Foreign

King Charlse to give up lease on Welsh country estate

Published

11 months ago

June 4, 2023

King Charles is giving up the lease on his Welsh estate.

Llwynywermod estate, near Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, was purchased for the then-Prince Charles by The Duchy of Cornwall, external in 2007 for £1.2m

The three-bedroom property, a former coach house, is set in the grounds of a ruined mansion and overlooks an 18th Century country park including 40 acres of woodland.

Buckingham Palace confirmed the King had given notice to the Duchy earlier this year that he planned to give up the lease when it ends this summer.

Llwynywermod has served as the home of the King and Queen Camilla during visits to Wales, including while on annual summer tours of the nation.
Following renovations in 2008, old agricultural buildings centred on a courtyard were converted into self-catering units.

According to the Telegraph, external, the King has been paying rent on Llwynywermod since the Duchy of Cornwall was passed to Prince William after his father’s coronation.

Quoting royal sources, the newspaper said the King remained “passionate” about Wales but had decided to give up the property because it was “unlikely” he would be able to use it in the same way as when he was Prince of Wales.

Prior to taking the throne, the King was regularly seen walking in the area, with he and the Queen described as “active patrons” in the village.

The original owner of Llwynywermod estate, in the 13th or 14th Century, was William Williams who was related to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII and the mother of Elizabeth I.

The old house and its disintegrating concrete and corrugated iron farm buildings were restored by Welsh craftsmen using traditional methods and materials from the area

The then-Prince Charles planted climbers including Albertine roses, jasmine and honeysuckle up the walls.

Six of the English field maples which formed the avenue of trees at William and Kate’s 2011 wedding were later rehomed at the Welsh retreat.

The idea was the King’s and, with William and Kate’s approval, he set them in the soil at the front of the house, along a rustic wooden fence.

Foreign

3 teens arrested in Germany for allegedly plotting terror attack

Published

2 weeks ago

April 12, 2024

Alero Danjuma

German authorities have arrested three teenagers aged 15 and 16 on suspicion of plotting a deadly Islamist terrorist attack in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, prosecutors said on Friday.

The state’s Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism (ZenTer NRW) sought an arrest warrant for the teenagers over the Easter holiday.

They were suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in accordance with the aims and ideology of (extremist militia organisation) Islamic State.

The detained suspects are a 15-year-old girl from Dusseldorf, a 16-year-old girl from the Märkischer Kreis district and a 15-year-old boy from the Soest district, located about 100 kilometres to the east of Dusseldorf.

A fourth suspect has reportedly been identified in the south-western German state of Baden-Württemberg, and the local court there has issued an arrest warrant.

According to the investigators, the teenagers are accused of having agreed to commit murder and manslaughter.

This is in conjunction with the preparation of a serious act of violence endangering the state.

The presumption of innocence applied in all stages of the proceedings.

Security sources told newsmen that the young people had formed a chat group, but had not drawn up a concrete attack plan for a particular time and place.

However, sources said the cities of Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Cologne were discussed as targets, and attacks with knives and Molotov cocktails on people in churches or police officers in police stations had been considered.

The sources said authorities had also conducted searches as part of the investigation.

A machete and a dagger were seized in Dusseldorf, but no evidence of the construction of incendiary devices was discovered.

Sources said the father of the Dusseldorf suspect had already attracted attention from authorities in the past because he had allegedly collected donations for the Islamic State.

The investigators declined to reveal how the suspected terrorists were tracked down, but said that foreign intelligence agencies “did not play a role.”

Foreign

Putin Registers As Candidate For Russia’s Next Presidential Election

Published

3 months ago

January 30, 2024

Alero Danjuma

Russia on Monday officially recognised Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the presidential elections in March, a vote that he is all but certain to win.

The 71-year-old has led Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential ballots and briefly serving as prime minister in a system where opposition has become virtually non-existent.

The Central Election Commission said it had registered Putin, who nominated himself, as well as right-wing firebrand and Putin-loyalist Leonid Slutsky as candidates for the vote.

The election will be held over a three-day period from March 15 to 17, a move that Kremlin critics have argued makes guaranteeing transparency more difficult.

Following a controversial constitutional reform in 2020, Putin could stay in power until at least 2036.

Rights groups say that previous elections have been marred by irregularities and that independent observers are likely to be barred from monitoring the vote.

While Putin is not expected to face any real competition, liberal challenger Boris Nadezhdin has passed the threshold of signatures to be registered as a candidate.

However, it is still unclear if he will be allowed to run, and the Kremlin has said it does not consider him to be a serious rival.