World Vignettes

It was unclear why she was at the hospital. Her husband, has been in the Palm Beach County jail since being arrested on August 11 for shoplifting.

Royal cuts

LONDON: The British treasury is to cut the Queen8217;s annual pay rise in a radical reform of royal finances, The Sunday Times reported. The chancellor, Gordon Brown, is said to be appalled that the royalfamily has been getting an annual 7.5 per cent increase in state funding, known as the civil list. Brown is planning to cut the pay rise to 2.5 per cent.

The new arrangement would begin in January 2001, when the current 10-year civil list deal, struck with the former Conservative government, expires.

Stop wrecking8217;

LISBON: The man who located the Titanic 13 years ago is campaigning for international laws to stop treasure hunters from plundering sunken vessels.

8220;The question is do we explore or do we plunder?8221; Robert Ballard said. He said exploitation needs to be controlled by the coastal state that has jurisdiction over the water the vessel sank in, or the vessel8217;s country of origin.