British newspapers said yesterday Dodi al-Fayed had a secret love child who was nine months old when the Harrods heir died in a car crash with Princess Diana.
A spokesman for Harrods denied the story, saying it was "a cruel deceit" aimed at tricking the grief-stricken Fayeds into accepting a child as their own.
The papers said Marni was born in a US hospital in November 1996 to a British hotel consultant, Diane Holliday (36).
The baby girl - said to bear a striking resemblance to Egyptian-born Dodi - was given up for adoption in the US but Ms Holliday has now hired a British lawyer in an attempt to get her back, said the papers. Ms Holliday also has two teenage children.
A Portuguese baker has been honoured as the baker of the best baguette in Paris, marking the first time the annual prize has gone to someone not born in France. The Mayor of Paris, Jean Tiberi, presented the 1998 grand prize for the best baguette in the French capital to Antonio Teixeira (32), who came to France seven years ago from his birthplace in Fafe, Portugal.
Teixeira, who routinely puts in 16-hour days at his Aux Delices du Palais bakery in the 14th district, plans to share his prize with his four employees.
Twins Rhea Spohner and Ruth Emblow celebrated their 100th birthday at the weekend, a feat experts said happens in just one set of twins out of 100,000.
The sisters live separately in apartments in the same senior citizens' complex in Brighton, New York, while their little sister, who is 94, lives nearby, they said.
"We couldn't live together," Ruth Emblow told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. "We're exact opposites in everything." But they share a fondness for chocolate and enjoy watching figure skating on television.
Longevity runs in the family. Their mother died at 101, their father lived to be 87 and all six of his sisters lived to be more than 90, the twins said.