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Newspaper to apologize for Prince Jibe
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ONE of Germany's leading newspapers, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, said on Monday it would apologize for publishing a picture of Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito with a joking caption questioning his fertility.
Its weekly magazine supplement last Friday ran a cover picture of the crown prince and his wife, Crown Princess Masako, with the words ``Tote Hose'' -- literally ``dead trousers'' and slang for ``nothing happening'' -- printed over the prince's groin.
Its headline said: ``The world's oldest monarchy is on the brink of extinction,'' and an inside story, published on the prince's 41st birthday, told of the couple's failure so far to produce an heir for the imperial throne.
``Naturally we didn't want to offend Crown Prince Naruhito or his wife. We will apologize to the (Japanese) ambassador for the incident,'' the magazine's editors Jan Weiler and Dominic Wichmann were quoted as saying in Monday's newspaper.
An embassy official in Berlin said it had so far received no reply to the letter of protest they sent last weekend.
``This is a crude personal insult to the crown prince,'' an embassy spokeswoman said.
Crown Princess Masako, married to Naruhito for six years, had a miscarriage in December 1999 after news that she was pregnant sparked a media feeding frenzy.
(SD-Agencies)
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