Names and faces

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

— St. James’s Palace announced Monday that Prince William’s wife, Kate, is pregnant. The statement said the Duchess of Cambridge - formerly known as Kate Middleton - has a severe form of morning sickness and is in a London hospital. William is at his wife’s side. The couple’s first child will be third in line to take the throne. The palace would not say how far along the 30-year-old duchess is, only that she has not yet reached the 12-week mark. Palace officials said the duchess was hospitalized with hyperemesis gravidarum, a potentially dangerous type of morning sickness where throwing up is so severe no food or liquid can be kept down. They said she was expected to remain hospitalized for several days and would require a period of rest afterward.

David Oliver Relin, co-author of the best-selling book Three Cups of Tea, said in legal filings about a year before his recent suicide that his career suffered over allegations of lies in the story of a humanitarian who built schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Relin committed suicide in the suburban Portland city of Corbett last month, Peter Bellant, the Multnomah County deputy medical examiner, said late Sunday. Relin , 49, died of a blunt force head injury on Nov. 14, Bellant said, without providing other details. The book, which has sold about 4 million copies since being published in 2006, describes how Greg Mortenson, the other co-author, resolved to build schools for Pakistani villagers who nursed him to health after a failed mountaineering expedition. The account came under scrutiny last year when 60 Minutes and writer Jon Krakauer said it contained numerous falsehoods. In April, a U.S. district judge rejected a lawsuit by four people who bought the book. In an August 2011 court filing, Relin attorney Sonia Montalbano said the litigation “has had a negative impact on Relin’s livelihood as an author.” In another filing, Montalbano said Relin stands “by the manuscript he wrote.” She pointed out that in an introduction Relin wrote for Three Cups of Tea, he “fully acknowledged potential inaccuracies.” In that introduction, Relin wrote that Mortenson’s “fluid sense of time made pinning down the exact sequence of many events in this book almost impossible.”

Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/04/2012