Prince Harry to be sent to Iraq

Prince Harry will be deployed to Iraq with his regiment, the head of the British army has said.

General Sir Richard Dannatt said he had taken the decision personally but stressed it would be kept under review.

He called for an end to the "somewhat frenzied media speculation around this issue... in the interests of all our people deployed in Iraq at this time".

There have been fears for the safety of the prince in Iraq amid apparently worsening tensions in the country.

Gen Dannatt added: "The decision has been taken that he will deploy. I will of course keep that decision continually under review, and if circumstances are such that I change that decision, I will make a further statement."

Bloody conflict

In February, Clarence House and the MoD confirmed the prince would be sent to Iraq with his regiment, the Blues and Royals, saying he would take on a "normal troop commander's role" rather than a desk job.

The prince has long stated his wish to be in active service.

But concerns for his safety, and that of his soldiers, grew more intense after 12 UK troops were killed this month, one of the bloodiest since the conflict began.

The prince, 22, has taken part in preparation exercises. As an officer, he would be in charge of 11 soldiers carrying out reconnaissance work using armoured fighting vehicles.

It is thought that the prince has always insisted he should not be treated differently because of his status.

Safety debate

The deployment would make the prince the first royal to undertake a tour of duty in a war zone since the Duke of York served in the Falklands conflict in 1982.

Sir John Nott, Conservative defence secretary during the Falklands War, said the issue of Harry's deployment was different from his uncle's because the war in Iraq was "much more fraught" and did not have "complete public support".

Critics have suggested the risks to the prince are too great but others have claimed that insurgents will not be able to ascertain exactly where he has been deployed.

Israeli leaders 'rushed to war'

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been criticised for taking Israel to war in Lebanon last year "hastily" and without a comprehensive plan.

A government inquiry panel found him and other leaders guilty of "very serious failings" in handling the war.

About 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis were killed after Israel launched operations against Hezbollah militants who had captured two Israeli soldiers.

Mr Olmert said in a TV address he had no intention of resigning.

Plunging popularity

He said that instead he would work to implement the conclusions of the report, admitting that "mistakes were made".

Mr Olmert is already suffering unprecedented unpopularity levels.

But he got support from the White House, whose spokesman said President Bush viewed the Israeli leader as essential to Middle East peace efforts.

He received the report on Monday morning, a few hours before its conclusions were read out on live TV.

"We will definitely study your material... and ensure that in any future threat scenario against Israel, the difficulties and faults you cited will be corrected," Mr Olmert said.

'Overly ambitious'

Retired judge Eliahu Winograd presented the findings of the six-month investigation into the lead-up to war at a news conference.

He said the decision to launch the war without a well thought-out plan showed "a severe failure in judgment, responsibility and caution".

The aims of the war - to crush Hezbollah and force it to hand back two Israeli troops captured in a deadly cross-border raid - were "overly ambitious and impossible to achieve", Mr Winograd said.

Some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the 34-day conflict, while the two captured soldiers remain in captivity.

"The responsibility is on the prime minister, the defence minister and chief of staff," Mr Winograd said.

The former chief of staff, General Dan Halutz, has already resigned.

The report did not recommend any resignations, but it is expected to raise the pressure on Mr Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz.

A rally is planned for Thursday in Tel Aviv, calling for Mr Olmert and his government to quit.

A source, in Jerusalem, says that the report was just as damning as expected, and that it will be very tough for Mr Olmert to survive politically in the long term.

The commission said its report was only its interim findings.

It was ordered to investigate the full conduct of the war, but said it decided to bring forward its findings on the preparation for war, so that lessons could be learned sooner.

Its full report will follow soon, it said.

Airliner 'avoids' Indian missile

An Indonesian passenger jet was forced to turn round in Indian airspace to avoid a nuclear-capable missile test flight, the Indonesian government says.

The Indonesian foreign ministry has demanded an explanation from India over the incident.

Officials from Garuda airlines say they received no advance notice of the test.

The Indian government says it successfully test-fired the Agni-III surface-to-surface missile off the country's eastern coast on Thursday.

'Great expense'

"Usually closed airspace is alerted to international authorities but the fact is, our plane flew and had to return," Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo told reporters in Jakarta.

"We will summon India's diplomat here soon to seek official clarification," he said.

"We have to make sure this does not happen in the future."

The Garuda airliner was carrying 413 Muslim pilgrims from the capital, Jakarta, to Saudi Arabia, when the Indian control tower told pilots the missile had been launched, said Ari Sapari, the national carrier's director.

"We were not given any advance warning about this missile test," he told the AP news agency.

"This was obviously confusing and worrying. It also caused us to disrupt an international flight schedule - a great financial expense."

Rocketed skyward

The Boeing 747 immediately returned to Jakarta and took off again for Jeddah seven hours later, he said.

Another Garuda plane bound for Riyadh also had to delay its departure because of the test.

Indonesian officials say that details of the incident may now be passed on to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

The jet's exact location in relation to the missile, which trailed orange and yellow smoke as it rocketed skyward, had not yet been made public.

There has so far been no response from India to the Indonesian complaints.

On Thursday it was announced that the Agni III - India's longest range missile - had been successfully test-fired.

The missile is designed to reach 3,000 km (1,900 miles) and puts China's major cities well into range, as well as targets deep in the Middle East.

The missile was launched from Wheeler Island off the eastern state of Orissa and is also said to be capable of carrying up to a 300-kiloton nuclear warhead.

Iran 'enters new nuclear phase'

Iran can now produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale, President Ahmadinejad has announced, in a move likely to further strain tensions with the West

He gave no details of Iran's capacity, but some officials said 3,000 uranium gas enrichment centrifuges were running at the Natanz plant in central Iran.

Mr Ahmadinejad's speech came as Iran celebrated nuclear technology day.

Iran maintains its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, but the West fears it wants to build atomic bombs.

The UN has passed two packages of sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

A US spokesman said the White House was "very concerned" about the Iranian announcement.

"Iran continues to defy the international community and further isolate itself by expanding its nuclear programme, rather than suspending uranium enrichment," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

NPT warning

"With great honour, I declare that as of today our dear country has joined the nuclear club of nations and can produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale," Mr Ahmadinejad told the audience at Natanz.

He did not say how many centrifuges - the machines that spin uranium gas in order to enrich it to levels needed for fuel - were now operational at Natanz.

Iran announced in February that it had set up two cascades of 164 centrifuges each at Natanz. It said it planned to have 3,000 centrifuges by the end of last month.

Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator with the West, said at Natanz on Monday that Iran had begun injecting gas into many of the centrifuges, without specifying the number.

Some other officials said 3,000 centrifuges had been installed.

The most sensitive areas at Natanz, deep underground, are thought to be halls that can hold up to 50,000 centrifuges.

The Iranian president again asserted his country's right to nuclear development for peaceful purposes.

And he also warned that Iran would have no choice but to review its membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if further pressure was applied by the West.

Journalists and diplomats were invited to the special events taking place at Natanz, but European Union diplomats boycotted them in protest at Iran's refusal to comply with UN demands to end its uranium enrichment programme.

Sudanese soldiers accused of rape

Rape is being used as a weapon of war in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, a United Nations report says.

It details numerous cases of rape by government soldiers, including one in which girls as young as 13 and pregnant women were sexually assaulted.

The UN's human rights chief called on Sudan's government to investigate and prosecute those responsible.

A second UN report details the seizure and disappearance of men in Darfur suspected to be rebel supporters.

At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2m displaced during the four year conflict between rebel groups and government-backed militia.

Pressure

The new reports released by UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour make grim reading.

The UN office has a team of human rights monitors in Darfur who report regularly on the situation there.

At least 15 women in and around the village of Deribat report being raped by soldiers during an attack last December.

In their report the human rights monitors conclude that rape was used as a weapon of war, a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Ms Arbour called on Sudan's government to conduct an independent investigation into the attacks and to ensure that those responsible are prosecuted.

The second report details the enforced disappearance of at least 19 men in south Darfur.

The UN monitors say they were taken from their homes late last September by government forces who claimed the men were rebels. Since then only three have returned.

At least eight were identified among a group of corpses exhumed earlier this year.

Ms Arbour says no circumstances justify enforced disappearance and summary execution and has called for detailed explanations from the authorities in Darfur.

Our correspondent says the new reports will add to the pressure on Sudan to address the violence in Darfur.

Last week the UN Human Rights Council ordered an investigation into Sudan's compliance with international conventions against torture, summary execution and violence against women.

'No deal done with Iran' - Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted no deal was done to free 15 Royal Navy crew members, as they arrived in the UK after being held in Iran for 13 days.

They were released "without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature", he said.

British officials also denied that the UK had apologised over the incident.

Iranian television quoted a senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader saying Britain sent a letter of apology. But UK diplomats said no letter existed.

The diplomats insisted the only written communication was an exchange of diplomatic notes several days earlier.

It is thought the British note included an offer to hold discussions to clarify the border line to avoid problems in future, says the BBC's Frances Harrison in Iran.

Mr Blair said new lines of communication had opened with Iran that it would be "sensible to pursue".

But he said the UK would not stand for attempts to get nuclear weapons or to support terrorism.

'Terrorist act'

Speaking as the Royal Navy crew arrived back at Heathrow airport, Mr Blair said he rejoiced at their return.

But it had to be tempered with the "ugly reality" of the deaths of four British soldiers in Iraq, killed by "a terrorist act" in Basra.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed on Thursday that four soldiers had been killed in a roadside bomb blast and a fifth was seriously injured. A Kuwaiti interpreter was also killed.

Mr Blair said it was "far too early" to point to any Iranian involvement in that particular attack.

But he added: "The general picture, as I have said before, is there are elements at least of the Iranian regime that are backing, financing, arming terrorism in Iraq."

Revolutionary Guard

The Royal Navy crew members were on patrol boats launched from HMS Cornwall in the Gulf on 23 March when they were detained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The Iranians accused the crew of straying into its waters - the British say they were in Iraqi territory.

Mr Blair was asked if the UK had promised not to stray into its waters, Mr Blair said British forces should not be in Iranian waters - but added "it is our contention that they weren't".

He also denied suggestions that an Iranian official held in Iraq had been released and that consular access had been granted to others.

He said Britain had managed to secure the release of its personnel "more quickly than many people anticipated", and "without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature whatever".

"We made it clear at the outset we weren't going to do that and we held firm to that position throughout," he said.

He also defended the government's "dual-track strategy" during the crisis - saying they had been open to talks with Iran, but it had also been important to mobilise international support - amid criticism that it had angered Iran.

Arab support

"In my view it would be utterly naive to believe that our personnel would have been released unless both elements of the strategy had been present," he said.

A senior government source told the BBC there had been a lot of willingness from the governments in the region and Arab world to lobby Iran, and this had an impact - as did a swift UN Security Council statement.

He added that while no deal was done by the UK over Iranians being held in Iraq, it was possible that the Iraqi government might have taken some sort of initiative.

Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox told the BBC that the government was right not to have made any concessions, but he said Mr Blair still needed to answer some questions.

"The main question is what can we do differently to prevent something like this happening in the future," he said.

"There are a number of questions about how far HMS Cornwall was away from the vessel that was being boarded. About why there wasn't proper helicopter cover - why there wasn't any patrol boat cover?"

The 15 Navy personnel have been reunited with their families at the Royal Marines Barracks Chivenor in Devon.

Striped rabbit spotted in Sumatra

One of the rarest species of rabbit in the world has been spotted for only the third time in the last 35 years.

The Sumatran striped rabbit was photographed in late January on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the Wildlife Conservation Society said.

The species is listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union, due to loss of habitat.

The rabbit was previously photographed in 2000, with the last sighting by a scientist back in 1972.

Habitat risk

The 30cm-long rabbit was photographed by a camera trap in Bukit Barisan National Park, said Colin Poole, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Asia Program.

The sighting also highlighted the need to protect the habitat of the species, also known as nesolagus netscheri, from threats such as farming, he said.

"This rabbit is so poorly known that any proof of its continued existence at all is great news, and confirms the conservation importance of Sumatra's forests," Mr Poole said.

Back in 1999, researchers discovered another species of striped rabbit in the Annamite Mountains between Laos and Vietnam, and named it the Annamite striped rabbit.

Genetic samples revealed the species were distinct, though closely related, most likely diverging about 8 million years ago.