Spears due in court for major hearing

By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent
Mon Jan 14, 5:26 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears' best chance of regaining visitation rights with her two sons is in court — but whether she'll be there is anyone's guess.

Spears is scheduled to appear Monday morning for what an attorney described Sunday as "the most significant hearing in the case so far" in the pop star's effort to regain visitation rights.

But Spears has had trouble making recent court dates: On Dec. 12, she called in sick for a court-ordered deposition, then arrived nearly two hours late on its rescheduled date, Jan. 3.

"I don't know if she will be there" on Monday, Kevin Federline attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told The Associated Press. "You can't phone this one in."

Police and emergency medical technicians who were summoned to her home the night of Jan. 3 in a standoff involving her refusal to return the boys to ex-husband Federline will testify Monday, probably behind closed doors, Kaplan said.

If Spears comes to court, Kaplan said she would be expected to testify. "She will have the opportunity to persuade the court that she can have some visitation under monitored conditions," he said.

Phone and e-mail messages requesting comment from Spears' attorneys Sunday afternoon were not immediately returned.

Kaplan said he knew it was only a temporary measure when he obtained emergency court orders two weeks ago granting sole physical and legal custody to Federline.

Police were called by a court appointed monitor on Jan. 3 when Spears refused to hand over Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2, to Federline's security guard. She locked herself in a room with one of the boys.

Spears was taken to a hospital in an ambulance chased by photographers and was placed on an involuntary hold on grounds she was a danger to herself or others. Spears left Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a day and half later.

The day after the incident, Kaplan presented papers to Commissioner Scott Gordon, who awarded sole legal and physical custody of the boys to Federline and suspended Spears' visitation rights.

Kaplan said if visitation is restored, it would be under more restrictions than those originally imposed by Gordon.

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Dodi not 'the one' for Diana, who yearned for ex, inquest hears

LONDON (AFP) - Princess Diana did not consider Dodi Fayed as "the one" she would marry, and was still yearning for a former boyfriend she had planned to wed, her former butler said Monday.

Paul Burrell told the inquest into her death that Diana had wanted to marry Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, with whom she split shortly before her brief relationship with Fayed ended in tragedy in a car crash in August 1997.

In eagerly-awaited testimony, Burrell said Diana's relationship with Fayed was "exciting" for the princess, who had divorced from Prince Charles in 1996.

"It was very fresh, new and exciting," he told the High Court in London, packed for one of the most high-profile witnesses since the six-month inquest into the deaths of Diana and Fayed opened in October.

But asked by lawyer Ian Burnett: "By that stage had you any sense from the princess that... to use a hackneyed phrase that has appeared in so many media reports, Dodi was 'the one'?" he replied: "No, I didn't have that impression."

Fayed and driver Henri Paul were killed instantly in the Paris car crash, while Diana died from internal injuries a few hours later.

Fayed's father Mohammed Al Fayed, the owner of plush London department store Harrods, claims they were killed by a British establishment conspiracy to prevent Diana marrying a Muslim and having his child.

Burrell also denied that a ring Fayed bought shortly before their doomed last evening together signified there were wedding plans. "It wasn't an engagement ring, it was a friendship band," he said.

The former butler said Diana had been much more serious about Khan.

"The princess seriously contemplated marriage with Khan. She asked me if it was possible to arrange a private marriage between them. Plans were being made in Kensington Palace for Hasnat to have his own rooms," he said.

Their relationship ended in mid-July 1997, and she headed off for a holiday with Fayed in the south of France. But "the princess was still burning a candle for Doctor Khan," said Burrell.

Rosa Monckton, a close friend of Diana's, suggested that the princess had been "deeply upset and hurt" when Khan broke off the relationship they had tried hard to keep secret in mid-1997.

"She was very much in love with him... She hoped that they would be able to have a future together... She wanted to marry him," she testified last month.

There has been speculation that Khan, who began a two-year romance with the princess in 1995, would give evidence either in person or via videolink to the inquest in London, which is seeking to determine exactly how and why Diana died.

Khan, 48 -- reported to have been nicknamed "Mister Wonderful" by the princess -- said at the weekend that he did not plan to give evidence.

"I will act on my lawyer's advice. I will do exactly what the law requires. If the lawyers told me I had to go, I would go, definitely. I don't have anything to add," he told The Mail on Sunday newspaper from his home in Pakistan.

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