Leading US cardiologist Michael DeBakey (89), who presided over last year's bypass surgery on Boris Yeltsin, has promised to help found a new medical school in Lebanon. DeBakey, who is of Lebanese origin, unveiled a memorial plaque inscribed with his name at the campus of the Lebanese American University in Byblos, where the school will be built.
Queen Elizabeth's Christmas broadcast will this year be available on the Internet, Buckingham Palace said yesterday. Also, for the first time, the broadcast is being produced by ITN and transmitted simultaneously on radio and television.
Princess Anne has called for the yacht Britannia to be scuttled at sea when taken out of service next month. The princess said it would be impossible for anyone to maintain the yacht in its current pristine condition. "Do you realise that the brasses are cleaned every day - not every month or every week, but every day? Nobody could do that," she said.
The satire show Brass Eye, which stars Christopher Morris, has once more been ticked off by Britain's Broadcasting Standards Commission. It upheld 10 viewers' complaints that an episode of the Channel 4 show was distasteful, offensive and over-graphic. In it Morris satirised a talk show host mercilessly questioning a supposed teenage victim of sexual abuse , and was seen having sex.
Germany's president Roman Herzog (63) got together with three representatives of the music scene this week in an attempt to bridge the gap between young people and political leaders.
He had talks with "Jazzy" Tackenberg (23), a member of the girl-rap band Tic Tac Toe, as well as the rock stars Nena and Peter Maffay. Herzog said he had "absolutely no problem" with the street-wise girls' songs. They shot to fame with a hit entitled I think you're shit.