PRINCE Charles has lashed out at materialism, science and other scourges of modern life, saying Britain treated tradition like a "socially unacceptable disease".
"Modern materialism, in my humble opinion, is unbalanced and increasingly damaging in its long term consequences, he said. "Science has tried to assume a monopoly, even a tyranny, over our understanding."
Scientists had tried to take over the natural world from God with "sombre and horrifying" consequences, he said, citing the recent outbreak of so called Mad Cow disease in Britain.
The Times of London today publishes an extract from a speech the prince delivered yesterday to a private meeting of executives, academics, civil servants and religious leaders.
US sociologist Vance Packard, who wrote on topics ranging from advertising to education, has died in a Massachusetts hospital. He was aged 82.
Packard gained prominence in 1957 with the publication of The Hidden Persuaders, in which he analysed subliminal advertising techniques. In Status Seekers, published in 1959, he described divisions in US society. In 1989, he returned to this topic with The Ultra Ridi.
British Labour leader Tony Blair has been voted sexiest MP of the year in a women's magazine poll.
In fresh bad news for John Major, there were no Tories in the top three sexiest MPs in the survey for Now magazine.
Runner up was Peter Mandelson - who actually topped another recent poll as sexiest MP - and Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown came in third.
A French court yesterday ordered the Walt Disney Company to compensate an actress for not paying her video and record royalties for her work dubbing the film Snow White into French.
Lucie Dolene (66), who sang the French version of the song One Day my Prince will Come, told a Paris court the company had "stolen her voice". She was awarded a provisional 130,000 francs (£13,750).
The artist formerly known as Prince has immortalised preserved his first child's life in the womb by recording its prenatal heartbeat before it was born for the single Sex in the Summer, Sister 2 Sister magazine has reported.
A press report last month said that the baby bad died shortly after birth. But the musician has refused to confirm or deny the story.