Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine spent their second wedding anniversary apart on Monday, with Kate visiting a hospice on her own. Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, spent the day chatting to children at the hospice while her husband was on duty as a search and rescue helicopter pilot. It was in marked contrast to their glittering wedding in London's Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011, watched by an estimated two billion people around the world and about one million on the streets.

LONDON - Here's a choice not likely to be too controversial: officials say wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill's portrait will be featured on a new 5-pound note. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King made the announced Friday at Chartwell, Churchill's former home, surrounded by members of the late leader's family. King called Churchill "a truly great British leader, orator and writer." The bank says the note is likely to be issued in 2016. It will be based on a famous portrait photographed by Yousuf Karsh in Ottawa in 1941.

The British government minister pushing through strongly criticised reforms of the welfare state urged rich pensioners on Sunday to give back any handouts they don't need. Older people are entitled to help with their heating bills, free bus travel and free television licences, but there are growing calls for these to face the same cuts as unemployment payments and other benefits for working-age people.

Tom Stoppard could call an end to his illustrious career as one of Britain's leading playwrights, he revealed on Saturday, saying he was considering writing just one more play. "I might write one more play and give up because I am very slow...," he told reporters at Paris's Forum des Images cinema. "I am 75, I am 76 in a minute... My brain cells are dying in their trillions," he said, adding that he had started work on a new stage play.