The Malaysian Insider :: Features

Hidden treasure found under Nepalese palace

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 08:11 AM PDT

A general view of Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square in Kathmandu on June 28, 2011 where a huge stash of gold and silver ornaments has been discovered by workers renovating the former royal palace. – AFP pic

KATHMANDU, June 29 – Workers renovating a former royal palace in the Nepalese capital have discovered a huge stash of gold and silver ornaments weighing more than 300 kilograms, the government said yesterday.

Three boxes of treasures, thought to be more than 500 years old, were hidden in a store room under the sprawling 16th-century Hanuman Dhoka palace, a UNESCO world heritage site, a spokesman for the culture ministry said.

"There are coins and ornaments that look like offerings to the gods and goddesses," said the spokesman, Jalkrishna Shrestha.

Only one box has been opened so far and its contents would be worth about 17.5 million rupees (RM707,818) on the local gold and silver markets, according to a calculation.

The other two boxes will be opened later this week.

"We expect to find more such treasure as the renovation continues," Shrestha said.

The 4.5-million-rupee government restoration project at the dilapidated palace, which housed Nepal's royals until the late 19th century and is now a museum, began two months ago and will go on until September.

The palace in Kathmandu, with intricately carved features and several courtyards, was named after the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. It was built by Malla rulers who were defeated by Prithvi Narayan Shah, the founder of Nepal in 1768.

The palace also served as a venue for the coronation of the country's kings until the monarchy was abolished three years ago.

Nepal's former king Gyanendra was deposed in 2008 after Maoist rebels who fought a decade-long battle against the country's centuries-old Hindu monarchy came to power.

Gyanendra, who was widely disliked, came to power in 2001 after the former crown prince shot and killed nine members of his own family including the king and queen, before turning his gun on himself. – AFP

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Diana returns from grave in shocking Newsweek cover

Posted: 28 Jun 2011 06:13 PM PDT

Princess Diana on the cover of Newsweek. — Reuters pic

LOS ANGELES, June 29 — Princess Diana has returned from the grave on the front cover of Newsweek in a picture that imagines her, and her life, as it might have been had she lived to mark her 50th birthday on Friday.

But the picture and story — which speculates that Diana would have twice remarried, used Botox, and been slightly jealous of new daughter-in-law Kate Middleton — provoked mostly howls of disgust as they arrived on US newsstands the same week that Prince William and his new bride begin an official visit to North America.

"Shocking, brilliant or just plain cheap?" asked the Los Angeles Times. News blog Mediaite.com called it "disrespectful on so many levels", while The Atlantic Wire ran the headline "How Creepy is Princess Diana's Ghost?"

Newsweek editor-in-chief Tina Brown, a Briton who wrote a gossipy 2007 biography about the late princess, imagines that if Diana had not died in a 1997 Paris car crash, she would have moved to New York, remained "great-looking," been friends with her ex-husband Prince Charles and his new wife (and Diana's old nemesis) Camilla, and have 10 million followers on Twitter.

But it's the digitally-enhanced front page photo of Diana — imagining her as still slim and chic, if a little wrinkled — that has caused the biggest outrage. Diana is shown walking alongside a smiling, and admiring, Kate Middleton.

"This is beyond tacky", commented one writer on the New York Magazine website.

"Ugh this is SO tasteless...let the poor woman RIP...if i were any of her family members I'd be so offended and upset by this," wrote a woman on the Newsweek comments page. Some others said they were canceling their subscriptions to the US weekly news magazine.

The Newsweek feature also fantasises about Diana's Facebook page, imagining her "liking" the movie "The King's Speech" and TV series "The Real Housewives of New York", hanging out with David and Victoria Beckham, and sending supportive messages to spiritual physician Deepak Chopra and Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei.

But it is her supposed relationship with the new bride of her eldest son, Prince William, where Brown is perhaps most controversial.

"The rising public adoration of Kate would have afforded Diana some tricky moments. Pleased, yes. But....Diana would have had to adjust to a broadening of the limelight," Brown writes.

She also speculates that Diana would have been a defender against royal snobbery of Middleton's non-aristocratic upbringing "and ostentatiously made Carole Middleton, Kate's dynamic mother, her new BFF."

Prince William and Kate Middleton, now formally known as the Duchess of Cambridge, arrive in Canada tomorrow for their first official visit overseas as a married couple.

They will also visit southern California from July 8-10. — Reuters

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Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Rabu, 29 Jun 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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