THE WIDOW of China's last emperor, Li Shuxian, has died of lung cancer in Beijing. She was aged 73.
Li married Aisin Gioro Pu Yi in 1962. Pu Yi was the last emperor of China's Manchu Qing dynasty that ended in 1911 with the founding of a republic. Pu Yi began life as the son of heaven and ended it as a gardener to the communists.
The Philippine Supreme Court has all but killed chances of a second term for President Fidel Ramos by upholding its ban on a petition to change the constitution so he could seek re-election.
The 1987 constitution fixed the president's term at six years without re-election. reacting to the dictatorship under the late Ferdinand Marcos's 20-year rule.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is selling his family home in London because of security considerations.
Blair and his wife Cherie had hoped to keep the four-storey, five-bedroomed house but security experts said it would need major work to protect it from possible terrorist attacks.
Newspapers reported an asking price of £615,000.
Brigitte Bardot has lost a judicial request for the seizure of her second husband's memoirs, in which he laments being strapped by a small Don Juan in a skirt".
Judge Pierre Renard-Payen ruled yesterday against the seizure of Jacques Charrier's My Reply to BB, saying it would violate the principle of freedom of expression. Turning to Bardot's claim that the book was a violation of privacy, he said he would consider damages in a new ruling set for next October.
Meg Matthews (31), recently married to Noel Gallagher (30) of Oasis, arrived in Britain yesterday after her Las Vegas wedding.
When asked by waiting reporters if rumours that she was pregnant were true she said: "Definitely not. I can vouch for that." The rumours had started when Noel shouted "shotgun job" to bemused onlookers outside the chapel.
The world's first gay doll - devised as a promotion for a London AIDS benefit - has become a best-seller in the US.
There are four Billy varieties, each 13 inches tall, and looking remarkably like members of The Village People. Leather Billy and Wall Street Billy are on the way.