31.   Australia will hold a constitutional convention in February to decide whether to drop the British monarch as its head of state.

32.   Australia, along with many other Commonwealth countries such as Canada and Papua New Guinea, still recognizes the British monarch as head of state.

33.   Australia is an independent country, but like other former British colonies, such as Canada and New Zealand, retains the British monarch as head of state.

34.   Australia usually holds state funerals only for government ministers, state leaders and the governor general, an unelected figurehead who represents the British monarch here.

35.   Australia is a collection of former British colonies and retains the British monarch as head of state even though it is fully independent.

36.   Australia is an independent nation, but like Canada, New Zealand and some other Commonwealth countries, still recognizes the British monarch as its head of state.

37.   Australia, along with many other Commonwealth countries such as Canada and Papua New Guinea, still recognizes the British monarch as its head of state.

38.   Australians contemplated life without the British monarch Thursday as Prime Minister Paul Keating began a long campaign to win support for the declaration of a republic.

39.   Barbados wants a referendum to end the British monarch being the ceremonial head of state, a move that could encourage similar actions by other former British colonies.

40.   British monarchs, long stripped of political power, traditionally open Parliament sessions by reading a speech written by the prime minister.