Ladies swoon as Prince Harry begins US tour
WASHINGTON — Britain's Prince Harry broke hearts in Washington's corridors of power Thursday, showing more interest in landmines than in the excited female staffers and interns who turned out to greet him at the start of a week-long visit to the United States.
Squeals ricocheted down the halls of the Russell Senate office building on Capitol Hill as the 28-year-old eligible bachelor inspected a photo exhibit set up by the Halo Trust, a charity favored by his late mother Princess Diana.
Harry, a British army officer in Afghanistan, ignored the giddy posse of twentysomethings as he chatted with Senator John McCain, 76, a Vietnam war veteran whose wife Cindy McCain is a Halo Trust board member.
There were no public remarks, but Harry was overheard inquiring about the price of mine detectors when he cast an eye over mannequins in cobalt blue outfits combing the polished marble floor for imaginary unexploded ordnance.
Harry is the honorary fund-raising patron of the Halo Trust, the world's biggest demining organization, which since its founding 25 years ago has unearthed more than 1.4 million landmines in 9,800 minefields around the world.