© The Associated Press/Mark BakerPrince William and his wife Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge take their shoes off before entering a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012.
London - Paparazzi, French media and a British royal: The publication of topless photos of Prince William's wife Kate has reunited the same players whose clash ended with the untimely death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a Parisian car crash.
William, who has long harbored a grudge against the paparazzi who chased Diana in the days and hours leading up to her 1997 death, was clearly infuriated. The royal couple hit back with an immediate lawsuit against the popular French gossip magazine
Closer.
The blurry photos, called a "grotesque" abuse of privacy by royal officials, show Kate _ the Duchess of Cambridge _ wearing only a skimpy bikini bottom. They are the first to show Britain's likely future queen with her bosom exposed.
St. James's Palace officials sharply criticized the magazine moments after the photos hit French newsstands, comparing the intrusion on the young couple's privacy to the tragic paparazzi pursuit of Diana, which many believe was a contributing factor in her early death on Aug. 31, 1997.
The parallels between the past and the present were eerie. Diana was hounded by paparazzi who took telephoto shots of her vacationing on a yacht with her boyfriend Dodi and tailed them relentlessly in Paris.
Earlier this month, a photographer with a similar long lens captured Kate and William relaxing in the sun at a private estate in Provence, a vacation spot near the French Riviera.
Instead of challenging the authenticity of the blurry photos, palace officials said they appear genuine _ and should never have been taken, much less published.
Comment: Being pacified by economic hyperbole or are you paying attention to the signs?
8 Shocking Truths the 'War on Terror' and the 'Global Financial War' Have in Common
Dollar no longer primary oil currency - China begins to sell oil using Yuan
"Give me control over a nations currency, and I care not who makes its laws." -Baron M.A. Rothschild
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.. corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln