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Famous toy company Mattel has presented a Barbie doll based on HRH Crown Princess Victoria. The ‘Victoria Barbie’ shows the Princess in full gala attire, wearing one of her well-known red gala gowns and fringe tiara, complete with the Order of the Seraphim.

The doll was part of a presentation at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, which began on February 4th. Other Barbie dolls in the presentation included one of Harry Potter author JK Rowling and Belgian tennis champion Kim Clijsters.

Click here to read more at TRF.

JessRulz Swedish Royals Princess Victoria

Earlier this week on February 1st, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary began their annual holiday in the Swiss mountains of Verbier with a photo shoot, accompanied by their two children, Prince Christian and Princess Isabella.

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The family posed briefly, playing in the snow with Christian and Isabella, before heading back to their accommodation. Little Isabella did not appear to be in the best of spirits, with Danish media outlets later reporting she was ill (some even stating chicken pox as the ailment).

The following day, February 2nd, Prince Christian was seen taking skiing lessons with some other young children, while Frederik and Mary skiied themselves, watched their son and took Princess Isabella on rides on a red toboggan. The Danish Crown Princely Couple have been vacationing in Verbier each February since 2002.

The vacation comes after Prince Frederik and Princess Mary attended a telethon in the evening of Saturday January 30th, as patrons of Danmarks Collection, in Frederiksborg. The money raised from the telethon will be split in two: one portion going to help African women, as it does each year, and the other going to assist the disaster relief in Haiti, following the dreadful earthquake which hit the tiny nation last month.

A record amount was raised this year, over 130,000,000 Danish kroner (nearly 17.5million Euro) was donated to the cause.

JessRulz Danish Royals Haiti, Patronage, Photo Session, Prince Christian of Denmark, Prince Frederik, Princess Isabella, Princess Mary, Switzerland, Vacation

HH the Heir Apparent, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Crown Prince of Qatar received the Legion of Honour with the rank of Grand Officer, which is the highest decoration in France, from French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris.

The event was followed by a lunch meeting at the Elysee Palace. Later that day, Crown Prince Tamim met with the French PM Francois Fillon at the Matignon Palace. They discussed ways to strengthen existing relations.

dazzling Qatar Royals Bilateral Relations, France, Orders, President Sarkozy, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad

On February 2nd, the fire brigade in Luxembourg City was called to attend a fire which had broken out in the Grand Ducal Palace, the official residence of TRH the Grand Duke and Duchess.

They arrived to find smoke coming from the windows of the palace’s basement, where the laundry rooms are. It is believed a faulty washing machine or dryer is the cause of the small fire, which caused damage to only minor parts of the palace limited to the laundry rooms.

Newspaper RTL printed a picture of Grand Duke Henri chatting, probably thanking, the firemen outside the palace once the emergency had been dealt with.

JessRulz Luxembourg Royals Grand Ducal Palace, Grand Duke Henri, Palaces

Lalla Salma received on Monday at the Château de Versailles (near Paris) the 2010 award of the Charter of Paris against Cancer. The ceremony took place during a charity evening organized for the benefit of the association (Life – Hope to Fight Cancer) held under the patronage of president Nicholas Sarkozy for the Association pour la Vie-Espoir contre le Cancer (AVEC).

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The award comes in recognition of the untiring action of the Princess as head of the Lalla Salma Association to Fight Cancer. In this context Professor Khayat paid tribute to the Princess for her “unwavering commitment” to making the Moroccan society “show stronger solidarity in the battle for life.” He said the Princess’ commitment made it possible “to place Morocco in a high level in the fight against cancer” and “to facilitate “the poor’s access to treatment and medicine to allow them an opportunity to recover” from this terrible disease.

The Charter of Paris was formed in February 2000 under the auspices of Mr Jacques Chirac, ex-president of France, and initiated by David Khayat, president of the National Institute of Cancer in France, at the World Summit Against Cancer in Paris.

Mademoiselle Lilo Moroccan Royals Awards, France, Lalla Salma, Lalla Salma Association to Fight Cancer

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 Though only two days ago the Spanish newspaper ‘El Correo Gallego’ and Bulgarian Newspaper ‘24 hours’ had alarming reports about the health of prince Kardam of Bulgaria, today magazine ‘Hola!’ writes on their website that prince Kardam has been discharged from the Conxo provinvial hospital in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

In ‘Hola!’ Kardam’s wife, princess Miriam, says that the prince has been discharged. The prince was taken to the Conxo hospital because of a high fever, combined with a severe kidney infection and respiratory problems.

According to the princess, her husband continues to recover from the brain damage he suffered due to a car accident in 2008. The recovery goes in slow steps, the prince and his family moved to the town of Teo in Gallicia where prince Kardam works on his recovery in the medical center FOLTRA. The prince, princess and their two sons moved to the town during last summer and have only returned to Madrid to celebrate christmas.

Marengo Bulgarian Royals Health, Prince Kardam, Princess Miriam

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Newspaper ‘Wort‘ reports that on Tuesday, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg and her sister-in-law, Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein opened the first dyslexia forum of UNESCO in Paris.  The Grand Duchess held the opening speech of the forum. In her speech she said that world wide 300 million people are dyslectic.

According to the Grand Duchess, these people are still marginalized. Maria teresa also pointed out that it depended primarily on the teachers to promote the talents of these people and give them self-esteem and confidence. To emphasize this the Grand Duchess and Princess Margaretha visited the exhibition ‘Creativity is more than just words’.

The main goal of the UNESCO dyslexia forum is make people aware that every person has a right to education and that the values that are discussed must be put into practice. Only in this way dyslexic people can be integrated into society.

Courtesy: TRF member thedittybopper, in this post.

Marengo Liechtenstein Royals, Luxembourg Royals France, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, Health, Patronage, Princess Margaretha, UNESCO

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Yesterday, Queen Sofia of Spain, accompanied by the Prince of Asturias, attended a tribute concert in memory of the late Queen of Spain, H.M. Queen Victoria Eugenia, mostly know as Queen Ena, nee Princess Victoria Eugénie of Battenberg.

The concert was held by the British Hispanic Foundation on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the death of Queen Ena. This foundation is a non-profit, private and cultural foundation, founded in 1980 and whose Honorary President is Infanta Margarita de Borbón, the Duchess of Soria, who also attended the concert.

The main aim of the foundation is to promote relations between the Spanish and British peoples leading to closer ties between the two countries.

Paty Spanish Royals Anniversary, Concert, Death, Infanta Margarita, Prince Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Queen Sofia, Queen Victoria Eugenia

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 Newspaper ‘Die Presse’ has released some more details about the upcoming funeral of Archduchess Regina of Austria, who died yesterday morning in Pöcking, Bavaria at the age of 85.

From Saturday February 6th to Monday February 8th archduchess Regina will lie in state in the church of Sankt Ulrich in Pöcking.  On Tuesday Walter Mixa, the bishop of Augsburg, will hold a Requiem in Pöcking, in the memory of the late archduchess. On Wednesday February 10th she will be burried in the  family vault on the church yard of the Veste Heldburg in the district Hildburghausen(Thuringia).

In 2006 archduchess Regina transferred the remains of her mother, duchess Clara of Saxe-meiningen and her brother Anton Ulrich to the church yard in Veste Heldburg and in 2007 the remains of her father, duke Georg III were transferred from Tscherepowez (Russia), to the church yard of Veste Heldburg as well.

Marengo Austrian Royals Archduchess Regina, Funeral, Habsburg, Saxe-Meiningen

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On Monday the Dutch court announced that Prince Willem-Alexander will go to the Vancouver Winter Olympics with his wife and with his three daughters. From February 9th to 12th the prince will be participating in the 122nd meeting of the IOC in Vancouver. After that the prince will attend the 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver from February 12th to 28th. Princesses Máxima, Amalia, Alexia and Ariane will join the prince in Canada and will attend various competitions.

Yesterday the RVD (Gouvernment Information Service) released a statement saying that the decision of the prince and princess to take their daughters to Vancouver for two weeks is in accordance with the  ‘leerplichtwet’ (Compulsary Education Law). The normal primairy school holiday in February however only lasts one week, and a look on the website of the Bloemcampschool shows that the 6 year old princess Amalia, at least has to miss four days of school due to this holiday.

Click on image to see photo at Zimbio

However, the Compulsary Education Law gives the school director the right to give a child 10 extra free days a year, without consulting the ministry of Education.  The school director can decide if the child won’t get behind due to the extra days of holiday and if there are special reasons to grant them.

Last year, princess Amalia also got extra days off to enjoy the annual ski holiday of the royal family in Lech, Switzerland. The news that the princesses again have extra holidays did not get many positive reactions on opinion websites and in newspapers. Many people think it is unfair that the princesses get some extra days off this easily, while it is very difficult for other children. As the prince of Orange and his wife annually already have more days off than the average person, people do not see the need to ask for extra days of holiday yet again. Queen Beatrix and prince Claus usually took their children on holiday during the christmas vacation, to prevent these kind of discussions, according to royalblog.nl.Considering the severe critisicm on the crown prince in the last six months, it would have been advisable for him not to make himself vulnerable to a new source of criticism, but alas…

Marengo Dutch Royals Olympics, Prince of Orange, Prince Willem-Alexander, Princess Alexia of the Netherlands, Princess Ariane, Princess Catharina-Amalia, Princess Máxima, Vancouver 2010