King of Bahrain attends British queen’s jubilee lunch

The king of Bahrain, whose regime has been accused of rights abuses, was among nearly 50 foreign royals at a lunch Friday to mark the diamond jubilee of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. King Hamad, whose Gulf island country is in a state of civil unrest following a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, would attend the event at Windsor Castle, British officials confirmed. The invitations for the biggest gathering of foreign royalty in Britain since last year’s wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton have thrown up several diplomatic headaches.Spain’s Queen Sophia pulled out of the lunch earlier this week due to tensions with Britain over the disputed territory of Gibraltar, while there have been protests in London over the inclusion of Swaziland’s King Mswati III. The monarchs of Brunei, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were all among the guests at the event at Windsor, to the west of London. Less controversially, Japan’s 78-year-old Emperor Akihito, the king of Norway and the queen of the Netherlands will attend. Buckingham Palace has said that the Foreign Office approved the invitation to King Hamad. But veteran British lawmaker Dennis MacShane, a former Europe minister, said the queen should not have to “dine with a despot”.