British Queen gets her first Sikh bodyguards

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Late Princess Diana has apparently become a forgotten member of the British Royal family, as the official biography of the Queen Mother comprises just two pages on the beauty with insufficient facts. Critics have slammed the book written by William Shawcross for not exploring The Queen mother's views on the princess' death in a car crash in 1997.

August 16th, 2009 LONDON - An Indian-origin writer has made the startling claim that Queen Victoria forbade the wife of the only married grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh from having children so that the British Raj could tighten its grip on Punjab. Peter Bance, a specialist in the history of Sikhs in Britain, writes about the reported instruction by Queen Victoria in his latest book, "Sovereign, Squire & Rebel", a biography of Duleep Singh, son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

July 31st, 2009 Sikh soldiers guard Queen Elizabeth IILONDON — Queen Elizabeth II has switched bearskin hats for turbans outside Buckingham Palace, where Sikh soldiers have begun guarding the monarch and her treasures, Britain's defense ministry said Friday. Signaler Simranjit Singh and Lance Cpl.

July 29th, 2009 LONDON - Two years after the British army abandoned a proposal to raise a Sikh regiment, the country's reining monarch has got her first Sikh bodyguards. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's 83-year-old sovereign, will be guarded by two turbaned and bearded men in their 20s.

July 14th, 2009 TORONTO - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has bestowed the rare Order of Merit on former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. The Order of Merit is an elite group of 24 members who are nominated by the Queen for their distinguished accomplishments in the arts, learning, sciences and public service.

June 2nd, 2009 LONDON - Prince Charles is expected to represent Queen Elizabeth at a ceremony to mark the landing of Allied troops on a beach in Normandy, France. Pressure from the White House has forced the French Government to invite the British royal family for the D-Day commemoration ceremony on June 6 in Normandy.

May 27th, 2009 LONDON - Buckingham Palace officials are very angry with French President Nicolas Sarkozy because he has not invited the Queen as a guest at next week's D-Day 65th anniversary. Organisers have revealed that the French President is focused on the "main event" of hosting his US counterpart Barack Obama.

May 26th, 2009 LONDON - A Sikh group from Slough has written to Queen Elizabeth requesting her to return property and items belonging to the family of Punjab's last king Ranjit Singh. The Telegraph quoted Jagdeesh Singh, from the Sikh Community Action Network, as saying: "We have written to the Queen asking for access rights and the eventual return of items such as historic copies of the Sikh national sacred writings, together with swords and weapons of the Sikh gurus." According to Singh, letters, diaries and writings of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the Sikh ruler exiled to Britain in the 19th century, are also part of the collection, some of which is housed at Windsor Castle.

May 12th, 2009 LONDON - British singer Lily Allen dressed up as Queen Victoria for her latest performance. Her hair was covered in a grey wig in a bun style and she wore a flowing skirt, an ermine gown and a corset that was visible underneath her clothes for the performance here, reported dailymail.co.uk.

May 8th, 2009 LONDON - Sikh police officers in Britain want special bulletproof turbans to be developed so they can serve in firearm units, a media report said. The Sikh religion requires its male followers to wear the turban, but existing police safety helmets do not fit on top of them, the Guardian reported Thursday.

May 4th, 2009 LONDON - British Princess Eugenie was rescued by her two bodyguards who fought against a group of bandits trying to thug her pal's purse in Cambodia, according to reports. Queen Elizabeth's granddaughter, who has been spending her gap year travelling the world with friends, had allegedly been walking at night in Phnom Penh when one thief tried to snatch away her friend's purse.

April 13th, 2009 LONDON - British actress Sienna Miller was polled in a men's magazine to be even less sexy than the queen. Miller dropped to 202 in the FHM list of Sexiest Women, thesun.co.uk reports.

April 4th, 2009 LONDON - President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have become the 11th US First Family to meet with the Queen. The Royal meeting is said to have been the most touchy-feely gathering that anyone could ever remember, especially after the Queen and Michelle Obama hugged one another, doing away with the Palace protocol, reports the Mirror.

February 4th, 2009 LONDON - A gift shop owned by the British Queen in northeast England has withdrawn golliwog toys that they were found to be selling. Managers at the shop in the Queen Elizabeth II's Sandringham estate in Norfolk apologised and a spokesman said they 'did not intend to offend anyone.' The move followed the expulsion of journalist Carol Thatcher, daughter of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, from a popular BBC television show after she made an off-screen reference to a black tennis player as a 'golliwog'.

January 19th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - 'Guru Manyo Granth', a British play based on the history of the Sikh religion and highlighting its ideologies, was performed here to a packed house. The play produced by the London-based Punjabi Theatre Academy and Guru Nanak Sikh School was enacted at the Tagore Theatre here Monday evening by five British and 10 Indian artistes.