Princess whose forbidden love gripped Sweden dies


STOCKHOLM (AP) She was one of the better kept secrets of Sweden's royal household: a commoner and divorcee whose relationship with Prince Bertil was seen as a threat to the Bernadotte dynasty.

In a touching royal romance, Welsh-born Princess Lilian and her Bertil kept their love unofficial for decades and were both in their 60s when they finally received the king's blessing to get married.

Lilian died in her Stockholm home on Sunday at age 97. The Royal Palace didn't give a cause of death, but Lilian suffered from Alzheimer's disease and had been in poor health for several years.

She met Sweden's Prince Bertil in 1943, but his obligations to the throne and Lilian's status as a divorced commoner prevented them from making their love public. The couple's sacrifices and lifelong dedication to one another gripped the hearts of Swedes.

"If I were to sum up my life, everything has been about my love," the witty, petite princess said of her husband when she turned 80 in 1995. "He's a great man, and I love him."

Born Lilian Davies in Swansea, Wales, on Aug. 30, 1915, she moved to London at 16 to embark on a career as a model and an actress, showcasing hats and gloves in commercials and taking on small roles in movies. She met British actor Ivan Craig, whom she married in 1940.

After World War II broke out, Craig was drafted into the British army while Lilian stayed behind in London, working at a factory making radio sets for the British merchant fleet and serving at a hospital for wounded soldiers.

At the time, Prince Bertil was stationed at the Swedish Embassy in the British capital as a naval attache. The couple first laid eyes on each other in the fancy nightclub Les Ambassadeurs shortly before Lilian's 28th birthday in 1943. Lilian then invited him to a cocktail party in her London apartment. But it wasn't until he fetched her with his car following an air raid in her neighborhood that the romance blossomed, Lilian recalled in her 2000 memoirs, "My Life with Prince Bertil."

"He was so handsome my prince. Especially in uniform. So charming and thoughtful. And so funny. Oh how we laughed together," Lilian wrote.

Lilian was still married at the time, but the situation resolved itself since Craig, too, had met someone else during his years abroad in the army, and the couple divorced on amicable terms.

Upon Bertil's return to Sweden, however, his relationship with a commoner became a delicate issue.

Bertil became a possible heir to the throne when his eldest brother died in a plane crash, leaving behind an infant son the current King Carl XVI Gustaf. Two other brothers had dropped out of the line of succession by marrying commoners.

Bertil's father, King Gustaf VI Adolf, ordered him to abstain from marrying Lilian, since that would jeopardize the survival of the Bernadotte dynasty.

Instead, the couple let their romance flourish in an unofficial manner, living together in a common-law marriage for decades.

They first lived in their house in Sainte-Maxime in France, but later shared their time between the French village and Stockholm, where Lilian discreetly stayed in the background for years.

Despite the royal reluctance to recognize her officially, Lilian's charm and warm personality soon won the Swedes over, and magazines depicted the happy couple playing golf and riding around on the prince's motorbike. When Prince Bertil had to use a walking frame after an operation, she cheerfully nicknamed it his "Bugatti."

In 1976, some 33 years after they first met, the new king finally gave them the approval they had been waiting for.

On a cold December day the same year, Lilian, or "Lily" as the prince used to call her, became princess of Sweden and duchess of the southern province of Halland in a ceremony at the Drottningholm Palace Chapel just outside Stockholm. The bride had by then turned 61 and the groom was 64.

The couple never had any children.

Prince Bertil died in the couple's residence Villa Solbacken in Stockholm in 1997 after unspecified lung problems.

Lilian took over some of her husband's duties, especially as an award presenter for various sports associations.

Health problems forced her to cut back on some of her royal duties. In 2006 she stopped attending the annual Nobel Prize banquet, and the next year she also stopped taking part in the award ceremony.

In 2010, the palace said Lilian suffered from Alzheimer's disease, preventing her from attending the wedding that summer of Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling.

South Africa's Nelson Mandela discharged from hospital


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital after routine tests and is well, the government said on Sunday.

"The doctors have completed the tests. He is well and as before, his health remains under the management of the medical team," it said in a statement.

The 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader was admitted to hospital on Saturday for a scheduled medical check-up. He spent the night in hospital in the capital, Pretoria, and had returned to his Johannesburg home, the statement said.

A spokesman for President Jacob Zuma said doctors treated Mandela for a pre-existing condition consistent with his age.

He spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones. It was his longest stay in hospital since his release from prison in 1990 after serving 27 years for conspiring to overthrow the government under the apartheid regime.

Since his release from that stay in hospital on December 26 he had been receiving treatment at his Johannesburg home.

(Reporting by Sherilee Lakmidas and Peroshni Govender; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Bieber concert is a go for Friday after he fainted


LONDON (AP) Justin Bieber says he is "getting better," after fainting backstage at a concert in London, and the venue says Friday's show is scheduled to go ahead as planned.

A spokesman for the O2 Arena said the 19-year-old pop star was treated backstage during Thursday's concert after becoming short of breath, but recovered and finished his set.

"As far as we are concerned everything is on, on, on" for Friday's show, Jeremy King said.

"He was treated by our team of medics and after further examination they didn't find anything more serious or worrying."

A spokeswoman for Bieber said he was recovering after Thursday's incident, which saw him given oxygen before returning to the stage.

"Justin has been released from the hospital after a check-up and, while he's feeling a little under the weather, he's currently planning on going ahead with tonight's show," the spokeswoman said Friday. She demanded anonymity to discuss the star's condition.

Bieber later posted a shirtless photo of himself in a hospital bed, saying he was getting better and listening to Janis Joplin. Before that on Twitter he thanked "everyone pulling me thru tonight."

"Best fans in the world," he wrote. "Figuring out what happened. Thanks for the love."

Video footage from the concert shows Bieber appearing to fade during a performance of his up-tempo hit, "Beauty and a Beat." He slows down, puts a hand to his head then bends over, resting his hands on knees before walking slowly to the back of the stage.

The AP spoke to 18-year-old journalism student Prithvi Pandya, who shot the footage, to confirm its authenticity.

"When he started 'Beauty and a Beat' you could see he was struggling," said Pandya, who was near the front of the crowd. "He took lots of drinks of water, that seemed unusual, and he was really sweaty, sweating a helluva lot.

"Toward the end of it, he went backstage. We didn't see him fainting. They brought on dancers to entertain, and I knew something was wrong at that point."

Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, appeared onstage and told the crowd that the singer was feeling "very low of breath" but would come back to finish the show.

Jazz Chappell, a 20-year-old concertgoer who brought her younger sister and her friend to the show, said that In the nearly 30 minutes he was offstage, some fans started to leave. Once his manager announced what had happened, Chappell said many fans in the audience were gasping and crying, while others kept cheering for him to return.

"I thought, 'Give the guy a break. He just fainted. He's not a performing horse. Let him rest a second,'" said Chappell.

Chappell said Bieber, who is in London to perform four concerts at the O2, later returned and performed low-energy renditions of his hits "Boyfriend" and "Baby."

Braun later tweeted "everyone please give him a little space and he will be ok. Im sure he appreciates the support ... Tough kid proud night once again he always finishes the show. Full out. True pro..."

The incident caps a difficult week for Bieber. He was forced to apologize to outraged fans who accused him of taking the stage almost two hours late for his first concert at the O2 on Monday. He insisted he was only 40 minutes late and blamed "technical issues." He took to Twitter to vent his frustrations with the media's portrayal of the incident.

The star's Believe world tour is due to move on to Portugal on Monday, then continue across Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and North America until August.

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AP writers Gregory Katz in London and Derrik J. Lang in Los Angeles and AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://www.justinbiebermusic.com/

Demi Moore seeks spousal support from Kutcher


LOS ANGELES (AP) Demi Moore is seeking spousal support from estranged husband Ashton Kutcher.

The actress states in a court filing Thursday that she also wants the "Two and a Half Men" star to pay her attorney's fees in the divorce proceedings.

Kutcher filed for divorce in December, more than a year after Moore announced the marriage was over. Kutcher didn't take a position in his filings on whether he should pay Moore any spousal support.

The couple was married in September 2005, and they have no children together.

Kutcher didn't specify when the couple separated, but Moore listed Nov. 17, 2011, as the breakup date.

Moore publicly announced the couple's breakup that day, but until Thursday had not filed any divorce paperwork.

Outpouring follows death of Sportsman Channel host


The Sportsman Channel says it's deeply saddened by the shooting death in northwestern Montana of one of its TV hosts who traveled the world in search of big game and shared his adventures on his program "A Rifleman's Journal."

The company in a statement early Saturday said it will miss Gregory G. Rodriguez's "thoughtfulness, candor and dedication to encourage a safe and enjoyable outdoor experience for all."

Police said Rodriguez, 43, of Sugar Land, Texas, died Thursday in the town of Whitefish when he was shot by another man in an apparent jealous rage while the TV personality visited the shooter's wife.

An outpouring on social media has followed the death of Rodriguez, who combined his comfort in front of the camera and travels to exotic locations with his hunting and shooting expertise into a popular program. The Sportsman Channel said that in January "A Rifleman's Journal" won "Best Instructional/Educational Program" at the Sportsman Channel's Sportsman Choice Awards.

"We're all in a state of shock and disbelief right now," said David Kelly, a spokesman for the Houston Safari Club, of which Rodriguez was a member.

Rodriguez is survived by his wife, Lisa, and two children. In a statement issued Saturday, the family said he was in Montana on a business trip.

"Greg was a wonderful husband, father, son, brother and friend," the statement said. "We love him and will miss him dearly. Please respect the family in their time of mourning and allow them to grieve in peace."

Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial said that 41-year-old Wayne Bengston shot Rodriguez at about 10:30 p.m. at the home of his wife's mother. Dial said Bengston then beat his wife, took his 2-year-old son to a relative's house and drove to his home about 25 miles away in West Glacier, where he killed himself. Dial said Bengston's wife was treated at a hospital and released that night.

Dial said that Rodriguez and the woman, who works for a firearms manufacturer in the Flathead Valley, met at a trade show and struck up a casual relationship that police do not believe was romantic.

Rodriguez was the founder and CEO of Global Adventure Outfitters. That company declined to comment. According to the company's website, Rodriguez was a mortgage banker before a trip to Africa led him to alter course in the 1990s and start pursuing hunting for a living. He eventually traveled to 21 countries on six continents on that quest, the company said.

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Ridler reported from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press writer Christopher Sherman contributed to this report from McAllen, Texas.

South Africa's Mandela back in hospital for "routine test"


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela was admitted to hospital on Saturday for a "routine test", his second period of hospital treatment in less than three months, the government said.

A spokesman for President Jacob Zuma said there was "no need for panic" and that doctors were treating Mandela for a pre-existing condition consistent with his age.

It did not reveal any more details about the condition of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader, other than to say he was in a hospital in the capital, Pretoria.

The tone of the government's announcement was in keeping with previous announcements about Mandela's health.

Mandela, South Africa's first black president, spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones. It was his longest stay in hospital since his release from prison in 1990.

Since his release on December 26 he had been receiving treatment at his Johannesburg home.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has a history of lung problems dating back to when he contracted tuberculosis as a political prisoner. He spent 27 years in prison, including 18 years on the windswept Robben Island off Cape Town.

He became president of Africa's biggest economy in 1994 after the first all-race elections brought an end to white-minority apartheid rule.

Although he is deeply revered by nearly all of South Africa's 50 million people, he has played no part in public life for the last decade.

(Reporting by Peroshni Govender; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Valerie Harper to discuss cancer on 'The Doctors'


NEW YORK (AP) Actress Valerie Harper plans to discuss her brain cancer with some television doctors.

The daytime talk show "The Doctors" said Harper will appear Monday to talk with Travis Stork, Lisa Masterson, Andrew Ordon and her team of doctors.

The 1970s sitcom star has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer and told she has as little as three months to live. She says her husband briefly withheld the diagnosis from her because it was so dire.

The now-73-year-old Harper played Rhoda Morgenstern on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its spinoff, "Rhoda."

She's given the full hour of Monday's talk show and is surprised by former co-stars Ed Asner and Cloris Leachman.

NBC says Harper will also be interviewed by Savannah Guthrie on the "Today" show Monday.

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Online:

http://thedoctorstv.com/main/show_page/D5129

Bieber ends London gig without hitches after "rough week"


LONDON (Reuters) - Pop star Justin Bieber wrapped up his final London show without hitches on Friday after a week riddled with paparazzi run-ins and a trip to the hospital.

Bieber, 19, sang and danced his way through his fourth night at London's O2 Arena on the European leg of his "Believe" world tour, back to his normal self after collapsing on stage from shortness of breath on Thursday.

The Canadian-born singer was treated by doctors backstage and given oxygen on the third night of his London shows. He returned to the stage after a 20-minute break and completed his set but was later taken to hospital as a precaution, the singer's representatives told Reuters.

The singer also had an altercation with a UK photographer on Friday, caught on camera by Reuters, which showed Bieber get out of a van, try to move towards the unnamed photographer and threaten him using several swear words.

He was reacting to the man's foul-mouthed criticism of him and his security team after the singer appeared to have made contact with the photographer as they moved towards the vehicle.

The bouncers held Bieber back, but the incident is likely to create more negative headlines for one of the world's biggest pop stars.

'ROUGH WEEK'

Since being discovered on YouTube in 2008, Bieber has built a huge following of mainly teenage girls attracted to his clean-cut image, slick videos and catchy pop songs.

But the intense media spotlight that follows him around the world has clearly unnerved the "Boyfriend" singer.

Bieber has had several run-ins with paparazzi in recent years and took to Twitter this week to criticize the media for what he called fabricated stories about him during his stay in London, where he is performing his sold-out tour.

After the latest altercation, he returned to the micro-blogging site, where he has more than 35 million followers.

"Ahhhhh! Rough morning. Trying to feel better for this show tonight but let the paps get the best of me..." he wrote.

"Sometimes when people r shoving cameras in your face all day and yelling the worst thing possible at u ... well I'm human. Rough week."

'POP BRAT'

Thursday's onstage collapse was not the first for Bieber.

He suffered a concussion during a concert in Paris last June after falling into a glass wall.

Bieber's illness came just days after he angered many fans by appearing for his first night at the O2 nearly two hours later than the advertised time.

The singer blamed technical issues for the delay, and said he was only 40 minutes behind schedule, but the media jumped on the story and the popular Sun tabloid referred to him in a March 7 story as "Pop brat Justin."

The tabloid attention has not been limited to the late show.

Newspapers described as "bizarre" his decision to wear a gas mask on a night out.

They also reported that Bieber, who celebrated his 19th birthday in London last week, tried to take 14-year-old Jaden Smith, son of actor Will Smith, to a club, where Smith was turned away, along with Bieber and his entourage.

Bieber took to Twitter and Instagram to vehemently deny the reports he tried to take the underage Smith to a club, saying instead he was forced to leave the venue when the club's security guards behaved aggressively towards his fans who were lined up outside.

(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Editing by Sophie Hares and Peter Cooney)

Nigella Lawson pays homage to Italy in new cookbook


NEW YORK (Reuters) - British television celebrity and best-selling cookbook author Nigella Lawson recalls that when the other girls wanted to be French, she wanted to be Italian.

"As a teenager, what drew me was the combination of familial warmth and glamour that was somehow both earthy and chic," Lawson said about Italy, where she lived between high school and college.

Her eighth cookbook, "Nigellissima," focuses exclusively on 120 Italian-inspired recipes.

"Somehow by speaking Italian, I came into the person I am," the 53-year-old, Oxford-educated cook added.

London-based Lawson, who is appearing in the U.S. cooking show "The Taste," spoke to Reuters about creating recipes and about how her most joyful moment in the kitchen is opening the fridge, seeing what is inside and trying to make something taste good from it, which she admits is "absolutely the antithesis of a cookery book."

Q: Is this your first Italian cookbook?

A: "It sort of is, and isn't. It's the first that's just Italian, or Italian-inspired. Because Italy has been such a big influence in my life, in my cooking life, there are actually more Italian recipes in my other books. But this is the only time I've done a book with such a narrow focus geographically."

Q: How would you describe your take on Italian cuisine?

A: "I suppose what I bring to it is a slightly more contemporary, urban edge in the sense that I live a busy modern city life, whereas so many Italian recipes come from a time when women were expected to spend a long time in the kitchen. I suppose I bring a kind of temporary impatience because it's the way I live now."

Q: How did you learn to cook?

A: "I've never learned to cook. I just cooked from when I was a child, always. I come from a large family and my mother believed in child labor, so I've cooked since I was about six. I do come from a food-obsessed family. That helps. I did have to teach myself how to cook weighing and measuring. It was an education in itself, and an interesting one."

Q: Do you create the recipes in your books?

A: "Well, they're mine, and if they're not I will always say. I think it's improper not to credit recipes. Often I credit someone even if I've changed it enormously because I feel for the reader it's very interesting to see the evolution of a recipe. So I will go back through the mists of time (to trace) how this recipe evolved."

Q: How does being a home cook, rather than a professional chef, influence your approach to preparing food?

A: "Cooking for me is in part an evangelical zeal that I want to share. If I've loved a book that I've read, I want to share that as well. A chef needs to feel they're being original. I just have the home cook sensibility: not wanting to waste money or time.

"Generally I make sure that if I buy a certain stash of ingredients, I can cook many different dishes. Cooking is not about heaping in ingredient after ingredient after ingredient. If I read a recipe and I'm exhausted by the time I finish reading the ingredients list, I know I'm never going to cook it."

Q: Did you enjoy co-hosting the reality TV show "The Taste?"

A: "I had a certain amount of trepidation but I really enjoyed it ... Because it was really about the taste of the food and not about personalities, I didn't think it was going to descend into the cruelty of some reality TV, that would appall me."

Sicilian Pasta with Tomatoes, Garlic & Almonds

Serves 6

1 1 4 pounds fusilli lunghi or other pasta of your choice

salt for pasta water, to taste

8 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes

6 anchovy fillets

2 tablespoons golden raisins

2 cloves garlic, peeled

2 tablespoons capers, drained

1/3 cup skinned almonds

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil leaves from small bunch

basil (approx. 1 cup, packed )

Put abundant water on to boil for the pasta, waiting for it to boil before salting it. Add the pasta and cook following the package instructions, though start checking it a good 2 minutes before it's meant to be ready.

While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce by putting all the remaining ingredients, except the basil, into a processor and blitzing until you have a nubby-textured sauce.

Just before draining the pasta, remove a cupful of pasta-cooking water and add 2 tablespoonfuls of it down the funnel of the processor, pulsing as you go.

Tip the drained pasta into your warmed serving bowl. Pour and scrape the sauce on top, tossing to coat (add a little more pasta-cooking water if you need it) and strew the basil leaves on top.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Philip Barbara)

Hugo Chavez a 'Great Hero,' Oliver Stone Says


LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Director Oliver Stone praised Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who died on Tuesday, calling him "a great hero."

In a statement provided to TheWrap, Stone referred to Chavez - who was a subject of his 2009 documentary "South of the Border," which explored media misperceptions about South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents - as "my friend."

While Stone conceded that Chavez was hated "by the entrenched classes," the filmmaker opined that he "will live forever in history."

Venezuela's vice president Nicolas Maduro said that Chavez died Tuesday. Chavez, who had battled cancer, was 58.

''I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place," Stone said. "Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chavez will live forever in history."

Stone concluded, "My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned."