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Queen Elizabeth

December 24, 2011 by · Comments Off on Queen Elizabeth 

Queen ElizabethQueen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband is expected to spend a second night in a hospital where he is recovering from a heart procedure, palace officials said Saturday.

Prince Philip, 90, had a coronary stent put in late Friday to fix a blocked artery, though the palace has refused to say if he had a heart attack.

On Saturday, Philip — also known as the Duke of Edinburgh — received visits from the queen and his four children at Papworth Hospital, where he was admitted after experiencing chest pains at the queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

The illness has cast a shadow over the royal family’s traditional Christmas gathering at Sandringham — the first to include Prince William’s new wife, Catherine. Buckingham Palace said Philip is not expected to attend church Sunday with his family, but that the service will go on as planned.

A helicopter brought Elizabeth to her husband’s side at Papworth Hospital, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) from London, shortly after 11 a.m. (1100 GMT, 6 a.m. EST) on Saturday. She was accompanied by three of her children — Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Prince Andrew.

Philip is “in good spirits, but he is eager to leave,” Buckingham Palace said. After spending 45 minutes with Philip, the royals traveled back to Sandringham by helicopter, it added.

The palace said Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, arrived by car at the hospital 45 minutes after the queen for a separate visit and that no other family members were expected to visit on Saturday.

Doctors said Philip could have had a heart attack, but without more information it was impossible to know for sure.

Coronary stenting is standard procedure both to fend off a heart attack or save a patient already in the midst of one, said Dr. Allan Schwartz, chief of cardiology at New York-Presbyterian, Columbia University Medical Center.

Philip, who in November marked 64 years of marriage to the queen, has been known to enjoy good health throughout his life and rarely misses royal engagements. Upon his 90th birthday in June, he announced plans to cut back his official duties.

Prince Philip

December 24, 2011 by · Comments Off on Prince Philip 

Prince PhilipPrince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh has had “a good night” after receiving treatment for a blocked coronary artery, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday morning.

Members of the royal family were expected to visit Prince Philip, 90, in hospital on Christmas Eve.

The duke suffered chest pains and was taken by helicopter from Sandringham to the specialist cardiothoracic unit at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire on Friday night.

He underwent a successful “invasive procedure of coronary stenting”.

In a brief statement, Buckingham Palace gave an update on his condition, saying “the Duke of Edinburgh has had a good night”.

The royal family has gathered at the Queen’s private Norfolk estate for Christmas and will attend the Christmas Day morning service at St Mary Magdalene church.

Prince Philip is expected to remain in hospital for observation for a “short period” and receive a visit from some of his relatives.

If he makes good progress, he could reportedly be back among them for Christmas Day, or the Boxing Day shoot, which he was expected to lead.

Dr Simon Davies, consultant intervention cardiologist at the Royal Brompton hospital in London, said the duke may have been on the verge of a heart attack or actually had one before the stenting procedure was performed.

“They [surgeons] have put a miniature sausage-shaped balloon down the artery, pushed the balloon into the narrowed section and then blown it up. That forces the material that is blocking the artery outwards and then gets the blood flowing down the artery again.

“The stent is like a little metal sleeve fitted over the balloon when it is blown up. This metallic sleeve is opened up and then when the balloon is deflated and withdrawn the stent stays behind.”

Pope Benedict

November 13, 2010 by · Comments Off on Pope Benedict 

Pope Benedict, ROME Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” has a cool reception from some critics. Pope Benedict XVI banker accumulate on.

President of the Vatican Bank Ettore Gotti Tedeschi dismissed the film as “predictable and banal” in an interview in L’Osservatore Romano, official Vatican newspaper. Gotti Tedeschi told the newspaper he had been to the cinema with high hopes, having been a fan of 1987, predecessor of the film and its villain known, Gordon Gekko.

“I did not like anything about the” sequel, Gotti Tedeschi said. “The first movie Wall Street has moral character. Even Gordon Gekko, the speculator, was wonderful, wonderful negatively.”

The sequel, however, does not delve into the causes of financial crisis, like the bubble of subprime mortgages, focusing instead on the melodrama and clichés, the banker said.

“It’s all about the different symbolic revenge against: the banker. He is evil. It has created the crisis. This film carries no positive message,” he said.

Gotti Tedeschi, a prominent Italian economist who has written extensively on ethics in finance, disagree with Stone’s sequel to the celebration of the villainous Gordon Gekko. “The film is acquitted, but praised the figure of the financial sharks alla Gekko” lamented Gotti Tedeschi.

Gotti Tedeschi is facing scrutiny of their own. Italian prosecutors recently put under investigation for allegedly violating the laws of Italy, money laundering. Prosecutors allege that the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works, carried out international money transfers without revealing the names of their clients or the nature of operations, required under Italian law.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors also have frozen 23 million euros in funding from IOR. The Vatican has rejected the allegations as the result of a “misunderstanding” between the bank of the Vatican and Italian regulators. Gotti Tedeschi has denied wrongdoing, adding that the operations were “absolutely transparent.”

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