BRITAIN: Britain's Prince Charles returned home from a Gulf trip on Sunday to a media frenzy of pages of innuendo about an alleged sexual incident involving him and a former servant.
He returned to London from a two-week foreign trip as the public scanned tabloid newspapers for any detail of what the alleged incident, which the prince has denied, might be.
But they were forced to read between the lines, with the tabloids - despite promising to tell all - sticking to a court order banning the publication of the allegation.
In one of the weirdest scandals yet to befall the hapless House of Windsor, Charles has denied doing something - without saying what it is - and a court has banned publishing the tale.
The Mail on Sunday, which set off the bombshell a week ago with an announcement it had been barred from running a scoop "of the deepest public interest", promised on this week's front page: "World exclusive - Charles and his valet: the true story". But the story failed to say what it was that one of Charles's servants says he saw the prince doing with the valet.
A relaxed-looking prince flew into Heathrow airport from Muscat after visits to India and the United Arab Emirates. He could be seen chatting to the cabin staff and flight crew. Once on the tarmac, he smiled and spoke to airport officials, but made no comment to reporters .
Charles Anson, former press secretary to the queen, described the newspapers' behaviour as a "feeding frenzy".
"We're talking about a story that has been completely denied as rubbish," he told BBC television. "It's a slightly unreal situation - I think we need to have a reality check. These things haven't happened and yet the story runs and runs." Details of the alleged incident have appeared in newspapers abroad and on the internet. - (Reuters)
Sophie, Countess of Wessex, was yesterday recovering in hospital after an emergency Caesarean section to deliver her premature baby. The countess (38), and the baby girl, who is the queen's seventh grandchild and eighth in line to the throne, were both said to "stable".
The baby, which was due to give birth at the beginning of December, weighed just 4lb 9oz when she was delivered at 11.32 p.m. night at Frimley Park Hospital, Surrey.