Rainier remains critical as Monaco prays

HOOKED to a respirator, Prince Rainier of Monaco remained critically ill yesterday at a seaside clinic in the tiny Mediterranean enclave that he transformed into a glitzy resort for the rich.

Throughout Monaco, Rainier's subjects braced for what they feared could be the final days of a man many revere as a father figure.

The 81-year-old head of Europe's longest ruling royal family, was spending his third day in intensive care at a hospital with a view of his hilltop palace.