July 24th

Prince taps to Valleys rock(BBC News)

During the third day of his annual visit to Wales, Prince Charles has been listening to the rock stars of tomorrow during a visit to The Pop Factory.
The state-of-the-art recording studio is on the site of the former Corona pop factory in Porth in the Rhondda Valley.
The prince was shown a video of the history of the Pop Factory before being treated to a show including electric guitarists and a rock duo.
Earlier in the day, he toured Blaenavon World Heritage Site where he cracked open an iron cast mould with a plaque to commemorate the town receiving World Heritage Site status.
His second port of call was Cwmaman Miner's Institute in Cwmaman, south Wales.
There he opened the refurbished building - which dates back to 1982 - following a £3.8m facelift transforming it into a leisure and arts centre.
Then in his role as president of the Foundation for Integrated Medicine, he was show around the facilities of the Welsh Institute of Chiropractice at Pontypridd.
Congratulating everyone for their hard work at the institute, Prince Charles said that as someone who suffered from back pain himself, their work was "invaluable".
The climax of his day's touring at The Pop Factory was a performance by electric guitarists and a rock duo.
The prince was seen to tap his toe as 25-year-old Lucy Clark and Christopher Lewis, 26, played.
"He was full of questions and I couldn't believe how genuinely enthusiastic he was about everything and that he had time for everybody," said The Pop Factory founder Emyr Afan.
The Royal visit marked the launch of the Sain Byw scheme at the academy - a six-day course run by The Pop Factory and the Prince's Trust Cymru.
Participants not only get the chance to attend 'music business' classes but also benefit from master classes from professional including The Stereophonics's Stuart Cable and Mark Richardson from Skunk Anansie.
Prince Charles's last engagement is attending the premiere of Final Fantasy at Cardiff's newly-opened 15-screen UGC cinema.
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Laura Bush says daughter wore dress to see Queen(Yahoo: Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Laura Bush has rejected tabloid reports that one of her twin daughters had worn jeans when she met the Queen for lunch last week at Buckingham Palace.
"She did not wear jeans. I think that maybe we should use other sources but the tabloids," said Mrs. Bush from Rome, where she is accompanying her husband on a European tour.
"She wore a dress, of course, to meet the queen," she added in an interview with NBC's "Today" show on Monday.
British tabloid papers reported last week that Barbara Bush, 19, had worn jeans and a denim jacket when she accompanied her parents to the palace for lunch with the Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Andrew. Mrs. Bush said it had been a "thrill" for the Bush family to go to Buckingham Palace for lunch with the royals.
"The Queen and Prince Philip were very generous with their time and very nice to invite us and to invite our daughter as well," said the first lady.
The Bush's twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, have been in the media spotlight in recent months and both have run into the law over underage drinking in Texas, where the legal drinking age is 21. Pushed to discuss the issue, Mrs. Bush stressed her family's right to privacy over the issue. "Our particular talks (about alcohol) with our children are private."

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