World Vignettes

quot;Diana's name won't bloom in a gardenquot;LONDON: More than 250 London residents attended a public meeting yesterday to oppose plans t...

quot;Diana8217;s name won8217;t bloom in a gardenquot;

LONDON: More than 250 London residents attended a public meeting yesterday to oppose plans to honour Princess Diana8217;s memory with a memorial garden in the grounds of Kensington Palace, her former home. A government committee set up after the Princess8217; death in an August 31 Paris car crash suggested in January that a 16-acre garden should be established by the palace, which would be visited by an estimated five million people per year. But residents of the West London8217;s Kensington district fear that the garden and the accompanying tourism would increase traffic and create more congestion in the area. The area immediately to the south of Diana8217;s Kensington Palace home became an impromptu shrine to the Princess as people left thousands of flowers and cuddly toys in the days after her funeral. However, plans for a memorial would be quot;tackyquot;, said resident and art critic Brian Sewell. quot;We should put the money into supporting things that Diana did and was interestedin,quot; he said.

Old hand at eloping

TEHRAN: A 76-year-old Iranian man eloped with a teenage girl after his children opposed their marriage, according to a newspaper report. The man from the northern town of Sari proposed to the girl, aged 15, and she had her family agreed, the Kayhan daily said yesterday. But his children opposed the idea, prompting the elderly man to run away with his bride to the village of his birth, where they planned to start a new life. The elderly beau lavished exorbitant sums of cash on the girl and gifted her with a large piece of land and 25 sheep.

Gauguin reunion

PAPEETE: Sixty-five descendants of artist Paul Gauguin have embarked on a 15-day cruise to the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, his great granddaughter Marie Gauguin has said. The Gauguin family hold a reunion every 10 years and this year they quot;wished to gather around the grave of their great-grandfather at Atuona on Hiva Oa island and plant atree in his memory,quot; she said here yesterday. Gauguin, who died aged 55, spent the last two years of his life at Atuona.