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Letters, Diaries of Queen Elizabeth II to be Sorted

Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends a ceremony marking her birthday at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, June 13, 2020.(Reuters Photo)
Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends a ceremony marking her birthday at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, June 13, 2020.(Reuters Photo)
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Letters, Diaries of Queen Elizabeth II to be Sorted

Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends a ceremony marking her birthday at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, June 13, 2020.(Reuters Photo)
Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends a ceremony marking her birthday at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Britain, June 13, 2020.(Reuters Photo)

A team of assistants who were close to the late Queen Elizabeth II have been assigned to sort her private diaries and letters, according to The Independent.

The team entrusted with the sensitive task of sorting through the late Queen’s private diaries and letters includes former footman Paul Whybrew, nicknamed “Tall Paul” within the royal household for his 6ft 4in stature.

Whybrew has been trusted by the King to carry out the job, The Mail reported, with the newspaper dubbing him the “keeper of the Queen’s secrets”.

It is understood to be too early to decide which documents might eventually be publicly released in the years to come from the Royal Archives.

The Queen kept a handwritten diary, which could offer an unprecedented look at the late monarch’s thoughts and views on political and family life during her long reign.

Her ancestor Queen Victoria charted her thoughts every day in her journals, and the 141 volumes of private diaries have been digitized and released online.

Whybrew, who worked for the Queen for many years, was reported to be so close to the monarch that he would sometimes sit with her watching television.

He featured in the spoof James Bond sequence shown at the London 2012 Olympics, greeting 007-star Daniel Craig at Buckingham Palace and introducing him to the Queen, before accompanying them along a corridor.

In 1982, he apprehended the intruder Michael Fagan who had broken into the Queen’s bedroom at the Palace, with the footman congenially distracting him by offering him a drink and serving him a whisky.

Whybrew is working two days a week on the project, using gloves to protect the papers from the Queen’s desk as he sifts through letters and correspondence.

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Beirut's 'Mother of Cats' Who Rescues Felines

Diana Abadi, known as "the mother of cats," sits with felines waiting for adoption at her small pet food and plant shop in Hadath, in Beirut's southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh, in Lebanon, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Diana Abadi, known as "the mother of cats," sits with felines waiting for adoption at her small pet food and plant shop in Hadath, in Beirut's southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh, in Lebanon, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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Beirut's 'Mother of Cats' Who Rescues Felines

Diana Abadi, known as "the mother of cats," sits with felines waiting for adoption at her small pet food and plant shop in Hadath, in Beirut's southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh, in Lebanon, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Diana Abadi, known as "the mother of cats," sits with felines waiting for adoption at her small pet food and plant shop in Hadath, in Beirut's southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh, in Lebanon, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Diana Abadi is known in the southern suburbs of Beirut as the “Mother of Cats.”

For the past 12 years, she has turned her home and shop into a refuge for abandoned felines who now number between 50 and 70, and she often sleeps beside the cats as she cares for them full time.

Abadi began by taking in a single kitten.

Word spread, and residents started bringing her injured and unwanted animals, especially during periods of crisis. At its peak, the shelter housed more than 150 cats, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Israel-Hezbollah war, when fear and displacement led many people to abandon their pets.

Her plant and pet food shop in the southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh serves as both her livelihood and the cats’ shelter. Among those currently in her care are Joujou, 13, the oldest, as well as cats named Loulou, Fluffy, Emma and Panda.

One of the most challenging cases involves a cat that was completely blind when abandoned. A woman offered to cover the animal’s expenses if Abadi would take him in. After months of treatment, the cat has partially regained vision in one eye.

Social media has recently helped improve adoption rates, reducing the number of cats under Abadi's care. Rising costs, however, threaten the shelter’s future. Monthly rent has climbed to $800, up from $250 before the war, forcing Abadi to cover most expenses herself.

“These are living beings,” she said. “I don’t take holidays or Sundays off.”

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Face of 400-Year-Old 'Vampire' Recreated

Scientists have given a face to a decapitated skull which was uncovered in Croatia. (Croatia’s excavation team)
Scientists have given a face to a decapitated skull which was uncovered in Croatia. (Croatia’s excavation team)
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Face of 400-Year-Old 'Vampire' Recreated

Scientists have given a face to a decapitated skull which was uncovered in Croatia. (Croatia’s excavation team)
Scientists have given a face to a decapitated skull which was uncovered in Croatia. (Croatia’s excavation team)

The face of a "vampire", whose remains were posthumously mutilated to prevent them from rising from the dead, can be seen for the first time in more than 400 years, reported Sky News.

Discovered in a grave at Racesa, a fortress in eastern Croatia, the body had been exhumed, beheaded and reburied face down beneath heavy stones.

And since the desecration cannot be explained by environmental factors, experts believe it was done to stop the dead man returning as a vampire.

Now the face of the deceased can be seen for the first time in centuries, after scientists rebuilt his likeness from his skull.

Archaeologist Natasa Sarkic, part of the excavation team, said the fear inspired by the man in death may stem from the fear he inspired in life.

She said: “Bioarchaeological analysis showed that this man often participated in violent conflicts, and died a violent death. He experienced at least three episodes of serious interpersonal violence during his lifetime.”

“One of those attacks left his face disfigured, which could cause fear and repulsion, leading to social exclusion. Before even recovering from the penultimate trauma, he sustained a final fatal attack,” she revealed.

“Individuals who died violently, behaved violently in life, or were considered sinful or socially deviant, were believed to be at risk of becoming vampires,” she continued.

“He may have been regarded as a 'vampire', or a supernatural threat due to his facial disfigurement and his marginal lifestyle, characterized by repeated interpersonal violence,” Sarkic explained.

She said such beings were thought to be restless, vengeful, and capable of harming the living, spreading disease and killing people or livestock.

Sarkic said that, in the Slavic tradition, the soul remains attached to the body for about 40 days after death.

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Caffeinated Beverages May Help Protect the Brain, Study Says

A cup of coffee and a cappuccino are seen at a Juan Valdez store in Bogota, Colombia June 5, 2019. (Reuters)
A cup of coffee and a cappuccino are seen at a Juan Valdez store in Bogota, Colombia June 5, 2019. (Reuters)
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Caffeinated Beverages May Help Protect the Brain, Study Says

A cup of coffee and a cappuccino are seen at a Juan Valdez store in Bogota, Colombia June 5, 2019. (Reuters)
A cup of coffee and a cappuccino are seen at a Juan Valdez store in Bogota, Colombia June 5, 2019. (Reuters)

Drinking a few cups of caffeinated coffee or tea every day may help in a small way to preserve brain power and prevent dementia, researchers reported on Monday.

People with the highest daily intake of caffeinated coffee had an 18% lower risk of developing dementia compared to those with the lowest such intake, according to a study based on responses to questionnaires by 132,000 U.S. adults spanning four decades.

The study, published in JAMA, also found that the people with the highest intake had a lower rate - by nearly 2 percentage points - of ‌self-perceived memory ‌or thinking problems compared to those with ‌the ⁠lowest intake.

Results were ‌similar with caffeinated tea, but not with decaffeinated beverages, the researchers said.

While the findings are encouraging, the study does not prove caffeine helps protect the brain, they said.

The magnitude of caffeine's effect, if any, was small, and there are other better-documented ways to protect cognitive function as people age, study leader Dr. Daniel Wang ⁠of Harvard Medical School said in a statement.

Lifestyle factors linked with lower risks of ‌dementia include physical exercise, a healthy diet ‍and adequate sleep, according to previous ‍research.

"Our study suggests that caffeinated coffee or tea consumption can ‍be one piece of that puzzle," Wang said.

The findings were most pronounced in participants who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee or one to two cups of caffeinated tea daily, the researchers reported.

Those who drank caffeinated coffee also showed better performance on some objective tests of cognitive function, according to the ⁠study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Further research is needed to validate the factors and mechanisms responsible for the findings, the researchers said.

They noted that bioactive ingredients in coffee and tea such as caffeine and polyphenols have emerged as possible factors that reduce nerve cell inflammation and damage while protecting against cognitive decline.

"We also compared people with different genetic predispositions to developing dementia and saw the same results - meaning coffee or caffeine is likely equally beneficial for people with high and low genetic risk of developing ‌dementia," study coauthor Dr. Yu Zhang of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health said in a statement.