By Tara Ravens
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are set to arrive in the Solomon Islands as another European magazine prepares to print topless photos of the Duchess.
The couple will arrive in the Solomon Islands today and will be driven along the streets in an open-topped vehicle to a church service in town. It's then on to a traditional feast that evening.
Excitement has been building on the ground for days, with local shops handing out free ice-cream to anyone called Kate and Will while billboards welcoming the glamour royals line the streets.
However, this stage of the tour has been overshadowed by reports an Italian gossip magazine is set to follow in the steps of the French magazine Closer with a 26-page photo spread on the royal couple's recent holiday at a private estate in the south of France.
A day earlier, St James's Palace commenced legal action over Closer's "grotesque and totally unjustifiable" invasion of William and Kate's privacy that left the pair angry and disbelieving.
They aim to prevent further use of the images and to seek damages from Closer, which is published by the Mondadori media group owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
A number of British newspapers were believed to have been offered the photos last week but turned them down.
The topless scandal has erupted in the midst of the couple's nine-day tour of South-East Asia and the Pacific as part of celebrations to mark the Queen's 60 years on the throne.
Yesterday, they were hoisted 40 metres into the tropical canopy of a Borneo rainforest and toured the Danum Valley Research Centre in the Malaysian state of Sabah.
NZN