News for Thursday: November 2nd, 2000

British-born princess is found dead in Spain(Electronic Telegraph)
By Hugh Davies and Tim Brown in Madrid

PRINCESS Maria Luisa von Hohenlohe, the wife of the founder of the Marbella Club, once a favoured haunt of the rich and famous, has been found dead in her bedroom.
Known to friends as Mari Lys, the British-born princess, 57, died on her husband's vast country estate and vineyard at Cortijo de las Monjas, near the town of Ronda in mountains overlooking the Costa Del Sol. Her husband, the Bohemian aristocrat Prince Alfonso de Hohenlohe, 76, was not on the estate at the time.
The princess was reported to have suffered from depression and it is understood police found a bottle of barbiturates in the room. Tony Dali, a Marbella restaurateur and friend of the family, said: "The death of the princess has stunned everyone. She was a fantastic lady." Her two children, James and Roseanna, left London yesterday for Marbella.
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The prince of wails is a hit on his fujara(Electronic Telegraph)
By Robert Hardman in Bratislava

THE hills were alive to the sound of something peculiar yesterday as the Prince of Wales began the first royal tour of the seven-year-old Republic of Slovakia with a blast on one of Europe's most unusual instruments.
His first stop on his two-day tour of the poorer half of the old Czechoslovakia was the Carpathian mountain region around Banska Bystrica, the centre of the doomed Slovakian Uprising of 1944.
In pouring rain he strolled through a primeval forest where he was welcomed by the reedy wail of the fujara, a hybrid of the recorder and the didgeridoo favoured by Carpathian shepherds for 800 years.
Presented with his own model, the prince felt he should give it a go. "My fingers aren't big enough," he said as he tried to hold the 4ft instrument in the correct manner. He managed to emit a respectable selection of notes and promised to find some fujara recordings so that he could practice when he got home.
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Comedian's sketch about ghost of Diana 'tasteless'(Electronic Telegraph)
By Sarah Womack, Political Correspondent

A SKETCH by the comedian Rory Bremner in which he plays the ghost of Diana, Princess of Wales, has been described as "tasteless".
The programme shows the ghost clutching Hello! magazine and sympathising with a dejected Tony Blair. In a spoof of the 1995 Panorama interview, the ghost tells Mr Blair: "You are the People's Prince." He replies: "The King of Hearts?" She responds: "And much more. Up here everyone is saying your destiny is in the heavens, you wear the crown of stars."
She then vanishes, saying she is going to be late "for a Versace thing". Mr Bremner defended the programme, My Government and I, to be shown on Channel 4 on Nov 19. He said the Princess still "haunted" public opinion. "This is a satire about contemporary Britain and no one can pretend that she doesn't figure in people's thinking.
"The angle is that Blair seems to have inherited the mantle as the people's prince or king of hearts. But don't forget that this is all a fantasy." He said the Princess's sons, William and Harry, would "have their own thoughts". A Channel Four spokesman said the programme would not be withdrawn.
However, Jo Bexley, spokesman for the Diana Memorial Fund, said: "This programme does sound in bad taste." Sir Teddy Taylor, a senior Conservative backbencher, said the programme would cause "hurt and distress" to the princess's family and should be scrapped.
The 60-minute show, which lampoons the Government as the "unled in pursuit of unleaded", includes Mr Bremner as the Queen, the Prince of Wales, William Hague and Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's press secretary.
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Jewels of Catherine the Great for auction(Electronic Telegraph)
By Tara Womersley

A DIAMOND and emerald necklace created from stones given by Catherine the Great to a British ambassador is expected to fetch up to £600,000 at auction.
The jewels, accompanied by matching earrings, suggest a love affair that has never been proved between the Russian empress and John Hobart, the second Earl of Buckinghamshire. They are being sold on Nov 28 by the Marquess of Lothian, a distant relation of the second earl and father of Michael Ancram, the Conservative Party chairman, after being in his family for two centuries.
Catherine the Great was said to have "showered favours" upon the earl and given him the emeralds in the 1760s when he was ambassador to the court of St Petersburg. He wrote in his diary about the empress: "To see her is to know that she could love and that her love would make the happiness of a lover worthy of her."
Whatever the truth of the matter, when the earl returned to Britain he used the jewels to create a necklace for his wife, with the earrings created later from a different set of stones.
Daneila Mascetti, director of the jewellery department at Sotheby's, said the emeralds probably came from India or Colombia. She said: "The emeralds are a beautiful colour and perfectly matched in tone and hue. Nowadays it would take at least two years to match such stones and that is with the use of telephones and advanced communication."
The Marquess of Lothian is believed to be raising funds for other ventures including work to his home.
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Queen buys ten Penny Blacks(Electronic Telegraph)

A UNIQUE set of 10 Penny Black stamps is to be saved for the nation after the Queen agreed to buy them for £250,000. The first day cover - dated May 6, 1840, the day the world's first postage stamp was issued - is considered among the 10 greatest rarities in the stamp-collecting world. The acquisition is the largest ever by the Queen and will be the most significant addition to the Royal Philatelic Collection.
The envelope, actually a folded letter sheet, was addressed to a 'James Burnie Esq of Kirkcudbright', and contained correspondence from a lawyer concerning a will. It would also have contained legal documents. The unperforated stamps are franked with nine red Maltese Crosses and the cover is considered to be in good condition. Its purchase will be financed by the sale of surplus duplicate stamps from the George V collection.

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