Spanish King in stormy waters over £12m yacht(UK Times)
Kirk assembly role for prince(Yahoo: The Scotsman)
Down Under love for Princess Anne's daughter(Yahoo: Reuters)
Prince Edward's wife counts pennies from PR work(Yahoo: Reuters)
Netty's Page News for January 27, 2000
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spanish King in stormy waters over £12m yacht
FROM GILES TREMLETT IN MADRID KING JUAN CARLOS of Spain has sailed into
controversial waters by accepting a new £12 million royal yacht as a gift from a
group of businessmen.
The turbo-diesel craft, with a top speed of 70 knots, is currently undergoing
tests at a dockyard in Cádiz, southwest Spain, and was christened by Queen Sofia
at a secret ceremony earlier this month.
It will not be seen in public until the King officially receives it from the
donors this Easter.
The high-speed yacht has mostly been paid for by a group of millionaires from
the Balearic Islands and is due to replace the 20-year-old ailing royal yacht
Fortuna, which was a gift from King Khaled of Saudi Arabia in 1979.
The process by which money was gathered to pay for the new vessel has been
shrouded in secrecy.
Formally it is an unsolicited gift from a registered charity, the Cultural
Tourism Foundation of the Balearic Islands.
Some 30 local tourism magnates, reportedly led by Gabriel Escarrer of the Sol
Melia hotel chain, have given the foundation several hundred thousand pounds
each.
The new super-yacht is meant to be their thank-you present to the King for
spending his annual summer holidays on Majorca and therefore attracting other
visitors to the islands.
Regional politicians from Prime Minister José María Aznar's Popular Party in the
Balearic Islands at first swore they had nothing to do with the yacht, but were
later discovered to have secretly pledged nearly two million pounds from public
funds.
Eberhard Grosske, a member of the recently-elected left-wing regional
government, criticised the King for accepting the gift, claiming it was an
"error".
The Spanish press dubbed the new vessel, with its three gas turbine engines and
high-tech, computerised bridge "a Concorde among speedboats". It is reportedly
able to outpace the Spanish Navy's fastest vessels.
~*~
Kirk assembly role for prince
The Queen has approved his appointment as her Lord High Commissioner to the
Assembly, the
Church's ruling body, which meets in Edinburgh from 20 May until 26 May.
The Lord High Commissioner is responsible for making the opening and closing
addresses and carries out several official functions, but plays no part in
day-to-day business.
The Princess Royal performed the same role in 1996, and the Queen attended the
event in person in 1969.
By tradition, the Lord High Commissioner is addressed as "your Grace", the
distinctive form of address for a Scottish king in the past.
~*~
Down Under love for Princess Anne's daughter
LONDON (Reuters) - The Daily Mail has splashed a picture of Princess Anne's
daughter Zara
walking hand-in- hand with Australian student Angus Murray.
"Is it love for Zara and her Aussie hunk?" the newspaper asked.
The Queen's 18-year-old granddaughter has been on a three-month working holiday
in Australia
where she met Murray, 22, who is studying psychology.
"They are very much in love and she's very sad that her stint in Sydney is
coming to an end," the
tabloid quoted an unidentified friend of Zara's as saying.
~*~
Prince Edward's wife counts pennies from PR work
LONDON (Reuters) - Prince Edward's wife Sophie has been criticised by the media
for cashing in on being a royal -- but the books of her public relations firm
suggest it has made her far from rich.
Sophie's RJH company has just made an annual profit of only 13,800 pounds
despite having a string of prestigious clients, the Express tabloid reported.
"If 13,000 pounds profit is what our accounts say, then of course it is right,"
her co-director Murray Harkin was quoted as saying.
"We are pleased with the way that things are going. We are changing and
expanding and developing. At least we didn't make a loss," he said.
The Express quoted a senior public relations industry source as saying clients
could expect to be
charged 60,000-75,000 pounds a year by a London PR company.
Last October, Edward hit back at critics who accused Sophie of using her royal
status to win business for her company.
"It is not a conflict of interests in any way, shape or form," Edward told the
Daily Telegraph in an interview.
"As far as I can work out, she is doing extremely well at promoting Britain and
Britain's businesses and Britain plc and as long as she carries on doing that,
then I think (her critics) should go and...," he said without finishing his
sentence.
Edward, Queen Elizabeth's youngest son, married Sophie at Windsor Castle near
London last June. The queen gave the couple the title of Count and Countess of
Wessex.
Sophie came under fire for posing at last year's Frankfurt motor show with the
latest Rover car. Her contract with the manufacturer was reported to be worth
250,000 pounds.
Tabloids reported that Queen Elizabeth was "surprised" her daughter-in-law had
agreed to pose for the publicity photographs.
~*~
January 27th
King Albert II of the Belgians will undergo neuro-surgery at his spinal column
on Saturday in
the Hospital of Our Lady in Aalst, Belgium. He will continue work.
Lately Prince Heinrich of Hannover and his wife Thyra became the proud parents
of a son,
who was born in Göttingen, Germany.
On January 18th Arch Duchess Gloria of Austria was baptised in Mrozg, Austria.
Godmother
was Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis.
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