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April 9th, 2000: Sunday
Queen to throw royal birthday bash costing 100,000 pounds(Yahoo: Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) - The Queen plans to host one of the largest birthday parties the royal house has
ever seen at a cost of about 100,000 pounds, the Sunday Mirror reported.
Prince William, who turns 18 on June 21, will be the guest of honour at the bash to be held at Windsor
Castle.
The Mirror said the party was designed to celebrate several royal birthdays this year.
The Queen Mother turns 100 on August 4, Princess Margaret will be 70 in the same month and
Princess Anne will be 50. Prince Andrew celebrated his 40th in February.
Buckingham Palace could not be reached for comment.
The Mirror said up to 700 guests would be invited, including members of European royal families, music and television stars.
~*~
Prince Michael in defence
sales row (UK Times)
Adam Nathan
PRINCE Michael of Kent was at the centre of a
royals-for-hire row last night after it emerged that he is acting
as a consultant to a company seeking sales of CS gas and
police equipment to regimes in the Gulf.
He has made several visits to the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) in the past six months, for which he is thought to have
been paid £25,000 in expenses.
He has been promoting a company called Selectamark
Consultancy, which aims to sell CS gas to security forces in
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of which have been
accused by human rights groups of brutality and torture.
James Brown, managing director of Selectamark, a specialist
security company of which the prince is president, said: "CS
gas is a regular product. If we hear that products are
wanted, we act as middlemen and organise the sale. We sell
armoured Land Rovers. We sell body armour. We train
police in crowd control. We only draw the line at small
arms."
Selectamark is a member of the British Security Industry
Association (BSIA), an umbrella group of security firms of
which Prince Michael is patron. Brown conceded that the
prince was of value to the company because his royal
connections gave him access to ministers and others.
"He is incredibly well connected in the Gulf. We have
potential sales of £750,000 from a fair in Dubai he
attended," Brown said. There is no suggestion that the prince
is directly engaged in the sale of CS gas.
Industry figures are expected to show that BSIA companies'
foreign sales have increased by 50% to about £200m in the
year since the prince has been their patron.
His office emphasised last week that there was nothing
improper in the prince promoting the interests of the
business. "[He] has made it clear to the BSIA that he does
not support the sale of any 'sharp' weapon to be used
offensively," said a spokesman. He denied that the prince
was abusing his title to make money.
Michael is not on the civil list and does not receive state
money. But he does enjoy grace and favour accommodation
at Kensington Palace in London.
"This has the potential to bring the royal family into
disrepute," said Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West.
"It is not the sort of thing a cousin of the Queen should be
engaging in.
"CS gas is controversial in Britain, let alone the Gulf. It also
opens him to accusations that he is trading on his royal title.
He is not an entrepreneur. The royals should think carefully
about how they make a living. In business, they should shed
their royal personas."
It was also revealed last week by a diplomatic source at the
British embassy in Abu Dhabi that the prince is known as
"the escort service" for his frequent trips to the Gulf on behalf
of British businesses. He is a keen promoter of Coutts Bank,
with whom he has an account, and recently attended the
opening of its Abu Dhabi branch.
The prince's contacts in the Gulf are impeccable. He is close
to the ruling Al Nahayan family in Abu Dhabi and Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai
and UAE defence minister, is a key contact.
His controversial business interests have aroused concern at
Buckingham Palace in the past. The Queen was reportedly
furious when she watched her cousin advertising tacky gifts
on American television under the rubric "House of Windsor".
Later it was revealed that he had been secretly hiring himself
out at £3,500 a time to a public relations firm. It paid him to
arrange dinner parties without telling guests they were to be
seated next to agency representatives, who would attempt to
secure them as clients.
Last night friends of the prince said he had been trying to
"clean up his act" after a career history chequered by
controversy. Among his former business partners is "Prince"
Idris al-Senussi, a Libyan businessman accused of
involvement in an Egyptian bank scandal in the mid-1980s.
The Selectamark Consultancy is made up of former police
officers and military people, including a former head of the
royal protection squad. According to Brown, the
consultancy's aim is to bring foreign police up to British
standards.
Amnesty International said: "Police forces in both Saudi and
UAE have a reputation for human rights violations."
April 10th, 2000: Monday
German prince meets his wartime
British rescuers (UK Times)
FROM MARTIN FLETCHER, EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT
MORE than half a century ago a German prince and his
family were whisked from under the noses of the
advancing Russian Army and spared likely death in Soviet
camps. At the weekend, he met his British rescuers for the
first time.
Prince Jos-Christian Stolberg-Stolberg was five when
Stan Taylor's platoon dashed into eastern Germany to
take his parents and their four children to safety. Only
now, thanks to a newspaper article, has he been able to
express his gratitude face to face. At the Prince's invitation
Mr Taylor, 83, a former council education officer from
York, and his batman, Harry Henshaw, a 73-year-old
retired postal worker from Manchester, travelled to
Brussels. "I am very thankful that almost two generations
later we are able to relive those moments," the Prince, 59,
said, adding: "I'm enchanted everybody is still in good
health and able to make it."
At the close of the Second World War, Lieutenant Taylor
was part of a King's Regiment unit based in Goslar, near
what was to become the border between West and East
Germany, and charged with seizing German assets before
they were destroyed.
On July 1, 1945, the Duke of Brunswick, a relative of the
Royal Family, walked into the unit's headquarters and
urged it to rescue the Stolberg family. Their 25,000-acre
estate and its castle were in territory granted to the
Russians.
British troops were barred from
the Russian zone but Lieutenant
Taylor was ordered to leave
with three 3-tonne lorries to
retrieve the family's treasures.
On the trip to the castle, 60
miles away in the Harz
mountains, they met no Russians
and took back silver, porcelain,
oil paintings and 24,000 antique
books.
The family was desperate to leave. "I had to tell the
Prince's father 'I haven't come for you. I've come for the
silver'," he recalled. That evening Lieutenant Taylor's
platoon was ordered to go back for the family. As the
lorries returned he saw red flags hanging from the town's
windows. From the castle he saw the first Russian troops
entering the streets below. "I told the family they had one
hour to get packed. After that we're gone," he said.
He crammed 50 aristocrats and retainers into the lorries
and told them to keep quiet. The convoy rumbled into the
town, where it was stopped by the Russian advance
guard, who wanted to carry out a search. The townsfolk
formed a passage through which the vehicles sped to
Goslar. "It was very cloak-and-daggerish," Lieutenant
Taylor said.
The Stolbergs settled in West Germany, then in 1968 the
Prince moved to Brussels. Because his rescuers were in a
clandestine unit he had been unable to trace them until a
cousin sent a clipping of Mr Henshaw's interview with a
Goslar newspaper.
Now the three are planning a summer visit to Stolberg, but
there will be no return to the castle. The Prince was
unable to reclaim it on German reunification and it is now
a ruin.
~*~
Duke will make an exhibition of
himself(UK Times)
BY LINUS GREGORIADIS
THE Duke of Edinburgh is to display a private collection
of cartoons in which he has been lampooned over the past
half a century.
The exhibition, which will include works by Giles, the late
Daily Express cartoonist who sent several originals to
Buckingham Palace, runs at Sandringham from Saturday
until October 8.
The Duke's interests, including wildlife, shooting, horses,
photography and sailing, are all reflected in the cartoons -
as is his sometimes fraught relationship with the media. A
drawing by the late Evening Standard cartoonist
Raymond Jackson - better known as Jak - depicts the
Duke taking a photograph of some birds perched on
rocks. In the caption the birds are saying: "Bloody
photographers".
Gill Pattinson, Sandringham's visitor manager, said
yesterday that the cartoons were of historical as well as
comic interest, as they were "a social commentary on the
big issues of the day".
The Duke paid tribute to the works of Carl Giles after the
popular cartoonist died five years ago at the age of 78. He
called him "a much-loved British institution".
Giles was made an OBE in 1959 and was later invited to
lunch with the Queen and the Duke at Buckingham
Palace.
~*~
'Multi-faith Coronation' for Charles(Electronic Telegraph)
By Rachel Sylvester
THE Prince of Wales could be crowned King in a multi-faith inauguration
ceremony rather than the 1,000-year-old Coronation service, under
proposals to tackle "religious discrimination" being considered by the
Government.
A report commissioned by Jack Straw claims that the establishment of the
Church of England causes "religious disadvantage" to other faiths and
Christian denominations. The coronation ceremony, conducted by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, in which the monarch swears to uphold the
Protestant faith, may no longer be appropriate in modern, multi-cultural
Britain, it says.
The sovereign's role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and
"Defender of the Faith" should also be reviewed. The paper, an interim report
on religious discrimination, puts disestablishment of the Church of England
firmly on the Government's agenda for the first time since Labour came to
power.
Maintaining the exclusive link between Church and state may not be "the best
or the most appropriate way forward in terms of the need to embody the
principles of equity, inclusivity and participation in the contemporary plural
society of the United Kingdom", it says.
Tony Blair has always shied away from the issue, insisting that he would not
support disestablishment. However, he has become increasingly interested in
the relationship between Christianity and other faiths. The Government would
almost certainly resist severing the link altogether but senior figures think other
religions should have a greater role in national life, just as representatives of
other faiths are to be given seats in the Lords along with Anglican bishops.
The Church of England is itself considering ways to be more "inclusive". The
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, is reported to have told an
audience in his diocese that he expects the Church one day to be
disestablished.
The Home Office report, by Prof Paul Weller and a team at Derby university,
says the next coronation will be the next focus of controversy which the
Government should tackle as a matter of urgency. It says: "Coronations are
state events which, historically, have expressed the close symbolic relationship
between established religion and the state.
"The religious composition of society has changed significantly since the last
coronation and the next coronation will therefore highlight a series of very
important issues and complexities, which it would be best to begin giving
consideration to as soon as possible."
Some Anglican bishops, including Dr David Hope, the Archbishop of York,
have already been considering changes to the ritual, which has been a
Christian ceremony since 973, when Edgar was crowned by Archbishop
Dunstan at Bath. Proposals, which include involving other religious leaders,
rewriting the oath and abandoning the eucharist, have been discussed.
Senior clergymen believe the next coronation cannot take the same form as
the last ceremony, in 1953, when the Queen pledged to "preserve inviolably
the settlement of the Church of England". The Prince of Wales has made clear
that he wants to be the "defender of faith" rather than the "defender of the
faith", in order to reflect the number of religions practised in Britain.
The Home Office paper criticises the "historically rooted religious
disadvantage" to other faiths and Christian denominations caused by the
establishment of the Church of England. This includes the fact that Roman
Catholics are not allowed to succeed to the Throne and that the monarch has
to swear an oath of allegiance to the Protestant church, it says.
The ban on the monarch marrying a Roman Catholic - which has been the
subject of debate in the Scottish Parliament and at Westminster - and on
Roman Catholic priests sitting in the Commons are also highlighted.
Although the report acknowledges that establishment is supported by many
other religious leaders because it raises the profile of religion generally, it says
that the Church of England's "special position" also makes other faiths feel
excluded from society and should be subjected to "rigorous questioning".
Christianity has had a "privileged presence, sometimes as of right and
sometimes as a consequence of tradition" which Judaism, Islam or Hinduism
have not had, it concludes. Mr Straw commissioned the report following calls
from Muslims for the law to be changed to ban religious discrimination. At the
moment, Sikhs and Jews are protected because they are classified as a "race"
but Muslims, Christians and Buddhists are not.
The researchers point out that the Human Rights Act, which takes effect in
October, specifically protects people from discrimination on the grounds of
religion and could lead to legal challenges if nothing is done. A Home Office
spokesman said the report "is being looked at very thoroughly by the Home
Office but nothing has been taken on board yet".
Philip Mawer, secretary general of the Archbishop's Council, said:
"Coronations are primarily a statement of the sovereign's accountability; they
emphasise the duty and service of the sovereign to the nation under God."
~*~
Paparazzi's role in Diana accident(BBC News)
Trevor Rees-Jones, Princess Diana's bodyguard
and the sole survivor of her fatal car crash,
has said photographers pursuing her created
the atmosphere for the accident.
The 31-year-old fromer paratrooper from north
Wales made the comments in an interview for
a French television programme on Sunday.
"They are not directly responsible for the
accident, but indirectly they created the
atmosphere in which the accident happened,"
he told France 2 television.
Princess Diana died when the Mercedes in
which she was travelling with her boyfriend
Dodi al Fayed crashed into a pillar in a tunnel in
Paris in August 1997.
The car was being
chased by
photographers mounted
on motorcycles.
The photographers and
a press courier were
arrested and placed
under investigation on
suspicion of
manslaughter and
failure to assist
accident victims.
But a French court cleared the nine
photographers and the courier of responsibility
in August last year.
Mr Rees-Jones, who has undergone extensive
plastic surgery after suffering appalling injuries
in the crash, said the photographers were
"more aggressive than anywhere else".
The bodyguard has
said he has no memory
of the crash itself or of
the minutes preceding
it.
Mr Rees-Jones, who
has written a book
titled "The Bodyguard's
Story", said he had not
noticed that Henri Paul,
deputy security chief
at the Ritz hotel where
the couple were
staying and who was driving the car, was
under the influence of alcohol.
"Nothing in the behaviour of the driver
suggested he was drunk", Mr Rees-Jones said
in the interview, recorded in London last
Wednesday.
The inquiry into Diana's
death concluded that
Mr Paul was driving
under the effect of
alcohol and
anti-depressants.
Mr Rees-Jones also
discounted the theory
put forward by Dodi's
father, that there had
been a conspiracy to
kill the princess.
"(Mohammed al Fayed) believes that it was a
conspiracy; he named a number of institutions;
I can understand that sort of pain," he said.
"Mr Fayed had access to the same files I did
and nothing suggests it was anything but a
tragic accident."