Prince Harry walks through mine field in Angola, retracing Diana's footsteps
The Duke of Sussex is in the southern African country with the Halo Trust organisation, the same group Princess Diana worked with when she went to Angola in January 1997, seven months before she was killed in a car crash in Paris.
Prince Harry walks through a minefield during a visit to see the work of landmine clearance charity of the Halo Trust, in Cuito Cuanavale, Cuando province, southern Angola (Source: Associated Press)
Diana's advocacy and the images of her walking through a minefield helped mobilise support for a land mine ban treaty that was ratified later that year.
Harry walked through a landmine field near a village in Cuito Cuanavale, southern Angola, according to the Halo Trust.
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It's not the first time he has retraced his mother's steps after travelling to Angola for a similar awareness campaign in 2019.
Diana, Princess of Wales wearing protective body armour and a visor visits a landmine minefield being cleared by the charity Halo in Huambo, Angola in January 1997. (Source: Getty)
The land mines across Angola were left behind from its 27-year civil war from 1975 to 2002. The Halo Trust says at least 60,000 people have been killed or injured by land mines since 2008.
It says it has located and destroyed over 120,000 land mines and 100,000 other explosive devices in Angola since it started work in the country in 1994, but 1000 minefields still need to be cleared.
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1News
17-07-2025
- 1News
Prince Harry walks through mine field in Angola, retracing Diana's footsteps
Prince Harry followed in his late mother's footsteps on Thursday by wearing a flak jacket and walking down a path in an active land mine field in Angola to raise awareness for a charity's work clearing explosives from old war zones. The Duke of Sussex is in the southern African country with the Halo Trust organisation, the same group Princess Diana worked with when she went to Angola in January 1997, seven months before she was killed in a car crash in Paris. Prince Harry walks through a minefield during a visit to see the work of landmine clearance charity of the Halo Trust, in Cuito Cuanavale, Cuando province, southern Angola (Source: Associated Press) Diana's advocacy and the images of her walking through a minefield helped mobilise support for a land mine ban treaty that was ratified later that year. Harry walked through a landmine field near a village in Cuito Cuanavale, southern Angola, according to the Halo Trust. ADVERTISEMENT It's not the first time he has retraced his mother's steps after travelling to Angola for a similar awareness campaign in 2019. Diana, Princess of Wales wearing protective body armour and a visor visits a landmine minefield being cleared by the charity Halo in Huambo, Angola in January 1997. (Source: Getty) The land mines across Angola were left behind from its 27-year civil war from 1975 to 2002. The Halo Trust says at least 60,000 people have been killed or injured by land mines since 2008. It says it has located and destroyed over 120,000 land mines and 100,000 other explosive devices in Angola since it started work in the country in 1994, but 1000 minefields still need to be cleared.
NZ Herald
14-07-2025
- NZ Herald
On The Up: Woman's missing engagement ring recovered from Waiuku mudflats with stranger's help
'I always thought that the safest place where I could keep [the ring] would be my finger. 'That's why I never remove it, or at least I try not removing it, because I think, 'Oh, if I do ... I would probably lose it'.' Diana lost her engagement ring in the Waiuku mudflats while collecting water samples. Emma made a note of where her friend's ring was last seen, recording GPS co-ordinates and taking photos of the area. But Diana, who was travelling to Brisbane the next day for a holiday, had to let her fiance know she had lost his symbol of betrothal. 'He wasn't very happy about it. He was a bit upset but he knew that I tried everything I could. So he was like, 'Oh, that's fine'.' With Diana out of the country, Emma contacted the New Zealand Ring Finder – a countrywide collective of individuals that help people find their lost jewellery – through Facebook to help. 'I live near Mission Bay and I see on Facebook a lot of people losing their rings so I thought, 'Maybe I'll be able to find something on Facebook?',' Emma said. Paul Faulkner used his metal detector to locate the ring. Paul Faulkner, one of the Auckland-based ring finders, was put in contact with Emma by the group administrator. 'I live out south so I usually take those jobs,' Faulkner said. 'I called and asked [Emma] a few basic details to understand the difficulty, the time I'd probably spend, and likelihood of recovery, and planned the recovery based on the next suitable low tide.' Faulkner then met Emma at the scene of the disappearance with his metal detector. 'When dense objects like gold or silver fall into mud, they don't really move at all - they just sink. So I knew it wouldn't be far from where they were standing,' he said. His trusty device made a promising sound soon into their search, and Faulkner uncovered the prized ring in just a few minutes. The New Zealand Ring Finder's Paul Faulkner helped Emma find her friend's missing engagement ring. 'It was unbelievable ... we spent maybe about two-and-a-half hours, Diana and I, looking for the ring,' Emma said. She immediately shared the good news with her friend. '[Diana] was in disbelief. I sent her a picture of the ring and I got all the crying emojis.' Diana said the ring's rediscovery left her 'speechless'. 'It took him just a few minutes to find it. We couldn't believe it because we spent hours in the mud trying to find this ring. 'It seemed almost impossible. I was surprised and, of course, super grateful.' While Faulkner hadn't been in direct contact with Diana, he said: 'It always feels good finding and returning something that is as sentimental as an engagement ring'. 'I average about five recovery jobs a year and the chances of finding the items is statistically high, [although] the less time that has passed helps with recoveries.' Faulkner said that anyone who loses a valuable item should take pictures or record the GPS co-ordinates of where it was last seen. 'It helps a lot when people know the exact area they lost it.' Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
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Inspectors approved Texas camp's disaster plan two days before flood
Texas inspectors signed off on Camp Mystic's emergency planning just two days before catastrophic flooding killed more than two dozen people at the all-girls Christian summer camp, most of them children. The Department of State Health Services released records Wednesday showing the camp complied with a host of state regulations regarding "procedures to be implemented in case of a disaster". Among them: instructing campers what to do if they need to evacuate and assigning specific duties to each staff member and counsellor. Five years of inspection reports released to The Associated Press do not offer any details of those plans at Mystic, raising new questions about the camp's preparedness ahead of the torrential July 4 rainfall in flood-prone Texas Hill Country. The National Weather Service had issued a flood watch for the area July 3 at 1.18pm (local time). That danger prompted at least one of the roughly 18 camps along the Guadalupe River to move dozens of campers to higher ground. This undated photo provided by John Lawrence on Monday, July 7, 2025, shows twin sisters, Hanna Lawrence, left, and Rebecca Lawrence, right, who were two the victims killed by the flooding at Camp Mystic in central Texas on Friday, July 4. (Source: Associated Press) ADVERTISEMENT The uncertainty about what happened at Mystic comes as local officials have repeatedly dodged questions about who was monitoring the weather and what measures were taken ahead of the flooding. Tragedy falls on the historic camp Camp Mystic, established in 1926, did not evacuate and was especially hit hard when the river rose from 4.2m to 9m within 60 minutes in the early morning hours. Flooding on that stretch of the Guadalupe starts at about 3m. A wall of water overwhelmed people in cabins, tents and trailers along the river's edge. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. At least 27 campers and counsellors died during the floods, and officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counsellor have still not been found. Among the dead was Richard "Dick" Eastland, the camp's beloved director described by campers as a father figure. Charlotte Lauten, 19, spent nine summers at Camp Mystic, mostly recently in 2023. She said she didn't recall ever receiving instructions as a camper on what do in the case of a weather emergency. Debris covers the area of Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, Monday, July 7, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area. (Source: Associated Press) ADVERTISEMENT 'I do know that the counsellors go through orientation training for a week before camp starts," she said. "They do brief them on all those types of things." One thing that likely hindered the girls' ability to escape was how dark it would have been, Lauten said. Campers don't have access to their phones while at camp, she said, adding they wouldn't have cell service anyway because of the remote location. "This is the middle of nowhere and they didn't have power," she said. "It would have been pitch black, like could not see five feet in front of you type of darkness. I've never seen stars like there because there's just no light." Inspections found no issues The state inspected Camp Mystic on July 2, the same day the Texas Division of Emergency Management activated emergency response resources ahead of the anticipated flooding. The inspection found no deficiencies or violations at the camp in a long list of health and safety criteria. The camp had 557 campers and more than 100 staffers at the time between its Guadalupe and Cypress Lake locations. Eric Herr, a volunteer with Search and Support San Antonio, does search and rescue work on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Ingram, Texas. (Source: Associated Press) ADVERTISEMENT The disaster plans are required to be posted in all camp buildings but aren't filed with the state, said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services. "We do not have them," Anton said in an email. "You'd have to get it from the camp". Camp Mystic did not respond to requests for comment on its emergency plan. In a statement on its website, the camp said it has been "in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls". Camps are responsible for developing their own emergency plan. Inspectors evaluate the plans to ensure they meet several state requirements, including procedures for evacuation. "The inspector checked that they had plans posted for those elements in every building," Anton said, "and that they had trained staff and volunteers on what to do." Search and recovery workers dig through debris looking for any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding near Camp Mystic on July 6, 202. (Source: Getty) Camp Mystic is licensed by the state and a member of the Camping Association for Mutual Progress, which says its goal is to 'raise health and safety standards' for summer camps. Leaders of that association didn't return messages. ADVERTISEMENT The American Camp Association said Tuesday that Camp Mystic is not accredited with that organisation, whose standards focus on safety and risk management. Spokesperson Lauren McMillin declined to say whether the camp previously had been accredited with the association, which describes itself as 'the only nationwide accrediting organisation for all year-round and summer camps". Authorities review rain and river gauges One rain gauge about 1.6km from Camp Mystic recorded 24cm of precipitation July 4, according to Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority data. Another of the agency's gauges — further south and to the west — recorded 31cm of precipitation. The authority told the AP that a review of its equipment found both were functioning during the flood event. People react as they inspect an area outside sleeping quarters at Camp Mystic along the banks of the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (Source: Associated Press) However, at least four United States Geological Survey gauges along the Guadalupe River experienced some level of failure July 4. The gauges, located near Hunt and Kerrville, stopped collecting both river levels and the flow rate of water in the early morning hours of July 4. One gauge, about 8km northeast of Camp Mystic, recorded a level of 9m at 4.35am, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. It was the last recorded river level from the instrumentation until a USGS hydrologist installed a temporary gauge. At the time, the hydrologist measured the high water mark at 11.44m. ADVERTISEMENT At that location, a river level of 9.75m could lead to "disastrous life-threatening flooding," which could cover the roads of the lowest camps and resorts, according to NOAA.
