LONDON: The Queen Mother Elizabeth has entered the record books as the oldest royal in British history.

The mother of Queen Elizabeth II, she has lived for 97 years and 315 days, and yesterday passed the longevity record held by Queen Victoria's granddaughter Princess Alice, who died January 3, 1981.

She will celebrate her 98th birthday on August 4.

``It is difficult to say it categorically but I cannot find any British royal from our records who has lived longer than the Queen Mother,'' the Express newspaper reported royal expert Harold Brookes-Baker as saying.

The Queen Mother married into the royal family in 1923 and was 51 when her husband, King George VI, died in 1952.

Despite two hip replacement operations in the past two-and-a-half years, she still undertakes public engagements.

Toddler slain

CHICAGO: An American couple was charged on Saturday with killing their 16-month-old daughter, then putting her body in a potof battery acid and hiding her body parts that did not disintegrate.

``No one can recall parents inflicting such horrific, unspeakable acts on their child,'' police Lt.Robert Cornfield said.

Joan Tribblet, 27, and Everett Johnson, 29, were charged with first-degree murder and concealing a homicide in the December 19 death of Onowanique Tribblet.

The girl's maternal grandmother filed a missing persons report on Tuesday after becoming suspicious about the couple's stories of the girl's whereabouts. Detective Steve Glynn said the parents confessed when they were brought in for questioning. They were being held pending a hearing today.

Police said the toddler was either suffocated or strangled when she wouldn'T go to sleep.

``The father put the girl into a pot and put battery acid into the pot and stirred it around. They buried the body parts at various locations,'' Glynn said.

The state on Thursday placed the couple's three other young children in the custody of an aunt.

Giantcigar

HAVANA: Veteran Cuban cigar-roller William Collegjo has just the thing for aficionados who enjoy a long, long smoke a 4.35-metre cigar. Collejo drew on his more than 40 years of experience to hand-roll the monster Havana cigar, believed to be the longest in the world. His aim was to demonstrate the skills of the trade to apprentices at the Juan Perez Oliva cigar factory in eastern Granma province, the domestic news agency said.