ALAN SHEARER, the former England football captain, enjoyed a family day out at Buckingham Palace when he received his OBE from the Queen yesterday.
He said: "This is the stuff that dreams are made of - to bring your family to the Palace - it's just fantastic. I'm just so pleased that my family's here - the two girls have been really excited for a long time."
The Newcastle player's daughters Chloe, eight, and Hollie, six, were at the investiture with his wife, Lainya. Shearer said: "Our little boy, Will, is only 10 months, so he's back in Newcastle with my mum and dad."
Also receiving an OBE yesterday was a woman farmer whose big day had been delayed by the foot and mouth crisis.
Margaret Dalton, 59, who took over her 320-acre farm in Lampeter, west Wales, when her husband Don died of cancer at the age of 40, was unable to accept her award in March because of fears that she would spread the disease.
Mrs Dalton said: "All the local farmers expected me to sell up and they said I wouldn't be able to carry on alone. But I'd promised Don that the farm would stay in the family."
A soldier who played a crucial role in the rescue of British hostages held in Sierra Leone was presented with the Military Cross.
Capt Daniel Matthews, of the Parachute Regiment, helped to free the six British soldiers and a Sierra Leone liaison officer held in the jungle by rebels.
During the rescue, on Sept 10 last year, the company commander was wounded and Capt Matthews took over, capturing the rebel stronghold.
~*~
Prince born in exile gets Yugoslav palace keys (Electronic Telegraph)
By Philip Sherwell
FIFTY-SIX years after he was born in exile in a London hotel, Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia last night spent his first night in the White Palace in Belgrade, family home of his Karadjordjevic dynasty.
The emotional arrival follows last week's restoration of the royal palaces to the prince, who was stripped of his citizenship and property by Tito's Communists after the Second World War.
The prince arrived at the palace complex with his Greek wife, Princess Katherine, after they were formally handed the keys and documents by Yugoslav officials.
They were installed last night in the rooms once occupied by the prince's grandfather, King Alexander, Yugoslavia's first monarch.
The prince intends to use his experience of finance in London and North America to attract foreign investment to Yugoslavia. His wife will build on her work as the government's humanitarian aid co-ordinator.
Askold Krushelnycky writes: President Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia appointed a new prime minister who he hopes will shore up the faltering union between Serbia and Montenegro, the last two members of the Yugoslav federation.
Dragisa Pesic, of the Montenegrin Socialist People's Party, was finance minister in the government of his predecessor, Zoran Zizic.
It collapsed after Mr Zizic resigned in protest at the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic, the former president, to face the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.