The son of vanished peer Lord Lucan has been warned he faced a protracted struggle to assume his father's title.
The missing peer's son, Lord Bingham (29), is said to have told friends he intends to make legal moves to have his father officially declared dead so he can take up the seat in the House of Lords, vacant for the past 23 years. Lord Lucan disappeared after his children's nanny, Sandra Rivett, was found bludgeoned to death in the basement of the family home in Belgravia, London, in November 1974.
He is still wanted for questioning over the murder. Although there have been dozens of unconfirmed sightings of him over the years, his friends insist he is dead.
To become the Eighth Earl of Lucan, Lord Bingham would seek to obtain a writ in the Royal Courts of Justice declaring that his father was dead, on the basis that he had not been seen for at least seven years.
Supermodel Cindy Crawford admits she is still in love with Richard Gere even though the couple are divorced and she is engaged to another man.
But the Revlon girl, who was friend and lover to Gere for seven years, adds she never wants to get back together with him. They no longer speak to each other and she is now engaged to Rande Gerber, she told She magazine. "I still love him and he's a great guy but I don't think we were good at being married to each other," Cindy said. The 31-year-old also revealed she had a heart-to-heart chat with Diana, Princess of Wales, on how to find a perfect man after her marriage broke up.
Nigerians yesterday mourned the death at 58 of maverick Afrobeat superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who helped bring the continent's music to a global audience.
The singer, composer and saxophonist died on Saturday, reportedly from an AIDS related illness. Apart from his music, Fela won a reputation for smoking marijuana, sleeping with large numbers of women and dressing only in his underpants.
The Duke of Edinburgh is giving up competitive yacht racing because he is "too old". "If I made an error everybody would say `silly old buffer'," he told friends. Prince Philip decided not to register as skipper during Cowes Week for the first time in 50 years.
Japanese celebrity twins Kin and Gin wielded shovels and putters as they celebrated their 105th birthday by planting trees and learning golf.
The twins, Kin Narita and Gin Kanie, displayed the wit that has made them household names in Japan during a promotion for a forestry conservation group.