Free Republic

SNIPPET - quote: Dissemination *_is_* collection I always get a kick out of people who tell me I give away intelligence for free. What I do is watch how information moves. Keep in mind that the subject covered on this site are pretty darn esoteric by most standards. What kind of people, for example, even know who Oussama Salhab is? Answers include: Oussama Salhab, his family, friends, associates in and out of Hizballah, people he does business with, spies of various nations, etc. Yep. The barn is free, and so is the food.

IT'S the one place in the world you don't want to have a prang but one blonde driver's antics outside the Place du Casino, in Monte Carlo, made every tourists' day. A parade of some of the world's most expensive cars turned into a demolition derby after a driver scraped her $370, 000 Bentley against a $111,000 Mercedes S class. The woman's 2.7 tonne beast then went on to plough into a $207,000 black Ferrari F430 before crashing head-on into a Porsche 911 worth $118,000 and a $207,000 Aston Martin. The total value of the cars involved in the bingle...

There's a new Princess of Monaco: Prince Albert's South African bride Charlene Wittstock, who on Friday married the reigning prince in a civil ceremony that was part of a larger itinerary of royal events. The bride, 33, wore Chanel palazzo pants and a jacket while the groom, 53, donned a dark suit and white tie to exchange vows in front of Philippe Narmino, president of Monaco's Council of State.  "I declare you united by the bonds of marriage," Narmino said, officially making Wittstock "Her Serene Highness." Princess Stephanie and Princess Caroline, Albert's sisters, were among those in the audience in...

Prince Albert of Monaco has been forced to issue a public statement after claims that his fiancée tried to leave him days before their wedding after learning of his third illegitimate child. The royal family dismissed reports that Charlene Wittstock had tried to flee to South Africa, where she grew up. The claims appear to have originated in the French news magazine L'Express. In an article headlined “Albert-Charlene: Marriage in Peril” and published on its website, the magazine claimed Miss Wittstock, a former Olympic swimmer, had been upset to hear a new revelation about her future husband. A lawyer for...

Prince Albert of Monaco's fiancée Charlene Wittstock tried to flee the tiny principality on a one-way ticket back to her homeland, L'Express reports.    The reports come just days before Wittstock and her royal beau are set to tie the knot in a $75 million wedding.    The reports come just days before Wittstock and her royal beau are set to tie the knot in a $75 million wedding. According to the French news website, a “shaken” Wittstock fled to the airport in Nice after discovering a new revelation about her future husband, but was stopped by police acting on...

Good news for those who have been craving some more Royal Wedding glitter. There’s another one this weekend.  It’s the event many thought would never happen: the marriage of Prince Albert of Monaco, the 53-year-old bachelor head of state of the tiny but rich principality on the Cote D’Azur, and Charlene Wittstock, a South African Olympic swimmer 20 years his junior.  The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco for more than 800 years, and has featured on the global glamour map ever since Hollywood arrived in the form of the last bride to marry into the family, Prince Albert’s mother Grace...

Charlene Wittstock has not one, but two tough acts to follow. As the future princess of Monaco and wife to longtime bachelor Prince Albert II, the Zimbabwe-born, South Africa-raised former Olympic swimmer is to succeed Grace Kelly, whose 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier III is still widely seen as the gold standard for royal nuptials. And as if the blue-eyed Hollywood beauty-turned-beloved princess didn’t cast a long enough shadow, Albert’s long-awaited marriage to Wittstock comes on the heels of the royal wedding of the decade, Kate Middleton’s union with Britain’s Prince William. It’s still the biggest thing to hit Monaco since...

He is the prince who never grew up – a one-time playboy and son of the Hollywood star Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco. She is a working-class South African 20 years his junior, a former Olympic swimmer and the daughter of a photocopier salesman. When Prince Albert of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock marry this week in a two-day populist extravaganza in the wealthy Mediterranean enclave, tens of thousands of tourists are expected to flood in to witness the ultimate "prince and commoner" wedding. The American rockers the Eagles will belt out Hotel California in a special gig for...

Will Giorgio Armani still make Charlene Wittstock's bridal gown when she marries Prince Albert of Monaco after she rejected his outfits for Prince William's wedding? While Kate Middleton’s wedding was a great success for Sarah Burton, who designed her dress, it will have been the cause of some concern for Giorgio Armani. Charlene Wittstock the fiancée of Prince Albert of Monaco, chose to wear an outfit by Akris, the Swiss label at the royal wedding, even though she is known as an “ambassador” for Armani. The Italian said he would make the bridal gown for Wittstock, who will marry in...

For four years, Charlene Wittstock lived mostly in the shadows, waiting for Prince Albert II of Monaco to propose. With no job, no college degree and no knowledge of French, she was installed by him in a small apartment in the center of the tiny Mediterranean principality, far away from home in South Africa. With no official status, she appeared at the side of the prince when summoned, to smile a lot but to say little. She endured the nastiness of the locals, who gossiped about Prince Albert’s love affairs and predicted that he would never marry her. "snip" But...

Did you know that the EU has ensured that there has been no war between its members for last 60 years?

If she takes up swimming again, she won't be able to wear her engagement ring in the pool - she'd surely sink. Prince Albert of Monaco has proposed to South African former swimmer Charlene Wittstock - giving her a ring that more than makes up for his reputation as an eternal playboy. The royal palace said in a statement that the engagement was announced today between the 52-year-old prince and 32-year-old Wittstock.

Life can have its little irritations when you're cruising around the world on your £100million superyacht. For example, the endless vista of clear blue sea fails to provide much greenery to ease the eye - apart from the odd tropical island. For the owner of a forthcoming craft named WallyIsland, however, this will not be a problem. For he, or she, will have a personal ocean-going garden. The 325ft-long yacht is to feature a growing area with shrubbery and flower beds, kept healthy by an irrigation system. It will also have a tennis court, pool and five accommodation decks including...

The German government's purchase of data stolen from a Liechtenstein bank has reinvigorated longstanding debates about privacy, law enforcement and international relations. Much of the fallout has followed predictable patterns. Some argue that Germany's richest citizens should be brought to justice for failing to comply with the tax laws, while others point out that it is unseemly for a nation to spy on a peaceful neighbor. The conflict between Germany and Liechtenstein also has triggered a broader debate about tax competition and the role of so-called tax havens. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is trying to use...

Michael Griffith   The criminal defense lawyer discusses his client Ted Maher and comments on a Florida case in which a teenage gunplay turned fatalOctober 3, 2002   Court TV Host: We're going to be talking to criminal defense attorney Michael Griffith about the current Court TV taped trial, Fla. v. Acosta: After-school Fight Turns Deadly and we'll be asking Griffith about his high profile case, his defense of Ted Maher, the American nurse currently facing charges in Monaco for the death of billionaire Edmond Safra Court TV Host: Michael Griffith is here! Welcome! Michael Griffith: Hi folks I'm...

For ten years their home has been a 20ft cage set into the cliffs of Monte Carlo. But last week - for the first time in their lives - leopards Sirius and Pitou ran free across the plains of Africa. They tasted their new freedom in a game reserve after being rescued from Monaco zoo following a five-year campaign by The Mail on Sunday and The Born Free Foundation. Female Pitou, aged 14, set off with a roar after leaving her cage - while 13-year-old male Sirius had to be coaxed out before bounding into the veldt. The leopards had...

As presidential portraits go, it is a little on the informal side. Vladimir Putin poses stripped to the waist, fishing rod in hand, in a boat on a Siberian river. The Russian leader has been worrying Western leaders by flexing his political muscles recently. But yesterday he was showing off the real thing - and appeared in impressive shape for a man of 54. The former KGB officer is known as a fitness fanatic and is a black belt in judo. Wearing only combat trousers tied roughly at the waist, a camouflage hat and army-style boots, Putin displayed his usual...

PARIS - Monaco's Prince Albert II has acknowledged he is the father of a second illegitimate child, a 14-year-old girl living in California, his lawyer said in an interview published Thursday. Albert, ruler of the tiny Mediterranean principality, "officially recognizes a paternity that was legally established a few weeks ago," lawyer Thierry Lacoste was quoted as saying in France's Le Figaro newspaper. Albert had initially planned to keep his parentage of Jazmin Grace Rotolo secret until she reached adulthood, but "the situation had become untenable for her" in recent weeks amid increasing speculation about her father, Lacoste said.

The Grimaldis had been intermittent rulers of their patch of the Cote d’Azur for three centures before deciding, in 1612, to make themselves “princes”. But, unlike other European princes, Honore II, Seigneur de Monaco, opted to be styled not “His Royal Highness” but “His Serene Highness”. For the last two decades of Prince Rainier’s long reign over Monte Carlo, few highnesses had less to be serene about. His American wife, who’d brought celluloid glamour to a realm where the real thing had been in short supply, died in a car crash in 1982. His older “sensible” daughter married unsuitable Euro-playboys....

July 13, 2005 Campaign On Behalf of Prince Eric of Monaco The blog has refrained from commenting on Prince Albert II of Monaco and the son he finally had the grace to acknowledge as his. This was mainly because everyone knows the Grimaldi's have always shagged pretty much anything that moves, and this story seemed designed to take attention away from the Prince's rumoured homosexuality and taste for unconventional amours in advance of his coronation. As a German paper commented, the Monagesque people had been "stinksauer" (well pissed off) about the homosexuality rumours, and were relieved dass ihr Fürst endlich...

MONACO - Prince Albert II of Monaco, a quiet and secretive bachelor, was proclaimed ruler of the glitzy Riviera enclave of Monaco Tuesday at a solemn Mass in a cliff-top cathedral where his father was buried three months ago after a 56-year reign.

MONACO - A former flight attendant from Togo claimed in an interview in a French magazine that Monaco's new ruler, Prince Albert II, is the father of her 20-month-old son. Nicole Coste is quoted in Paris Match as saying she met Albert on a flight in July 1997, leading to a relationship and the birth of a child in August 2003. The interview is illustrated with pictures of the prince holding and feeding a young boy with dark curly hair and eyes. Coste said she went public with the story because "I want Alexandre to grow up normally with a...

MONACO-- The three children of Monaco's Prince Rainier III by the U.S. actress Grace Kelly have bade farewell to their father at a funeral service attended by royalty and political leaders from around the world.

MONACO, April 8 - While the television here plays vintage clips of the late Prince Rainier's storybook marriage to the American actress Grace Kelly, the unspoken question hanging in this tiny principality's crisp Mediterranean air is who the next princess will be. Prince Rainier's enigmatic son, Albert, who assumed Monaco's throne upon his father's death on Wednesday, is unmarried and has shown no public inclination to produce a royal heir. Choosing a bride to replace his mother, who died in a car crash 23 years ago, is an almost insurmountable task, people in the principality say. "People will be very...

Prince Rainier III of Monaco died Wednesday, marking the end of a glittering royal fairy tale as tributes from dignitaries poured in. He was 81. Monaco's royal palace announced Rainier's death nearly a month after he was first admitted to a heart and chest clinic with a lung infection. "Each of us feels like an orphan because the principality has been marked by his imprint over the 56 years" Patrick Leclercq, Monaco's head of government said of Europe's longest reigning monarch. Rainier's son and heir Prince Albert was at his bedside when he was pronounced dead at 6:35 a.m. Rainier...

Monaco's Prince Rainier III, who turned one of the world's smallest states from a faded gambling center into a billionaires' haven in more than half a century on the throne, died aged 81 on Wednesday. The palace said he had died after a battle with lung, heart and kidney problems. Rainier brought Hollywood glamour to Monaco by marrying the beautiful American actress Grace Kelly in 1956 and transformed the world's smallest state after the Vatican into a playground for the rich. Princess Grace died in a car crash in 1982. He never remarried. He will be succeeded as ruler of...

MONACO, April 3 (Reuters) - The health of Prince Rainier of Monaco, who has been in intensive care for almost two weeks, remained stable on Sunday but his hopes of recovery were extremely weak, a source close to the palace said. "There is neither a deterioration nor a notable improvement in the health of the monarch, but the likelihood of a favourable outcome remains extremely weak," the source told Reuters. On Friday, Rainier's doctors described the 81-year-old monarch's state of health as "precarious". Rainier's son, Albert, 47, has assumed the his sick father's duties as monarch of the tiny state...

Rainier close to death March 28, 2005 PRINCE Rainier of Monaco was reported close to death last night and is being kept breathing by a life-support machine. He has been in intensive care for three weeks with an acute lung infection. As talk grew that Prince Rainier died on Saturday, French President Jacques Chirac was preparing to dash back from an official trip to Japan. Although Monaco is an independent principality, it forms an enclave in the south of France and its relationship with its larger neighbour is a crucial one.

Prince Rainier's condition has not improved, royal palace says Prince Rainier III of Monaco attends the Champions League soccer match AS Monaco versus FC Lokomotiv Moscow, in Monaco, in this March 10, 2004, file photo. (AP/Lionel Cironneau) MONACO (AP) - Monaco's ailing Prince Rainier clung to life Friday, breathing through a respirator in an intensive care unit, with doctors refusing to say whether he might recover. A health bulletin signed by three doctors appeared grim, saying the state of health of the 81-year-old head of Europe's longest-ruling dynasty - "remained worrisome." The prince was suffering heart, kidney and breathing problems...

Monaco on Death Watch for Prince Rainier Thursday, March 24, 2005 MONACO — Hooked to a respirator, Prince Rainier III (search) of Monaco was being treated for cardiac and kidney failure at a seaside clinic in the tiny Mediterranean enclave that he transformed into a glitzy resort for the rich. Throughout Monaco, Rainier's subjects braced for what they feared could be the final days of a man many revere as a father figure. On Thursday, Rainier was spending his third day in intensive care at a hospital with a view of his hilltop palace. "Monaco became Monaco thanks to him....

Monaco's Prince Rainier on respirator MONACO (AP) - Prince Rainier III is suffering from cardiac and kidney failure and has been placed on a respirator, the palace said Wednesday. An official medical update described the 81-year-old prince's condition as "stable" on the second day of his transfer into the intensive care unit of the Cardio-Thoracic Center. Rainier, whose movie-star wife, Grace Kelly, died in a 1982 car crash, was hospitalized two weeks ago with a chest infection. After a marked improvement, the prince's health suddenly worsened. A palace statement Wednesday said Rainier was transferred to the intensive care unit after...

MONACO (AP) - Prince Rainier III of Monaco, who was hospitalized two weeks ago with a chest infection, has been placed in the intensive care unit, the palace said Tuesday. After a marked improvement, "a recurring pulmonary infection required that the prince be transferred into an intensive care unit," the palace said in a statement. The 81-year-old Rainier, whose movie-star wife, Grace Kelly, died in a car crash in 1982, has a history of heart problems and has suffered from poor health in recent years. Rainier was admitted March 7 to a heart and chest clinic due to a "bronchial-pulmonary...

BERLIN (AP) - Prince Ernst August of Hanover, the controversy-prone husband of Caroline of Monaco, allegedly gave the stiff-arm Hitler salute to an airport security guard during an argument, prosecutors said Wednesday. The security guard told police the dispute erupted when the prince resisted being checked before boarding a plane Nov. 24 at Hanover's Langenhagen airport, prosecutors in the city said. Ernst August allegedly shouted insults, then raised his arm in a Nazi salute, said a prosecutors' spokesman, Thomas Klinge. He said prosecutors were considering whether to charge the prince with verbally abusing the security agent and making an outlawed...

"I do not want to consider such a possibility, but I believe all our friends should think carefully on the possibility of a negative decision derailing our ties," Erdogan told a conference on his country`s EU bid here late Saturday. "In such a case, we cannot of course act as if nothing happened in our ties with the EU," Erdoagn added.

The adultery law is part of a package of sweeping changes to the penal code, which include the abolition of torture and the expansion of individual liberties. The changes are an effort to bring Turkey's legal code into line with European human rights legislation. Mr Verheugen, who has spent the last few days touring Turkey, expressed his concerns in an interview with the Turkish Vatan newspaper. "If Turkey tries to include crimes that are not in other countries' laws in its penal code, European Union countries could interpret this as Islamic law entering Turkish law," he told the paper... [adding]...

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American gets 10 years in Monaco deaths Nurse, ex-Green Beret set fire that killed banker, second nurse 12/03/2002 Associated Press MONTE CARLO, Monaco - An American nurse was convicted Monday in the 1999 arson deaths of billionaire banker Edmond Safra and another nurse, Vivian Torrente. Ted Maher was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The prosecution in this wealthy Mediterranean enclave had requested 12 years in prison for Mr. Maher. The charges carried a maximum penalty of life in prison. "He directly caused the deaths of Mrs. Torrente and Mr. Safra," head prosecutor Daniel Serdet said. "He trapped the...

Philip Delves Broughton, in Monaco for the trial of Ted Maher, finds that the principality is a rotten little retirement home for fat catsIt was bucketing down in Monte Carlo and the casino was empty. Croupiers sat forlornly at the tables in the gilded Salle d’Europe and in the large private rooms at the back, overlooking a sheer drop to the Mediterranean. Several of them were horsing around with the sticks they use to gather in chips. The restaurant tablecloths were starched and laid with silver, but the waiters had no one to serve. A few old birds in dodgy...

Reported five minutes ago -- no ther details yet found..

AN AMERICAN nurse will go on trial in Monaco today charged with the arson attack that triggered a bizarre chain of events culminating in the death of one of the world’s wealthiest bankers, Edmond Safra, in 1999. The jury at the biggest criminal case held in the Principality will be told that Safra was killed by a combination of his own fear, official bungling and the tortured projects hatched by his nurse, Ted Maher. Mr Maher, 44, the sole defendant, is accused of arson with attempt to harm and faces a 20-year prison sentence if found guilty. Among the civil...

Prince Rainier hospitalized in Monaco Sunday November 17, 2002 - 16h22 GMT MONACO, Nov. 17 (AFP) - prince Rainier of Monaco, 79 years, was hospitalized Saturday evening for a "bronchopulmonary superinfection" in the cardio-thoracic center of Monaco, one learned Sunday from official source. The prince had undergone several operations in December 1999 for a dilation anévrysmale of the abdominal aorta, with installation of a endoprothèse (bridging), followed two months later of an ablation partial of the lung to control a nodule (tumour). After these two successive interventions, Rainier delegated the official voyages abroad to the hereditary prince, Albert. Prince...

Filed at 3:36 p.m. ET MONACO (AP) -- Below the gilded dome of the Cathedral of Monaco lies the body of Princess Grace. Flowers are arranged over the marble slab of her tomb, and a wooden plaque instructs visitors: ``Silence and Respect.'' In the two decades since her death on Sept. 14, 1982 -- she died at 52 of injuries suffered in a car crash -- silence and respect have been hard to come by. Monaco, once a sleepy resort favored by European royalty, is now a popular tax haven with celebrities, bankers and sports figures. Streets once known for...

Diamond disappearance to the airport of Roissy-Charles of Gaulle Friday August 09, 2002 - 17h31 GMT BOBIGNY, August 9 (AFP) - a batch of diamonds, estimated at more than one million euros, disappeared between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning with the airport from Roissy-Charles-of-Gaulle and the company of transport of funds Brink' S, which was to convoy the invaluable stones deposited a complaint, one learned Friday from legal source. The diamonds, divided into four parcels, came from Monaco, where they had been exposed in a large hotel of the Principality, of the same source was specified. They were to...