Official photo released by Monaco
Monaco (GenevaLunch) – Prince Albert of Monaco is to be married: the engagement of the 52-year-old man, ruler of Monaco, principality near the borders of France and Italy on the Mediterranean, and Charlene Wittstock, 32, South African and a former Olympic swimmer, ends years of speculation over a possible wife.
This is his first marriage. He is the first child of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, both deceased.
Wittstock has three World Cup gold medals, in the 50 and 200 metre crawl and the 4×100 metre relay.
No date has been announced for the wedding.
Louis Majesty at sea (photo: Louis Cruise)
A Louis Cruise ship with 1,350 passengers and nearly 600 crew on board, the Louis Majesty, was hit by what the company has called “rogue waves” of up to eight metres, off the northeast coast of Spain. Two people were killed and six injured, with windows broken in the saloon and water taken on board. The ship has pulled into Barcelona, but will later continue its voyage to Genoa, Italy. The captain says there were winds up to 100kph in the area.
Links to other sites: BBC, El Pais (Spa), Louis Cruise
© 2009 Brian J Skerry, National Geographic Stock, WWF
Gland, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A ban on fishing the bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, stocks of which are at their lowest historical levels, was not approved by the body in charge of managing the fish, announced WWF International, from Recife, Brazil Sunday 15 November.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) agreed only to reduce the allowed quota from 19,500 tonnes to 13,500 tonnes, not enough to help stocks of the fish to recover, according to WWF, which is based in Gland, near Geneva. The ICCAT’s own scientists said at the ICCAT meeting in Recife that a maximum quota of 8,000 tonnes, if strictly enforced, would give the eastern bluefin tuna only a 50 percent chance of recovering.
Eight people, including six firefighters in Spain, have died as a result of forest fires in Greece, Italy, France and Spain, with Sardinia left with a desolate landscape and Corsica fighting new blazes. The fires began, for the most part, several days ago and in many cases arson is suspected. Temperatures will remain high, over 40C in many areas and authorities are warning that winds are picking up and could cause the fires to spread. BBC, Le Monde, Fre
