Los Angeles (AP) – Divorced rock legend Michael Jackson married the woman carrying his baby on Thursday, but details of the ceremony between the pop star and his plastic surgeon’s nurse were secret. “They did it,” said Jackson’s Los Angeles publicist Christine Holevas. That was it, no other details.
The singer announced hours earlier that he was marrying six-months pregnant Debbie Rowe during a private ceremony that followed Jackson’s “HIStory” concert in Australia. It was the second marriage for both.”Please respect our privacy and let us enjoy this wonderful and exciting time,” Jackson said in a statement.Holevas said there would be no confirmation the marriage took place, but later relented, saying: “They are married.”There was disbelief in southern California, where the reclusive pop star lives. “I think he’s as likely to find happiness in this marriage as he is to find work as a baritone,” said John Wilson, a Los Angeles entertainment promoter.Calls placed to MJJ Productions Vice President Bob Jones, who was travelling with Jackson weren’t returned.In Australia, fans and a pack of reporters staked out the expensive hotel where the couple began their new married life on Friday, but got no glimpse of the newlyweds.A media pack camped outside the Sheraton on the Park hotel in Elizabeth Bay, an upmarket harbourside suburb of Sydney, hoping to get a glimpse of the couple on their way to or from the hotel’s presidential suite.The private wedding ceremony apparently followed Jackson’s show on Thursday evening at the Sydney cricket ground, after a hot day on which he relaxed in the hotel.”He’s basically been staying in the hotel, watching videos, reading, that kind of thing,” Dainty Consolidated Entertainment spokesman Brett Hlywa said “He’s just been taking it easy. Because the weather’s been so hot, he’s decided to stay inside.”Jackson is 38 and Rowe, who met Jackson 15 years ago at the offices of the pop star’s plastic surgeon, is 37. In January, Jackson’s first wife Lisa Marie Presley cited irreconcilable differences in a divorce petition to end her 20-month marriage to the pop star..

The Swiss government has invited Greville Janner MP to discuss the Nazi gold affair in Berne next week. Mr Janner, chairman of the Holocaust Education Trust and vice-president of the World Jewish Congress, will demand an immediate contribution by the Swiss to Jewish charities working with Holocaust survivors as a “significant gesture to the victims of Nazism who are fast dieing away”. He will also press for speed and openness in investigating what happened to Nazi-looted wealth.
The meeting will be the first face-to-face opportunity for putting his case to Flavio Cotti, the Swiss foreign secretary, Thomas Borer, who is heading the inquiry, and Swiss members of parliament. Mr Janner, with David Hunt MP who chairs the Inter-Parliamentary Council Against Anti- Semitism, also hopes to meet bankers.Switzerland has been embarrassed by the storm of controversy which followed allegations that at the end of the Second World War it held on to gold which it knew could not have been obtained by Germany legally. In September, the Swiss government bowed to worldwide pressure and announced plans to lift the secrecy surrounding its banking business to help the search for any such wealth left in its bank vaults.Mr Janner said yesterday that next Monday’s meeting was further evidence of movement in the Swiss position. “It is very significant,” he said.Robert Reich, attache at the Swiss embassy in London, said yesterday: “The meeting is to enable Mr Janner to present his queries and current preoccupations concerning the whole matter. From our side, we want to outline to him once again what has been undertaken and done in Switzerland.”Jewish campaigners have been pressing for action on the former Nazi wealth.

Lawyers acting for the World Jewish Congress last week called on Britain, France and the United States to delay distribution of pounds 50bn of Nazi-looted gold held in the Bank of England until its origin was established. It is due to be returned to countries from which it was plundered during occupation. Jewish organisations claim some of it came from private persons and efforts should be made to trace them or their families.. Tension in central Africa increased still further yesterday as Uganda accused Zaire of invading its territory. More than 100 men attacked a Ugandan border post and five people – two civilians and three attackers – were killed in the incident at Npondwe, about 30 miles from the town of Kasese.