News for January 19, 2000

King Dresses Down For Health Check-Up(British Times)
Prince Of Hanover Under Investigation(The Independent)
Diana's Walkway Unveiled(BBC News)
Royal Title Dropped as RUC Is Renamed(Evening Standard)
News from Netty's Page
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ King dresses down for health check-up
FROM MICHAEL BINYON IN AMMAN

KING Abdullah of Jordan, who has inherited his father's liking for roaming his kingdom incognito, has again slipped out of his palace disguised in old clothes. This time he went to a hospital in Zarqa, about 20 miles from Amman, the capital, to find out for himself the state of healthcare offered in government hospitals.
Palace officials in Amman said that they knew nothing of the King's excursion to Zarqa until he returned on Monday evening.
He told them that the hospital was poorly managed and that its services were unsatisfactory.
The 38-year-old King, his face obscured by traditional Arab headdress, spent two hours watching patients standing in long queues to see doctors, many of whom had not reported for work.
King Abdullah's father, King Hussein, used to delight in disguising himself and mingling with ordinary people, often asking pointed questions about the monarchy and the Government. Distrustful of sycophantic palace officials, he insisted on testing the mood of the country himself, believing that he would find out what was causing complaint only by such methods.
In the early years King Hussein could fool his subjects, but there was a suspicion that by the end of his reign his voice was so familiar and disguise so flimsy that most people realised who he was. That did not stop them taking the chance to speak out about conditions in the country.
King Abdullah, virtually unseen by his subjects until his surprise succession, is less well known. He has already made several undercover investigations, posing in August as a taxi passenger in the crowded centre of Amman, but almost being unmasked when the driver was stopped by police for a traffic offence. Five days before that, he dressed up as a television reporter, with fake white beard and Arab robes, to inspect Jordan's free trade zone.
Muslim tradition makes much of an early caliph, Omar bin Khattab, who used to disguise himself to find out conditions in the street, punishing wrong-doers and distributing largesse to the poor.
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Prince of Hanover under investigation

HANOVER, Germany (AP) – German prosecutors opened an investigation on Tuesday against Ernst August, Prince of Hanover, in connection with the beating of a disco owner on Lamu Island off Kenya last week.
Kenyan prosecutors declined to arrest Ernst August, the husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco, in connection with the beating of a German hotel and disco operator, saying he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.
Hanover prosecutor Thomas Klinge, however, said the prince did not have diplomatic immunity and opened the investigation after a Hanover lawyer filed a complaint based on press reports about the incident.
German law also allows prosecutors to charge citizens who commit crimes abroad. The assault victim, Joe Brunnlehner, remained hospitalised in the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Lamu. Hospital officials refused to comment on the extent of his injuries.
Ernst August and his wife left Kenya on Sunday for London and were believed to have travelled to Monaco from there.
The prince has been in similar trouble before.
In January 1998 he beat a photographer with an umbrella in front of his home near Hanover for trying to film him. The photographer was hospitalised with serious injuries and Ernst August was ordered to pay him 15,000 marks ($7,740/7,770 euros) in damages.
In addition the prince was ordered to make a payment of 90,000 marks ($4,645/46,000 euros), which was split between two charities to get criminal charges against him dropped.
The grandson of Duke Ernst August of Braunschweig and Lueneburg, the prince is a member of one of Germany's oldest royal families, with close ties to the British royals. The prince is Princess Caroline's third husband and she is his second wife.
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Diana's walkway unveiled

A seven-mile memorial walkway through London's parks will commemorate Diana, Princess of Wales, it has been revealed.
A fountain will also be built along the route, which passes Kensington Palace where Diana lived for 15 years.
The walkway - costing more than £1.5m - will pass through the Royal Parks - Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St James's Park. It will be signposted by 70 plaques set in the ground.
Plans were revealed after a Downing Street meeting of the Diana Memorial Committee.
Chancellor Gordon Brown, who heads the committee, said the route would be "one of the most magnificent urban parkland walks in the world". The walk passes Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, where Diana stayed after her engagement; the Queen Mother's residence Clarence House; St James's Palace, where Diana had an office; and Spencer House, the one-time London mansion of the Spencer family.
The Diana fountain, which will not include a statue of the late Princess, is backed by Prince William, 17, Prince Harry, 15, and the Spencer family. Five possible locations within the four parks are being considered for the fountain, although there is also a proposal for a fountain at Somerset House in The Strand.
Details of the Diana memorial playground in Kensington Gardens are due to be released on Thursday.
The £3m bill for the walkway and playground will be met from the government's 1999-2000 allocation to the Royal Parks Agency, an executive of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Both are on schedule for opening on 1 July, which would have been Diana's 39th birthday.
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Royal title dropped as RUC is renamed

The Royal Ulster Constabulary is to be renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland, it was revealed today.
Ulster Secretary Peter Mandelson will confirm the decision to drop the RUC title in a Commons statement on the province's policing, possibly tomorrow. He is expected to back former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten's radical 175-point plan to make the police force more acceptable to both Protestants and Catholics.
The Patten report recommended cutting the number of officers from 13,500 to 7,500 and talks begin today in Belfast on a multi-million-pound redundancy deal. Dropping the RUC name will infuriate Unionists and widows and relatives of police officers murdered by terrorists, who have staged a highly emotive campaign to keep the title.
There may be a slight compromise over the RUC emblem, with the crown and harp symbols in the cap badge being retained in some form.
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January 19th

The police of Antwerpen, Belgium, received some threatening letters in connection with the Happy Entrance of Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde on Monday in the province of Antwerpen. The threats are regarded serious and special safety-measures will be taken.