World Vignettes

Do amp; Di: A love storyLONDON: The makers of a controversial film about Princess Diana's tragic love affair with Dodi Al-Fayed on Wednesda...

Do amp; Di: A love story

LONDON: The makers of a controversial film about Princess Diana8217;s tragic love affair with Dodi Al-Fayed on Wednesday presented the look-alike actors chosen to play them and rejected as ludicrous suggestions that they should seek royal permission for the project. Virtual unknowns Amy Seccombe and George Jackos will take the lead roles in the made-for-television movie which has already been deemed 8220;entirely inappropriate and insensitive8221; by lawyers of the late princess. Former tabloid newspaper editor Kelvin Mackenzie, who is the executive producer of The People8217;s Princess, said, 8220;The idea that we have to seek permission from Kensington Palace, the Spencer family or the Princess of Wales Memorial Fund to produce a movie is outrageous.8221;

Pope8217;s pet

ROME: Pope John Paul II surprised onlookers by petting a snake during his general audience on Wednesday. Amid the clicking of countless cameras, the pope gently stroked the giant python and patted it on the head. The animal belonged to a member of a circus troupe granted an audience with the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Italian observers called the Pope8217;s gesture sensational8217;. In Roman Catholic teaching, the snake symbolises original sin.

Space sortie

MOSCOW: United States astronaut David Wolf and veteran Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyov have completed a four-hour spacewalk to inspect the exterior of their Mir orbital station, mission control said on Thursday. The two men only had time to examine the Kvant II module of the 11-year-old station, and not the main module as well, spokesman Valery Lyndin said. They had used a spectrometer for the first time in a test devised by the US space agency NASA. Wolf told mission control that he had so enjoyed his first sortie into space that he did not want to come back. Fellow-cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, who had remained inside the station, reminded him that a special meal of prawns awaited him to mark his feat. For Solovyov, the Mir commander, it was a record-breaking sixteenth sortie into space.