Russian opera diva Vishnevskaya dies at 86

MOSCOW (AP) — World-renowned Russian opera diva Galina Vishnevskaya, who with her husband defied the Soviet regime to give shelter to writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and suffered exile from her homeland, has died at 86.

Moscow's Opera Center, which Vishnevskaya created, said the singer celebrated internationally for her rich soprano voice died Tuesday in the Russian capital. It didn't give the cause.

Vishnevskaya and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich married in 1955, frequently performed together and used their star status in the Soviet Union to help friends in trouble. In the most notable example of their defiance of the Communist authorities, they sheltered Solzhenitsyn at their country home for several years as he faced official reprisals.

"They hosted Solzhenitsyn at the moment when he had no place to live, even though they knew that the authorities will not pat them over their shoulder for doing that," said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet-era dissident who heads the respected Moscow Helsinki Group rights watchdog, according to the Interfax news agency.

After Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country, Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich left the Soviet Union with their two daughters in 1974. They lived in Paris and then Washington, and were stripped of their Soviet citizenship in 1978.

They returned to Russia after the Soviet collapse and became involved in public activities and charitable work. Rostropovich, who was Vishnevskaya's third husband, died in 2007.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who restored Soviet citizenship for Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich in 1990, praised them for their eagerness to help others. "They were people who not only excelled in art, but came to help those who needed it," Gorbachev was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Vishnevskaya was born in Leningrad in 1926. Her parents separated when she was 5 and she was raised by her grandmother. She remained in the city during the Nazi siege and served as a volunteer helping defend the city from Luftwaffe bombings.

Vishnevskaya joined Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in 1952, making her debut as Tatiana in "Yevgeny Onegin" the following year. She remained its prima for more than two decades, performing dozens of soprano roles in Russian and European opera classics.

The late Boris Pokrovsky, who directed her at the Bolshoi, once praised Vishnevskaya's "extraordinary musical and vocal abilities, theatrical charm, hot temperament, natural feeling of the stage, and bold outspokenness."

Dmitri Shostakovich, a neighbor and a close friend, wrote two song cycles and an orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Songs and Dances of Death" for her. Benjamin Britten wanted her to be part of the premiere of his "War Requiem" in 1962, but the authorities prevented her from leaving the Soviet Union.

She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Aida in 1961 and first sang Liu in Turandot in La Scala in 1964. In 1966, she won the coveted title of the People's Artist of the USSR.

Another legendary Russian diva, Yelena Obraztsova, hailed Vishnevskaya as a perfectionist. "Everything she did, she did well," Obraztsova said, according to RIA Novosti news agency. "She was very demanding to herself, not just others."

Vishnevskaya, who is survived by her two daughters, will be buried Friday at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery alongside her husband.

President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences, praising the singer's "remarkable talent, strong will, nobleness and self-dignity." And Putin's envoy for international culture ties, Mikhail Shvydkoi, called her death a "huge loss not just for the Russian, but for the world culture."

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Russian opera diva Vishnevskaya dies at 86

MOSCOW (AP) — World-renowned Russian opera diva Galina Vishnevskaya, who with her husband defied the Soviet regime to give shelter to writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and suffered exile from her homeland, has died at 86.

Moscow's Opera Center, which Vishnevskaya created, said the singer celebrated internationally for her rich soprano voice died Tuesday in the Russian capital. It didn't give the cause.

Vishnevskaya and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich married in 1955, frequently performed together and used their star status in the Soviet Union to help friends in trouble. In the most notable example of their defiance of the Communist authorities, they sheltered Solzhenitsyn at their country home for several years as he faced official reprisals.

"They hosted Solzhenitsyn at the moment when he had no place to live, even though they knew that the authorities will not pat them over their shoulder for doing that," said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet-era dissident who heads the respected Moscow Helsinki Group rights watchdog, according to the Interfax news agency.

After Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country, Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich left the Soviet Union with their two daughters in 1974. They lived in Paris and then Washington, and were stripped of their Soviet citizenship in 1978.

They returned to Russia after the Soviet collapse and became involved in public activities and charitable work. Rostropovich, who was Vishnevskaya's third husband, died in 2007.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who restored Soviet citizenship for Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich in 1990, praised them for their eagerness to help others. "They were people who not only excelled in art, but came to help those who needed it," Gorbachev was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Vishnevskaya was born in Leningrad in 1926. Her parents separated when she was 5 and she was raised by her grandmother. She remained in the city during the Nazi siege and served as a volunteer helping defend the city from Luftwaffe bombings.

Vishnevskaya joined Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in 1952, making her debut as Tatiana in "Yevgeny Onegin" the following year. She remained its prima for more than two decades, performing dozens of soprano roles in Russian and European opera classics.

The late Boris Pokrovsky, who directed her at the Bolshoi, once praised Vishnevskaya's "extraordinary musical and vocal abilities, theatrical charm, hot temperament, natural feeling of the stage, and bold outspokenness."

Dmitri Shostakovich, a neighbor and a close friend, wrote two song cycles and an orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Songs and Dances of Death" for her. Benjamin Britten wanted her to be part of the premiere of his "War Requiem" in 1962, but the authorities prevented her from leaving the Soviet Union.

She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Aida in 1961 and first sang Liu in Turandot in La Scala in 1964. In 1966, she won the coveted title of the People's Artist of the USSR.

Another legendary Russian diva, Yelena Obraztsova, hailed Vishnevskaya as a perfectionist. "Everything she did, she did well," Obraztsova said, according to RIA Novosti news agency. "She was very demanding to herself, not just others."

Vishnevskaya, who is survived by her two daughters, will be buried Friday at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery alongside her husband.

President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences, praising the singer's "remarkable talent, strong will, nobleness and self-dignity." And Putin's envoy for international culture ties, Mikhail Shvydkoi, called her death a "huge loss not just for the Russian, but for the world culture."

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Russian opera diva Vishnevskaya dies at 86

MOSCOW (AP) — World-renowned Russian opera diva Galina Vishnevskaya, who with her husband defied the Soviet regime to give shelter to writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn and suffered exile from her homeland, has died at 86.

Moscow's Opera Center, which Vishnevskaya created, said the singer celebrated internationally for her rich soprano voice died Tuesday in the Russian capital. It didn't give the cause.

Vishnevskaya and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich married in 1955, frequently performed together and used their star status in the Soviet Union to help friends in trouble. In the most notable example of their defiance of the Communist authorities, they sheltered Solzhenitsyn at their country home for several years as he faced official reprisals.

"They hosted Solzhenitsyn at the moment when he had no place to live, even though they knew that the authorities will not pat them over their shoulder for doing that," said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, a Soviet-era dissident who heads the respected Moscow Helsinki Group rights watchdog, according to the Interfax news agency.

After Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the country, Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich left the Soviet Union with their two daughters in 1974. They lived in Paris and then Washington, and were stripped of their Soviet citizenship in 1978.

They returned to Russia after the Soviet collapse and became involved in public activities and charitable work. Rostropovich, who was Vishnevskaya's third husband, died in 2007.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who restored Soviet citizenship for Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich in 1990, praised them for their eagerness to help others. "They were people who not only excelled in art, but came to help those who needed it," Gorbachev was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Vishnevskaya was born in Leningrad in 1926. Her parents separated when she was 5 and she was raised by her grandmother. She remained in the city during the Nazi siege and served as a volunteer helping defend the city from Luftwaffe bombings.

Vishnevskaya joined Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in 1952, making her debut as Tatiana in "Yevgeny Onegin" the following year. She remained its prima for more than two decades, performing dozens of soprano roles in Russian and European opera classics.

The late Boris Pokrovsky, who directed her at the Bolshoi, once praised Vishnevskaya's "extraordinary musical and vocal abilities, theatrical charm, hot temperament, natural feeling of the stage, and bold outspokenness."

Dmitri Shostakovich, a neighbor and a close friend, wrote two song cycles and an orchestration of Mussorgsky's "Songs and Dances of Death" for her. Benjamin Britten wanted her to be part of the premiere of his "War Requiem" in 1962, but the authorities prevented her from leaving the Soviet Union.

She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Aida in 1961 and first sang Liu in Turandot in La Scala in 1964. In 1966, she won the coveted title of the People's Artist of the USSR.

Another legendary Russian diva, Yelena Obraztsova, hailed Vishnevskaya as a perfectionist. "Everything she did, she did well," Obraztsova said, according to RIA Novosti news agency. "She was very demanding to herself, not just others."

Vishnevskaya, who is survived by her two daughters, will be buried Friday at Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery alongside her husband.

President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences, praising the singer's "remarkable talent, strong will, nobleness and self-dignity." And Putin's envoy for international culture ties, Mikhail Shvydkoi, called her death a "huge loss not just for the Russian, but for the world culture."

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Soprano Geraldine Chauvet makes Met Opera debut

NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera's final performance this season of Mozart's last opera, "La Clemenza di Tito," was notable for the unexpected company debut of mezzo-soprano Geraldine Chauvet.

The 38-year-old French singer took over Monday night as Sesto on short notice in place of Elina Garanca, who was ill.

Chauvet had made her first U.S. appearance in January in another trouser's role, as Adriano in a concert performance of Wagner's "Rienzi" with the Opera Orchestra of New York and has sung "Carmen" in several European houses.

With a winning smile and agile range, she made a strong impression in her first-act aria, "Parto, parto," when Sesto agrees to murder his friend Tito, the emperor of Rome who later pardons him — hence the title "The Clemency of Tito."

In addition to shimmering singing, her strong-yet-vulnerable manner contributed to a well-rounded portrayal. The crowd responded with strong applause.

The rest of the sturdy cast in the two-act opera seria was unchanged from most performances of the run, headed by tenor Giuseppe Filianoti as Tito and soprano Barbara Frittoli as Vitellia, daughter of the deposed Emperor Vitellio. Conductor Harry Bickett led a lively performance.

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Swiss opera diva Della Casa dies at 93

GENEVA (AP) — Famed for her beauty that matched her serene voice, Swiss-born diva Lisa Della Casa  swept up crowds at opera houses of the past century with an elegant and radiant style that established her as one of the finest sopranos of her generation.

After more than 400 performances at the Vienna State Opera, where her interpretations of many great roles, particularly those from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss, won her wide acclaim and appreciation, Della Casa left the opera world in 1974, apparently weary of the music business.

The Vienna State Opera said Della Casa died Monday at the age of 93 in the northern Swiss town of Muensterlingen, along the lakeshore.

Salzburg Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler recalled Della Casa's performances as "sublime moments for which she was celebrated by audiences and critics alike." To mark her death, Rabl-Stadler added in a statement, the festival hung a black flag that waved as "a tiny sign of our sorrow and gratitude."

Della Casa was born near the Swiss capital Bern in 1919 and later trained in Zurich. Her first performance, during World War II, came as Giacomo Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" at the Solothurn-Biel Municipal Theater. She would go on to perform on many of the world's great opera stages including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House and La Scala.

In her performances of Richard Strauss's "Arabella," including as Zdenka at the Salzburg Festival in 1947 and as Arabella at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden in 1953, she wowed crowds and became identified with the opera because of what critics celebrated as a natural grace in her singing and her beauty. In 1953, she also debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York as Countess Almaviva in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro."

She became known as a specialist in Mozart and Strauss, singing regularly in Europe and the United States.

Della Casa retired to her castle along Lake Constance in northern Switzerland, where she lived with her husband, journalist and violinist Dragan Debeljevic, and their daughter, Vesna. They couple were married in 1949.

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Australian DJs apologize for royal hoax call

SYDNEY (AP) — The Australian radio hosts behind a hoax phone call to the U.K. hospital where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge  was staying said through tears on Monday that they were shattered upon learning that the nurse who was duped by their prank had died.

2DayFM radio DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who have faced worldwide fury over the hoax, spoke publicly about the prank for the first time in a televised interview with Australia's "A Current Affair." A separate interview on rival show "Today Tonight" also aired Monday evening.

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha answered the phone last week when the pair, impersonating Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, called the hospital where the former Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness. She transferred the call to a fellow nurse caring for the duchess who gave the DJs confidential information about the Duchess's medical condition, which was broadcast on air.

Three days later, Saldanha died. Police have not yet determined the 46-year-old's cause of death, but many immediately assumed it was related to the stress from the call. Greig and Christian have been taken off the air indefinitely.

The radio hosts apologized on Monday for the hoax and both broke down in tears when asked about the moment they learned Saldanha was dead.

"There's not a minute that goes by that we don't think about her family and what they must be going through," Greig said, voice shaking. "And the thought that we may have played a part in that is gut-wrenching."

The DJs said that when the idea for the call came up in a team meeting, no one expected that they would actually be put through to the duchess' ward.

"We just assumed we'd get cut off at every single point and that'd be it," Christian said.

"The joke 100 percent was on us," he said. "The idea was never, 'Let's call up and get through to Kate,' or 'Let's speak to a nurse.' The joke was our accents are horrible, they don't sound anything like who they're intended to be."

"The entertainment value was in us," Greig added. "It was meant to be in our silly accents. That's where it was meant to end."

The decision to air the prerecorded call was made by executives higher up the chain, the DJs said.

Rhys Holleran, CEO of 2DayFM's parent company Southern Cross Austereo, has called Saldanha's death a tragedy, but defended the prank as a standard part of radio culture. He has also insisted the station had not broken any laws and had adhered to procedures. On Monday, Holleran said the station had tried at least five times to contact the hospital to discuss the prank before it went to air.

The call has sparked outrage across the globe, with the hosts receiving death threats and calls for them to be fired. Greig said she doesn't even want to think about returning to the airwaves.

"I remember my first question was, 'Was she a mother?'" she said on "Today Tonight." Saldanha had two children.

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Australian DJs behind royal hoax call tearfully apologize following nurse's death

SYDNEY - The Australian radio hosts behind a hoax phone call to the British hospital where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was staying said through tears that they were shattered upon learning that the nurse who was duped by their prank had died.

2DayFM radio DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian have faced worldwide outrage over the hoax. They spoke publicly about the prank for the first time Monday in a televised interview with Australia's "A Current Affair."

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha answered the phone last week when the pair called, impersonating Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. They received and broadcast confidential information about the duchess's medical condition.

Saldanha died three days later. The cause is not yet known, but critics of the DJs assume stress from the prank played a role.

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Rugby-Lock Williams named Blues captain in Mealamu's absence

Dec 10 (Reuters) - All Black lock Ali Williams will captain the Blues during the 2013 Super Rugby season in the absence of Keven Mealamu, the Auckland-based team said on Monday.

Veteran hooker Mealamu is on extended leave and will not return until mid-March as he recovers from the rigours of a hectic 2012 season with the All Blacks and the Blues, who finished last in the New Zealand conference.

"I think it's an incredibly important time for Ali Williams," Blues head coach John Kirwan said in a statement.

"I think he's got a heck of a lot to offer this franchise, he's a world class lock with the ability to lead a team and I'm extremely enthusiastic and positive about this decision."

Kirwan said the 31-year-old Williams' recent history of injuries was taken into consideration before selecting the 77-test veteran for the job.

"He's had a bad run of injuries but I think he's ready for this because he's had a bad run and some people think he's finished. I don't believe that and neither does he," the coach said after the side's first official day of pre-season training.

Williams himself was no less excited.

"I am a hugely passionate man when it comes to the Blues and it is a great honour to lead the team next year," Williams said.

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Australian DJs break silence over UK royal prank tragedy

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Two Australian radio announcers who made a prank call to a British hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate broke a three-day silence on Monday to speak of their distress at the apparent suicide of the nurse who took their call.

The 2DayFM Sydney-based announcers, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, said the tragedy had left them "shattered, gutted, heartbroken".

Greig and fellow presenter and prank mastermind Christian have been in hiding since nurse Jacintha Saldanha's death and the subsequent social media outrage at their prank.

Greig told Australian television her first thought when told of Saldanha's death was for her family.

"Unfortunately I remember that moment very well, because I haven't stopped thinking about it since it happened," she said, amid tears and her voice quavering with emotion. "I remember my first question was 'was she a mother?'."

"I've wanted to just reach out to them and just give them a big hug and say sorry. I hope they're okay, I really do. I hope they get through this," said a black-clad Greig when asked about mother of two Saldanha's children, left grieving their mother's death with their father Ben Barboza.

Saldanha, 46, was found dead in staff accommodation near London's King Edward VII hospital on Friday after putting the hoax call through to a colleague who unwittingly disclosed details of Kate's morning sickness to 2DayFM's presenters.

A recording of the call, broadcast repeatedly by the station, rapidly became an internet hit and was reprinted as a transcript in many newspapers.

But news of Saldanha's death sparked the Internet firestorm, with vitriolic comments towards the DJs on Facebook and Twitter.

Christian said his only wish was that Saldanha's grief-stricken family received proper support.

"I hope that they get the love, the support, the care that they need, you know," said Christian, who like Greig struggled to talk about the tragedy.

Both Greig, 30, and Christian were relatively new to the station, with Greig joining in March and Christian having been in the job only a few days before the prank call after a career in regional radio.

Greig said she did not think their prank would work.

"We thought a hundred people before us would've tried it. We thought it was such a silly idea and the accents were terrible and not for a second did we expect to speak to Kate, let alone have a conversation with anyone at the hospital. We wanted to be hung up on," she said.

Christian drew headlines only two weeks before the royal prank call by angering fellow passengers with a harmonica playing stunt aboard pop star Rihanna's private jet.

The 2Day parent company Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has received more than 1,000 complaints from Australians over the actions of the popular presenters, who have both been taken off air during an broadcasting watchdog investigation.

Shares in SCA fell 5 percent on Monday after two major Australian companies pulled their advertising with the radio station in protest and other advertising was suspended.

The station said it had tried to contact hospital staff five times over the recordings.

"It is absolutely true to say that we actually did attempt to contact those people on multiple occasions," said SCA chief executive Rhys Holleran.

"No one could have reasonably foreseen what has happened. I can only say the prank call is not unusual around the world," he said.

The fallout from the radio stunt has brought back memories in Britain of the death of William's mother Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997 and threatens to cast a pall over the birth of his and Kate's first child.

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NZ gov't: Building that collapsed in Christchurch quake was poorly built and designed

SYDNEY - A six-story office building that collapsed and killed 115 people in New Zealand's devastating earthquake last year was poorly designed by an inexperienced engineer, inadequately constructed and should never have been issued a building permit, a government report said Monday.

The Canterbury Television (CTV) building crumbled to the ground during the 6.1-magnitude earthquake that rocked Christchurch on Feb. 22, 2011. The building's collapse was responsible for nearly two-thirds of the 185 deaths from the quake.

Monday's report was the final release from the government-ordered commission that spent months investigating the buildings damaged in the quake. Findings the commission released in February concluded that the CTV building was made of weak columns and concrete and did not meet standards when it was built in 1986. The building's designer contested those findings.

Prime Minister John Key said building failures were responsible for 175 of the 185 deaths from the quake.

"We owed it to them, their loved ones left behind, and those people badly injured in the earthquake, to find answers as to why some buildings failed so severely," Key said in a statement.

The report found several deficiencies in the CTV building's engineering design and said the city council should never have issued the building a permit because the design did not comply with the standards at the time. The commission also concluded that there were problems with the building's construction.

The commission blamed the engineers from Alan Reay Consultants Ltd. for developing an inadequate and noncompliant design and city officials for not noticing the problems.

The report said the structural design was completed by engineer David Harding, who had no experience designing multistory buildings like the CTV and was "working beyond his competence." Yet Harding never sought assistance from his boss, Alan Reay. The report blamed Reay for leaving Harding to work unsupervised, despite knowing that Harding lacked experience.

The report also found that Reay pressured city officials to approve the building despite them having some reservations about it.

Harding's lawyer, Michael Kirkland, said neither he nor his client had read through the report so they couldn't comment. Reay also declined to comment.

The report noted that the building had been issued a "green sticker" following a magnitude-7.0 earthquake in September 2010, signalling authorities had given it the thumbs-up for people to continue using it.

An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that inspection checks routinely used across the world to verify the safety of buildings following earthquakes fail to account for how well those buildings will withstand future quakes. The AP found that building occupants and public officials in Christchurch did not understand that a "green sticker" doesn't mean the building has undergone a thorough analysis of its structural health, nor that it will stay intact during future quakes.

The commission's report found that the CTV building was given a green sticker after being inspected by just three building officials, none of whom was an engineer. The commission recommended that in the future, only trained building safety evaluators be authorized to inspect buildings after earthquakes, and that government agencies should research how to account for aftershocks.

Maan Alkaisi, whose wife Maysoon Abbas died in the building's collapse, praised the commission for its thorough investigation.

"Now we know that there were many design deficiencies in the CTV building and we know who was responsible for these design deficiencies and why," Alkaisi told the AP. "I don't want to see this happening again, so we have to make sure that the recommendation made by the royal commission is adopted, that much better building standard is adopted and much better engineering practice is also adopted."

Brian Kennedy, whose wife Faye died when the building fell, said the report had brought him a measure of closure and that he was not interested in punishing the engineers or construction team involved.

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Australian DJs Behind Royal Prank May Face Police Probe

The two Australian DJs who pulled the prank call on the U.K. hospital where Kate Middleton was staying are now in hiding and may soon have to face police after the death of a nurse caught in the hoax.

This morning, there are also new questions about whether DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, radio shock jocks at Sydney's 2Day FM broke laws after they recorded the private conversation when they pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles.

British police have also contacted Australian police about a possible probe into the prank call, The Associated Press reported Sunday.

Rhys Holleran, CEO of Southern Cross Austereo, the parent company of Sydney's 2Day FM radio station said no laws were broken.

The prank had been cleared by the Australian radio station's lawyers. Holleran said the DJs followed the company's procedures before broadcasting the call.

"I think the more important question here is that we're very confident that we haven't done anything illegal. Our main concern at this point in time is what has happened is incredibly tragic and we're deeply saddened and we're incredibly affected by that," Holleran said Saturday.

READ: Kate Middleton's Hospital Falls for Prank Call From Radio Station

The hoax has caused public outcry after the death of a nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, who connected the pair to the Duchess' room.

Saldanha was found dead Friday morning after police were called to an address near the hospital to "reports of a woman found unconscious," according to a statement from Scotland Yard.

Circumstances of her death are still being investigated, but are not suspicious at this stage, authorities said earlier.

Lord Glenarthur, the chairman of King Edward VII's Hospital, the U.K. hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was receiving treatment, condemned the prank Saturday in a letter to the Max Moore-Wilton, chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, the Australian radio station's parent company.

Glenarthur said the prank humiliated "two dedicated and caring nurses," and the consequences were "tragic beyond words," The Associated Press reported.

Max Moore-Wilton, the chairman of Southern Cross Austereo, said in a letter to Lord Glenarthur Sunday that the company is reviewing the station's broadcast policies, the AP reported.

"I can assure you we are taking immediate action and reviewing the broadcast and processes involved," Moore-Wilton said in the letter. "As we have said in our own statements on the matter, the outcome was unforeseeable and very regrettable."

Saldanha came to England from India nine years ago, with her husband and two children.

On Facebook, her 14-year-old daughter wrote this weekend, simply: "I miss you, I loveeee you."

Saldanha worked as a nurse at King Edward VII private hospital for four years. Her family lives 100 miles away in Bristol, but while on shift she slept in a residence for nurses.

With no receptionist on duty overnight she answered the prank call and put it through.

The hospital called her a "first-class nurse" and "a well-respected and popular member of the staff" and extended "deepest sympathies" to family and friends, saying that "everyone is shocked" at this "tragic event."

The duchess spent three days at the hospital undergoing treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum, severe or debilitating nausea and vomiting. She was released from the hospital Thursday morning.

The hospital apologized for the mistake.

"The call was transferred through to a ward, and a short conversation was held with one of the nursing staff," the hospital said in a statement. "King Edward VII's Hospital deeply regrets this incident."

The radio station also apologized for the prank call.

"2Day FM sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the inquiry to Kate's hospital. The radio segment was done with lighthearted intentions," the station said in a statement earlier.

DJs in Hiding

Greig and Christian are said to be in a fragile emotional state since Saldanha was found dead on Friday.

Station executives said the hosts are seeking the help of counselors.

"These people aren't machines, they're human beings," Holleran told reporters on Saturday. "We're all affected by this."

The DJs are in hiding and their Facebook and twitter accounts are now dark.

The Sydney radio station -- famous for its pranks and outrageousness -- has suspended all advertising in the face an advertising boycott and Greig and Christian have been pulled off the air.

Last spring, the station was warned by Australia's broadcast regulator about violations of the "decency provision" of the country's broadcast code.

Night Out Without Kate

Prince William was on his own Saturday night at a charity ball, for his first public function since his wife's pregnancy was announced.

In conversation he quipped about his Kate's illness: "I don't know why they call it morning sickness -- they should call it all day and all night sickness."

PHOTOS: The Life and Times of Kate Middleton

He did not talk about the tragic death of the nurse who fell victim to the hoax call, but he and Kate have issued a statement of sympathy for the family.

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Jacintha Saldanha," a spokesman from St. James Palace said in a statement.

For Kate, it is yet another test of her new life as a very public royal. In September, a tabloid photographer using an extremely long lens photographed her topless on a private vacation.

"While she understood what she was taking on, there have been a couple of things that will have made them go oh my goodness and think we didn't think it would be that bad in this day and age," said Victoria Murphy, royal reporter with The Daily Mirror.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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