Bratislava - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II Friday concluded a central European trip that took her to two ex-communist states, Slovenia and Slovakia, for the first time.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, headed home after two days in Slovakia and two days in Slovenia.

Both countries won their independence and became economic success stories after communism fell in Europe in 1989.

Slovenia was the first ex-communist country to adopt the euro, while Slovakia is set to make the switch on January 1.

Bratislava - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Slovakia Thursday for her first visit to the ex-communist country that went independent 15 years ago and became an economic success story.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, came off a trip to Slovenia, a smaller country to the south that once was part of Yugoslavia.

Ljubljana  - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was presented her own Lipizzaner horse when she visited a stud farm in western Slovenia on Wednesday.

The gift was however symbolic, as the stud, named 085 Favory Canissa XXII, remained in its Lipica stable, near Slovenia's border with Italy.

Ljubljana - Queen Elizabeth II received a golden tea set Tuesday at the start of her three-day visit to Slovenia, her first since the Alpine-Adriatic republic claimed independence from former Yugoslavia.

Queen Elisabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, were whisked away from the airport outside the capital Ljubljana to meet their host, President Danilo Turk, at the nearby 16th century castle Brdo pri Kranju.

Upon arrival, the Queen, President Turk and their spouses posed for pictures and exchanged gifts.

London - Google. co. uk got a royal makeover for the day to mark a visit to its British headquarters by Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, Thursday.

The couple, both in their 80s, erupted into fits of giggles when shown a clip of a baby with an infectious laugh from the company's YouTube video site, at its headquarters in London.

Google's British homepage logo was given a makeover for the occasion, featuring a specially-commissioned "Google doodle" of the Queen's profile and a crown sitting on top of the letter "E".

London - Hardy Amies, the fashion house which "dressed" Queen Elizabeth II for more than half a century, announced Friday that it had filed for administration after funding talks failed.

The firm, founded in 1946 by the late (Sir) Hardy Amies, who died in 2003, had been suffering losses for several years and warned in June that poor womenswear sales would see losses accelerate in the first half of this year and would continue into 2009.