Prince Charles

Kwame Kwei-Armah is turning up the floodlights on Center Stage . It's been not quite two years since the British-born playwright became artistic director of Maryland's largest regional theater. With his production of two button-pushing dramas nicknamed "The Raisin Cycle," the beams emanating from 700 N. Calvert St. are strong enough to be spotted in distant places, from the Big Apple to the Badger State. Articles about the cycle, in which both plays run in repertoire and have the same casts, have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Kwame Kwei-Armah is turning up the floodlights on Center Stage . It's been not quite two years since the British-born playwright became artistic director of Maryland's largest regional theater. With his production of two button-pushing dramas nicknamed "The Raisin Cycle," the beams emanating from 700 N. Calvert St. are strong enough to be spotted in distant places, from the Big Apple to the Badger State. Articles about the cycle, in which both plays run in repertoire and have the same casts, have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

WINDSOR, England - Prince Charles, former husband to the late Princess Diana, finally married Camilla Parker Bowles yesterday, at last legitimizing their decades of love in the eyes of the Church of England and making her the wife of the heir apparent to the British throne. After a private wedding in the elegant but ultimately utilitarian 17th-century Guildhall, Prince Charles, in a formal morning suit, and Parker Bowles, in a simple but flattering cream dress and broad-brimmed hat, walked with linked arms, beaming, Camilla transformed.

Those of us who set the alarm for the middle of the night to watch Diana marry Charles, and who were witness to all that happened after, are holding our breath as Prince William and Kate Middleton take the leap. Diana's adorable "Wills," as we came to know him, proposed to his college sweetheart during a safari last month in Kenya, a country that has become a conservation passion for the prince. He gave Kate his mother's sapphire-and-diamond engagement ring to wear. It is a piece of jewelry that might be as well-known as his mother's lovely face, but it became a gaudy symbol of a marriage that should never have occurred.

Prince Charles has dumped his long-time lover, Camilla Parker-Bowles, so he can remain a contender for the crown, the British newspapers and radio reported yesterday."

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- For a Valentine's Day prelude, the spectacle was bittersweet. Prince Charles arrived alone here yesterday to help the College of William and Mary celebrate its 300th birthday, finding himself, like the college's royal patrons, a victim of the vagaries of love.A lifelong student of the monarchy, the Prince of Wales certainly recognized the twist.On a first visit in 1981 to the college, the nation's second-oldest, he confided to students that the marriage of the future monarchs William and Mary in 1677 had been a "bad and depressing affair."

LONDON -- Queen Elizabeth II and her son and heir, the Prince of Wales, will begin paying the top tax rate on their personal income in April, Prime Minister John Major announced in Parliament yesterday.Treasury officials indicated last year that the queen would pay tax at the top rate of 40 percent.The question is 40 percent of what; estimates of the queen's fortune range from $135 million to $9.8 billion.The agreement was disclosed after almost a year of negotiations among the Inland Revenue department, the British Treasury, and the Royal Household -- in the face of popular pressure that the queen should pay taxes.

LONDON - Prince William graduated with honors from St. Andrews University in Scotland yesterday in a traditional ceremony attended by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and father, Prince Charles. One of only three British royals in recent history to graduate from university, the 23-year-old prince earned a Scottish master's degree, the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor's degree, in geography after four years of study. He achieved the second-highest honors, surpassing the performance of his father and uncle, Prince Edward, who received lesser honors at Cambridge University.

LONDON - The office of Charles, the Prince of Wales, announced last night that it would investigate allegations about the royal intervention that ended the trial of Princess Diana's butler, Paul Burrell, Nov. 1 and subsequent charges that the prince covered up an alleged homosexual rape by a top aide and that his courtiers sold royal gifts. The rare look into the goings-on behind palace doors appeared to be an attempt to stem the tide of charge and innuendo against the royal family in recent weeks that has threatened to wash away the goodwill earned during the jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II's 50 years on the throne.

London -- Prince Charles wants to peddle his cookies in America.Actually the prince is unlikely to call his Duchy Originals biscuits "cookies." Cookie is as American as Famous Amos. Even chocolate chip cookies, like stretch limousines, are an American import.The prince's cookies, uh, biscuits, are hard, crisp and thoroughly British oaten or gingered wafers.The prince, of course, doesn't personally pop the dough in the oven to make his Duchy Originals. They're a product of his Duchy of Cornwall and his interest in organic farming.

Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, recently celebrated his 60th birthday, and crossed a certain historical meridian. He is now firmly in second place playing the waiting game for the throne that has been occupied by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, since 1952, which currently makes her the third-longest-reigning monarch in English history. The record for waiting is still held by King William IV, who was 64 when he succeeded his elder brother, George IV, in 1830, who in turn was succeeded upon his death by his 18-year-old niece, Alexandrina Victoria - Queen Victoria - in 1837.

LONDON -- The 1997 Paris car crash that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, was an accident, not a murder plot hatched by the royal family, according to a British police investigation made public yesterday. "There was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of the car. This was a tragic accident," said John Stevens, former chief of the Metropolitan Police who led the three-year investigation. The inquiry's 832-page report also concluded that Princess Diana was not pregnant at the time of her death, nor did she have any intention of marrying Fayed even though he had purchased an engagement ring on the day of their death.

LONDON -- Prince Harry, the third in line to the British throne, will join one of the army's oldest and most prestigious units, making him eligible for service in Iraq, the Ministry of Defense said yesterday. Prince Harry, 21, will serve in the Blues and Royals regiment of the venerable Household Cavalry, which has been deployed to Iraq. The regiment is the one most closely associated with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Harry's grandmother. "It's fair to say that if his squadron goes to Iraq, he will probably go with it," a ministry spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

NATIONAL Midwest tornado kills 22 A tornado tore across western Kentucky and Indiana early yesterday, killing at least 22 people as it cut through a mobile home park and obliterated trailers and houses as residents slept. pg 3a WORLD Russian Communists seek role As Russia's Communists celebrate the 88th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Lenin to power and laid the foundation of the Soviet state, their party finds itself without reason to celebrate much else. pg 1a Marine dies in Iraq offensive A Marine was killed in an insurgent ambush yesterday when his patrol raided a house in the tense border town of Husaybah, the first American casualty in a Marine-led sweep through the area aimed at stopping foreign jihadists from infiltrating Iraq through the Syrian border.

He may be the heir to the British throne, but he's also gained international recognition as a foe of bad architecture -- and an ally of those who want to improve the built environment. During his visit to Washington last week, Prince Charles reinforced that reputation by opening two exhibits at the National Building Museum that document his efforts to fight "uglification" and raise the quality of architecture and urban design around the world. The first, titled Civitas: Traditional Urbanism in Contemporary Practice, features 16 developments that exemplify planning principles Prince Charles endorses.

Some in the British press have taken to calling the softer, more stylish look recently adopted by the newlywed Duchess of Cornwall, "Camilla chic." But for her first United States visit since marrying Prince Charles, the Camilla who showed up here this week merely looked appropriate. Fine. Neat. Maybe "chic" means something else in the United Kingdom, the way "lift" means "elevator" there, not a ride to a particular destination. "We're in a sorry state of affairs if we're calling that `chic,'" says Dannielle Romano, editor-at-large of DailyCandy.

Today, Britain and the world bid farewell to the Queen Mother Elizabeth, who died March 30 at age 101. The funeral will be in London's Westminster Abbey, where English monarchs are crowned and buried. Many Britons loved the queen mother, but perhaps the most moving tribute came from her grandson, Prince Charles, whose remarks were broadcast to the nation. Here are Charles' words, provided by the Associated Press: I know what my darling grandmother meant to so many other people. She literally enriched their lives, and she was the original life enhancer, whether publicly or privately, whoever she was with.

WASHINGTON -- In the breathless minutes before the royal motorcade rolled up to the SEED School yesterday, a small army of khaki- and polo-clad kids unfurled a brown paper sign, with this spray-painted message: "Welcome to SEED Prince Charles and Duchess of Wales." A sweet gesture. Only, the well-coiffed visitor in the black limo wasn't the Duchess of Wales. Wales belongs to Diana, the beloved princess, dead eight years now. This woman grinning at the prince's side was the newly minted Duchess of Cornwall - formerly Camilla Parker Bowles, Princess Diana's longtime rival, Prince Charles' former mistress and, now, wife.

WASHINGTON -- As Prince Charles and his wife prepare to visit the White House and other sites this week during their first trip to the United States since they married in April, the former Camilla Parker Bowles was said to be "a bit nervous" about her reception in a nation that doted on Charles' first wife, Princess Diana. At the White House, under siege from weeks of bad news and bracing for a donnybrook with Democrats over the nomination of conservative Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, a few hours spent entertaining Britain's royal couple could provide a welcome break.