Luxembourg
Royal wedding: The last bachelor heir to a European throne has married. European and Asian royalty turned out en masse last week for the wedding of Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg and Belgian Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy. The couple had a civil ceremony at Luxembourg City Hall followed by a religious ceremony conducted in German, French, and Luxembourgish. The bride will renounce her Belgian citizenship so she can become grand duchess of Luxembourg when her husband succeeds to the throne. Guests included royals from Sweden, Japan, the U.K., and the Netherlands.
Geneva
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Armstrong erased: The International Cycling Union officially stripped Lance Armstrong of all seven of his Tour de France titles and banned him from the sport for life. The group said it accepted the extensive report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that found that Armstrong had presided over “a massive team doping scheme” and pressured other riders and staff into lying for him. “Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling,” said the group’s president, Pat McQuaid. “He deserves to be forgotten in cycling.” Sponsors have already abandoned Armstrong: Nike, Radio Shack, Oakley, and Anheuser-Busch dumped him in recent weeks.
L’Aquila, Italy
Punished for lack of ESP: Six Italian seismologists and a government official were convicted of manslaughter this week for failing to predict a deadly earthquake. The magnitude 6.9 quake that hit L’Aquila in April 2009 devastated the town, killing more than 300 people and injuring some 1,500. A local judge ruled that the seven had falsely assured residents six days before the quake that earlier tremors did not necessarily mean a big one was coming. The ruling outraged scientists around the world, and the head of the Italian commission charged with assessing seismic risk resigned in protest. “It was a very Italian and medieval decision,” said scientist Claudio Eva, who like the others was sentenced to six years in prison.
