“I really do think this is a do-or-die year, and I don’t mean that metaphorically; education really can mean life or death,” Her Majesty told Couric.
“Educating a girl is probably the highest returning investment that a country can make.”
According to Rania, that means preventing a girl from a lifetime of poverty and disease.
The Queen was one of several high profiled women at this summit. The other guests were U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, TV journalist Barbara Walters and designer Diane von Furstenberg.
Topics discussed were genital cutting, sex trafficking, and how far women have come and what is still left to do.
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