Prince Harry's Girlfriend Chelsy Davy Dumped Him For Text-Flirting

Prince Harry's girlfriend Chelsy Davy dumped him after she discovered secret text messages from another woman on his mobile phone.

The Zimbabwean-born university student read the messages after overhearing Harry whispering on his phone last month.

Unnamed friends of the couple told The Sun newspaper Chelsy "hit the roof" when she found the text messages, which were apparently from a secret admirer.

"It started when Chelsy overheard Harry having a whispered conversation with a girl," one told the newspaper.

"Later she stole a look at his mobile while he wasn't looking and found the text messages that really upset her.

"Chelsy was furious. She then confronted Harry and they had a blazing row."

Ms Davy is believed to have discovered the secret text messages after Harry returned from watching England's Rugby World Cup semi-final match against France in Paris on October 13.

The latest rift between the couple comes amid reports Davy is preparing to pack her bags and leave Britain, despite starting a law degree just two months ago in Leeds.

Ms Davy, 22, is said to be sick of the cold weather there and unhappy with Harry's playboy lifestyle.

She was pictured today in the tabloid newspapers looking tired and drawn as she left her flat in Leeds to visit a nearby coffee shop with a friend.

Ms Davy is believed to have asked Harry for a "cooling off" period.

"Chelsy put her foot down," a friend told the newspaper.

"She said men who are truly in love with their girlfriends don't conduct close friendships with other women to that degree."

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Marvel Entertainment Inc To Feature Comics Of Spider-Man, X-Men,.. Online

Robert MacMillan
Spider-Man may spin a good yarn in comic books, but Marvel Entertainment Inc hopes that he finds the world wide web equally comfortable.

The publisher said that it will start a website that will feature access to thousands of its comic books and the famous heroes who populate them, from Spider-Man and the X-Men to the Fantastic Four and The Avengers.

Marvel will charge subscriptions - $US4.99 a month if people sign up for a year, or $9.99 a month if they don't.

"This is a major new piece of my overall publishing plan," Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Publishing, said in an interview.

"It's a different entertainment experience, online versus reading a book."

Marvel plans to offer access to 2,500 comics, Buckley said. It will make 250 available for free to entice people to pay up, but for a limited time, a company statement explained.

The Digital Comics Unlimited site then will add 20 additional books a week, including a mix of new and vintage comics.

Among the older titles will be the first 100 issues of "Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Fantastic Four," as well as the initial 66-issue run of "Uncanny X-Men" and the first 50 issues of "The Avengers." It will feature other super heroes like the Incredible Hulk, Wolverine and the Silver Surfer.

It will also include the first appearances of villains Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Lizard and Dr. Doom, not to mention the first appearance of Spider-Man's black costume.

New titles will include Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men," "The House of M," "Young Avengers" and "Runaways."

To present the titles in a quality format, Marvel has recoloured and redigitised some of its offerings.

The move to the internet is unlikely to account for a major portion of Marvel Publishing's sales, Buckley said, but it will be an important addition.

It sells its magazines at newsstands, though he said the business has been contracting in the past 10 years. What has been performing well is the hobby business, he said, with some 2,500 shops across the companies that attract collectors and other fans.

Titles must be in print for at least six months before they will go online, Buckley said.

Marvel's move runs contrary to newspaper and magazine publishers, which have been moving toward not charging people and supporting themselves through advertising.

Buckley said the nature of the content is what makes Marvel's plan different.

"Our comic book distribution and our comic book properties aren't part of the mass medium where you can it for free easily," he said.

Dennis Webb, owner of the Comics and Cards Collectorama in Alexandria, Virginia, doubted that it would attract a mass audience used to reading and collecting their comics in print.

"I think most of them like to buy their own comics and read them where they want to go," he said.

"I don't think they want to have it just online because if they're really a collector, they're going to want the actual collection."

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Some 6,500 Birds Killed In Eastern England Due To Bird Flu (Avian Flu)

British Health officials began slaughtering thousands of birds Tuesday at Redgrave Park Farm in Suffolk in eastern England where a bird-flu outbreak was confirmed this week, and after tests on turkeys found to have avian flu have confirmed the H5N1 strain.

All 6,500 birds - 5,000 free-range turkeys, 1,000 ducks and 500 geese on the farm in Redgrave, Suffolk county, were being culled, while poultry restrictions were forcing free-range birds throughout the county to be moved inside.

The workers doing the culling were given preventative doses of the anti-viral Tamiflu medication, believed to be effective against bird flu, and wore protective gear of gowns, gloves, boots and masks.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said Monday that turkeys at the Redgrave farm had tested positive for an H5 subtype of the disease, and that further tests would determine if it was an H5N1 strain similar to that which has swept across Asia, Europe and Africa since 2003.

Bird flu's return to British shores is yet another blow to farmers, who are already struggling after herds were hit this year by foot-and-mouth and bluetongue. If the bird flu spreads, it could devastate the hugely profitable Christmas trade in poultry.

A two-mile protection zone and a six-mile surveillance zone were created around the infected Redgrave farm, and further restrictions were imposed over Suffolk and much of the neighboring county of Norfolk. The alarm was raised Sunday, after a rise in death rates among the birds, which are owned by poultry producer Gressingham Foods, based in Woodbridge, Suffolk.

Britain's first case of H5N1 was in a swan in Scotland in 2006. In February, an outbreak of the virus at a poultry plant in Holton, Suffolk, led to the slaughter of almost 160,000 turkeys. No definitive source was found for that outbreak, which matched a strain that had infected geese in southern Hungary.

"It's been like a bolt from the blue," said Nigel Joyce, a poultry farmer from Fakenham in Norfolk of the latest avian flu outbreak.

"It's heartbreaking," he said.

"There had been issues on the continent about a month ago and it all cleared up... then we get this lightning strike for no apparent reason."

David Barker who farms at Westhorpe, about five miles away from Redgrave said it was a huge blow.

"There is a lot of outdoor poultry these days because of consumer demands for outdoor, free-range and organic poultry... and the farmers in this particular area are meeting what the consumers are requiring.

"There's a lot of poultry being kept not just in the big units, but lots of people in the local villages have chickens in their back yards and they've got to keep them inside for the time being."

And Nigel Joyce believes that these small poultry keepers have to be just as vigilant as the large farmers.

"It is important that they remain vigilant that they do the job the professional poultry keepers do and keep these birds indoors fully protected from migratory birds until we find out the exact cause of this and then hopefully the restrictions will get lifted quickly," he said.

And it is the migratory birds that farmers think may be the cause of this latest outbreak.

Reserve open

Defra's inquiries into the source of the virus are focusing on wild bird transmission but the exact source is still being investigated.

Mr Joyce believes that Defra is assuming at this point the outbreak is due to a migratory bird and that is why there is such a huge control zone.

But at Redgrave and Lopham Fen, a nature reserve that includes a mixture of wet heathland, open water, scrub and woodland, there are no plans to close to the public.

"The reserve will definitely remain open," says Steve Aylward, property manager for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

"The more visitors we have on our sites, the more people there are out there being vigilant and looking out for dead birds."

David Barker said there was a great determination from the farmers in the local area to work with trading standards and Defra to overcome the avian flu outbreak.

"It is really important we roll up our sleeves and we pull together and we help all concerned and we put this behind us as quickly as we can," he said.

In April 2006, chickens on a farm near Dereham Common, Norfolk, tested positive for the H7 subtype of the virus.

Bird flu has killed or prompted the culling of millions of birds world-wide since late 2003, when it first began ravaging Asian poultry stocks. It has killed at least 206 people world-wide since 2003.

Experts believe most victims were probably infected through direct contact with sick birds. Bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch. However, experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a flu pandemic.

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Korea Air Passengers Quarantined In New Zealand Over Fear Of Bird Flu

Some 223 persons onboard a Korean Air plane at the Auckland Airport were temporary quarantined by New Zealand health authorities when one of the passengers after a sick passenger sparked fears of a possible case of bird flu.

The passenger, woman was later deemed to be "no risk" and suffering from suspected gastroenteritis, airport police Inspector Richard Middleton said, congratulating the flight crew for notifying authorities about the potential problem.

The woman, whose name was not released, was briefly treated at a hospital in Auckland, Middleton said.

Crew on the flight, from South Korea via Australia, alerted airport authorities when the woman began vomiting and showing other possible bird flu symptoms, sparking a lockdown on the tarmac as the plane landed, said Norman Upjohn, an ambulance duty manager.

The 223 people aboard the Boeing 747 were held for about an hour under "full quarantine procedure" while a paramedic in protective clothing examined the woman, Upjohn said.

South Korea declared itself bird flu free in June, after reporting no new cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu — in birds or humans — for three months. Australia and New Zealand have reported no infections of H5N1, which has killed at least 206 people worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organization.

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