ONE OF the Princess Diana's most trusted aides has left her staff. Victoria Mendham, the princess's personal assistant, departed after holidaying with Diana over Christmas on the Caribbean island of Barbuda.
The princess's office confirmed the departure but would give no details. It is unclear whether Mendham (27) resigned after a row. She worked the princess for seven years.
The Prince of Wales yesterday discussed yoga in Cambridge with a leading expert in Indian religions. Ian Whicher, a Canadian who spends time meditating in the Himalayas, said he felt a "solid connection" with the prince.
Jemima Khan, the British wife of Pakistan's former cricket hero, Imran Khan, took to the hustings to promote her husband's election campaign yesterday. Making her first public appearance in Islamabad, she addressed about 300 women, in halting Urdu.
American adventurer Steve Fossett, whose round-the-world balloon journey ended prematurely in India this week, left the country tired and dejected yesterday after he was denied official entry, a colleague said.
Veteran broadcaster Wally Whyton, "the voice of country music in Britain", has died, the BBC said yesterday. He was 67 and had suffered from cancer.
Eighteen months ago he was forced to leave his post as presenter of the BBC's Country Club after 21 years. As well as pioneering country music in this country as a broadcaster, he enjoyed musical success of his own as guitarist with the skiffle group the Vipers, which had top 10 hits in early 1957 with Cumberland Gap and Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O.
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, known for its resistance to change, is to admit women.
The residents of Eigg greeted reports that Luciano Pavarotti wants to build an opera centre on their island with a chorus of disapproval yesterday. The Highland Council had been approached by the Pavarotti Foundation, which wants to establish a centre of excellence for about 3,000 classical and operatic musicians on the 7,400-acre Hebridean outcrop.