LOS ANGELES, Feb 24, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Britain's Prince Harry has launched
new legal action against one of the country's biggest newspaper groups, a
spokesperson said Wednesday.

  The complaint against Associated Newspapers -- which publishes the Daily
Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline -- follows his wife Meghan Markle's
recent victory in a separate, long-running case against the same group.

  A spokesperson for the pair told AFP that a complaint had been filed by
Harry, without specifying its nature or the publication being sued.

  Multiple UK media reports said Harry -- Queen Elizabeth II's grandson --
was suing for libel over a Mail on Sunday article alleging he had sought to
keep a request for British police protection under wraps.

  Markle, 40, and Harry, 37, live in California after stepping down from
royal duties in 2019, which caused them to lose their UK taxpayer-paid
protection.

  Last month, Harry appealed to the UK courts after the government refused to
allow him to pay for police protection out of his own pocket, arguing the
decision means he cannot return home.

  A lawyer for Harry told a London court last week that the UK "will always
be his home," but that his own private security team in the US does not have
adequate jurisdiction or access to UK intelligence necessary to keep his
family safe.

  The government lawyer dismissed Harry's offer to pay for police protection
as "irrelevant," writing to the court that personal "security by the police
is not available on a privately financed basis."

  The couple have recently taken legal action against a number of
publications, alleging invasion of privacy.

  Following her second court victory against Associated Newspapers in
December for breach of privacy -- over the publication of a letter she wrote
to her estranged father -- Markle called for a reform of tabloid culture.

  The industry, she said, "conditions people to be cruel and profits from the
lies and pain that they create."