Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton is to take place April 29 at Westminster Abbey. An aide to Prince William said Tuesday that the couple had chosen the abbey, where Queen Elizabeth II was also married, for its “staggering beauty” and because it offered intimacy despite its grand scale. Prime Minister David Cameron has declared April 29, a Friday, a national holiday, meaning that most Britons will get a four-day weekend because that Monday, May 2, is already a holiday. “We want to mark the day as one of national celebration,” Cameron said. “A public holiday will ensure the most people possible will have a chance to celebrate on the day.” The abbey is a traditional royal wedding site: Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother were married there. The funeral of Prince William’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, was also held there.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised Leonardo DiCaprio after the actor braved scary skies to get to a gathering devoted to saving the worlds’ tigers and donated $1 million to the cause. The Hollywood star arrived Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Russia, after two flight dramas, Putin said, just managing to make the meeting where officials from the 13 countries where tigers still live in the wild agreed to a program to save the big cats from extinction. DiCaprio was one of more than 200 people aboard a Moscow-bound Delta Airlines flight that had to return to New York’s John F. Kennedy airport Sunday when other pilots reported seeing a flash in one engine of the departing plane. The actor then took a private jet that had to land in Finland early Tuesday for refueling because of strong wind, Putin said. “Not everyone would be willing to take a plane again after what Mr. DiCaprio experienced, but he did,” he told the audience at a rock concert dedicated to the tiger conservation effort. “Here, in Russia, we call such a person a ‘real man.” “If wildlife and tiger conservation is in the hands of people with such character, we are destined to succeed,” he said.