Rania, Haakon and Mette-Marit on CNN

Just a reminder: the programme where Rania, Haakon and Mette-Marit were interviewed by Christiane Amanpour, will air today, Friday. CNNi: 20:00 London | 21:00 Berlin

Amanpour’s interviews can also (one hopes this also will be true of this one) be found on iTunes, for free.

The Clinton Global Initiative

After Haakon and Mette-Marit visited Hungary earlier this week, they went to New York and  the Clinton Global Initiative and its fifth anniversary. The meeting was opened by President Obama on Tuesday. Haakon and Mette-Marit attended Thursday and Friday of the four-day-long meeting. Some of the other royals attending all or parts of the annual meeting, according to the Clinton Initiative were Queen Rania of Jordan, Princess Maxima, Infanta Cristina of Spain and Prince Turki AlFaisal Al Saud.

Queen Rania was one of the speaker’s on Thursday’s event, where the topic was education.

Also on the programme for Haakon and Mette-Marit while they are in New York is an interview with Christine Amanpour on CNN, although there have been conflicting reports whether or not that will be going through. CNN claims that the taping time (Monday the 28th) is not set in stone, and that it might be postponed, whereas the royal court says that after earlier agreements with CNN it is definitely that time, and that there is no plan B for taping from their side. The topic of the interview, should it go to taping, is Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s work for UNAIDS and UNDP.

For more information on the Clinton Global Initiative click here.

Royal wrap from Sweden

On Tuesday the King and Queen attended The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities’ Annual Gathering at the House of Nobility and the following dinner at Grand Hôtel in Stockholm.

The King awarded the academy’s annual prizes and medals to some well-earned recipients in the fields of humanities and social science. The Queen wore an old dress, designed already in the beginning of the 1990’s, that she has worn many times before.

On Wednesday, the now annual and traditional Royal Palace Sprint took place around the Royal Palace of Stockholm.

King Carl Gustaf was present to watch the skiing races and award the medals, and he got to see some nice Swedish performances as well.

On Wednesday, the Queen went to the west coast and Gothenburg were she held the opening address at the organisation Majblomman’s seminar that kick-started their centennial celebrations this year.

Since 1907, Majblomman has sold little mayflower pins around the country to be able to work with children in different ways. Last year pins were sold for around 40 million SEK, but because of the jubilee year, they are hoping for 90 million SEK in 2007.

The sales of this year’s pins start on 17 April and if the Queen is not booked elsewhere, she will probably receive children at the Royal Palace to symbolically purchase the first one, as traditions has it.

Before the Queen went back to Stockholm again, she managed to squeeze in a short visit to the then ongoing travelling- and tourism fair TUR 07 at Svenska Mässan.

On the area, she stopped by the showcases of the island of Öland, Germany, Brazil and China.

These countries were of course very proud of Her Majesty’s gesture to visit them as her had to prioritize her time at the fair.

On Friday, Crown Princess Victoria attended the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) first meeting for their Honorary Board in Bonn, Germany. Together with two of her royal board comrades, Princess Margriet of The Netherlands and Princess Haya of Jordan, she participated in the discussions about the paralympic future’s future.

The Crown Princess comments via IPC:
- In 2005, I participated in an Paralympic School Day held in Sweden, which was lots of fun and very inspiring. It is one of the wonderful initiative the Paralympic Movement created and I am looking forward to working with Sir Philip  (*IPC’s President) and the IPC to further help young athletes to develop

At the moment the International Paralympic Committe’s Honorary Board consists of seven persons: Princess Margriet of The Netherlands, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxemburg, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Prince Albert of Monaco, Maria Guleghina (world famous soprano), James Wolfensohn (former President of the Word Bank) and Princess Haya of Jordan.