ONE CROWN DOWN

Prince Harry is to be pulled out of Afghanistan amid fears for his safety.

The 23-year-old Household Cavalry officer, who has been fighting the Taliban in Helmand Province for the past 10 weeks, is set to be flown home to the UK.

The move, which will be a bitter blow to the Prince, follows the breakdown of a news blackout deal agreed across the UK media after foreign websites leaked details of his deployment.

The final decision on whether to extract him was taken today by the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup after discussions with the head of the Army, Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt.

Intelligence picked up a series of specific threats to Harry and his comrades in Iraq after details of his planned deployment were announced and received widespread publicity.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said: "Following a detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command, the decision has been taken by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, Chief of Defence Staff, in consultation with General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan immediately.

"This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier."

The MoD statement added: "The decision by elements of the foreign media to report Prince Harry's presence in Afghanistan without any consultation with the Ministry of Defence is regrettable.

Prince Harry has been secretly fighting the Taliban for 10 weeks and has told how he is relishing life in the Afghan danger zone.

Harry, 23, speaking during a lull in fighting, said: "It's nice to be here with the guys and mucking in. All my wishes have come true."

He hoped he had been a credit to his mum Diana, adding: "Hopefully she'll be proud. She'll be looking down."

Harry, third in line to the throne, was sent to Helmand province on December 14. He has been in firefights against the hardline Islamic fanatics. The British position there comes under missile, mortar and machine gun fire on an average of five times a day.

UK and international newspapers and TV channels agreed to keep Harry's Afghan role a secret so as not to endanger him unnecessarily. But the news was leaked on the US-based Drudge Report website.

Harry has told how the Queen broke the news he was going to the front line - to his relief and delight.

He originally trained as a tank commander and was scheduled to be sent to Iraq on reconnaissance duties.

But in May that plan was scrapped for fear Harry would be targeted by insurgents. The prince was bitterly disappointed.

But he secretly retrained as a Forward Air Controller.

Gordon Brown yesterday said Britain was proud of the prince's "outstanding service."

Finally, we have a prince with a purpose. After fears over his serving in Iraq, Harry's been given the chance to prove himself. His mother would have been proud of him - and so should we.

He is described as a "magnificent soldier", it was ludicrous to keep him confined to barracks while others served their country.

His disappointment was manifested in those boozing sessions and pub scandals.

But these past 10 weeks will be the making of Harry.

That he's earned the respect of his comrades and also earned ours.

Not many members of the royal family can claim to be "one of us".

Now Harry can.

Speaking in December before he left for Helmand province, he told how disappointed was when he could not go to Iraq for security reasons.

"I wish that quite a lot actually. At the beginning of this year (2007), it was very hard and I did think: "Well, clearly one of the main reasons that I'm not likely to be going was the fact of who I am'."

The prince is known as Second Lieutenant Wales, his duties as a Forward Air Controller, involve hours watching surveillance footage beamed from aircraft flying over enemy positions or small unmanned drones. The information is sent to a laptop, nicknamed Kill TV.

On New Year's Eve Harry used it to oversee his first bomb strike. He gave two US F15 jets the all clear and they dropped two 500lb charges on to a Taliban bunker system. A third exploded moments later as enemy fighters fled.

The strike came at the end of a 3 day aerial surveillance operation spearheaded by the prince from a fortified position at Forward Operating Base Delhi.

It is the the southern-most allied outpost in Helmand - little more than 500 metres from the Taliban positions and overlooking no-man's-land. Taliban fighters had been identified over the previous two days, moving between the bunkers and digging trenches.

They were spotted by surveillance craft flying too high for them to detect.

Harry, sitting at his screen, was able to watch the figures live on his Kill TV screen and ensure they were fighters and not civilians.

Harry's target was a fortification system codenamed Purple, which sat 150 metres behind the Taliban front line.

Once ready, the pilots signalled "In Hot" to Harry. He then gave them the final go-ahead with the words "Cleared Hot". In an interview, Harry had earlier told how the secret observation of the Taliban was the key to winning the battle against them.

FREED HOSTAGES IN COLOMBIA

Four hostages freed by Colombian rebels after six years in captivity appealed to President Hugo Chavez to press for the freedom of the remaining captives. It was the second such release this year by the leftist rebels, who are seeking to put pressure on Colombia's U.S.-allied government and persuade the international community to strike them from lists of terrorist groups.

Upon the hostages' return, the Venezuelan president made a direct plea to the rebels' commander for the release of Ingrid Betancourt, one of the most high profile of those still in captivity.

The 4 ex-lawmakers were reunited with relatives amid tears, hugs and grasped flowers at Caracas' international airport.

Then Chavez welcomed them to the presidential palace, where hostage Gloria Polanco made a passionate plea for the Venezuelan leader to help win the release of Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian citizen who has become a cause celebre in Europe.

"As a woman and a mother, I ask from my heart here in front of everyone that you fight to get Ingrid free as soon as possible," Polanco implored. "She is very ill, president, very ill. She has recurrent hepatitis B and is near the end."

Chavez turned to TV cameras recording the meeting and asked the rebel leader Manuel Marulanda, "from my heart to change Ingrid's location. Move her to a base closer to you, while we continue working to pave the way for her definitive release." Chavez called Betancourt's case "urgent."

Former Sen. Luis Eladio Perez, another released hostage, later said that Betancourt's treatment had been "merciless."

The FARC has proposed trading some 40 high-value captives — including Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors — for hundreds of imprisoned guerrillas.

The FARC has been fighting for more than four decades for a more equitable distribution of wealth in Colombia, but has in recent years drawn wide reproach for its methods: It kidnaps civilians for ransom and funds itself largely through cocaine trafficking. Colombia's government says it holds more than 700 people, either for ransom or political reasons.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who has tense relations with Chavez, thanked the socialist leader and called for the release of all hostages.

Chavez said he hopes the hostage release will open the way for a peace process. His government dubbed Wednesday's mission "Operation Path to Peace

Venezuela dispatched two helicopters to Colombia's southern jungles, where the rebels turned over the four captives in the same region where they released two others on Jan. 10: Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez.

The operation was overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the rebels turned over the four to Venezuela's interior minister, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, and Colombian Sen. Piedad Cordoba, a close Chavez collaborator.

Once the four landed in Caracas to emotional family reunions, they focused on calling for a quick effort to free more captives. Polanco's three grown sons ran toward the plane, wearing T-shirts reading: "Freedom for all."

On top of tropical ailments, the three U.S. military contractors held by Colombian rebels still suffer injuries from the plane crash five years ago that landed them in guerrilla hands, said a fellow hostage released Wednesday. The 3 also were badly shaken by the 60-year prison sentence a U.S. judge slapped on a Colombian rebel last month after a jury convicted him in connection with their Feb. 13, 2003 capture, said former Sen. Luis Eladio Perez. Perez said he spent the last six months with the Americans, all captives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, seeing them last on Feb. 4.

"The oldest, the pilot Thomas Howes (aged 54), had a blow to his head that gives him very strong recurring headaches," said Perez. "He's got a problem with hypertension with very little medical treatment, almost none, and it's very difficult to get drugs for hypertension."

Perez said Marc Gonsalves, 35, also has problems "resulting from the accident in his spine and his knees. He's also suffered all kind of illnesses that we also got like leishmaniasis and malaria."

He said Gonsalves had hepatitis recently.

In a radio interview just hours after he was released with three other Colombian politicians who had been held for six years, Perez did not specifically mention the third American hostage, 43-year-old Keith Stansell.

FARC guerrillas captured the three when their surveillance plane crashed on Feb. 13, 2003, in rebel territory in southern Colombia.

Palmera said he never saw the Americans or kept them hostage himself.

Perez said that he imagined the Americans' spirits would have been lifted somewhat by U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield's recent statements that Washington would be disposed to review Palmera's prison term if it would lead to their liberation.

A treaty Washington has with Colombia would allow it to send Palmera to a prison in this country.

BROTHER OBAMA

A photograph of Barack Obama wearing a turban and African garb hit the Internet, sparking a political firestorm - amid reports the Clinton campaign may have been behind it.

The Drudge Report Web site posted the photo of Obama, taken by The Associated Press in 2006 when he visited Wajir (Kenya), where his roots are, and wrote Clinton staffers "circulated" the photo over the weekend by e-mail.

"Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?" read an e-mail, allegedly penned by one campaign staffer, referring to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The controversy is one of the few times an anonymous whisper campaign that Obama is a Muslim - waged almost entirely on the Internet - has spilled into the mainstream, preying on fears of some Americans over radical Islamic terrorism, and coming eight days before primaries in Clinton's last-stand states of Texas and Ohio.

Obama said on WOAI radio in Texas, "Everybody knows that whether it's me or Sen. Clinton or Bill Clinton, that when you travel to other countries, they ask you to try on traditional garb that you have been given as a gift.

"The notion that the Clinton campaign would be trying to circulate this as a negative on the same day that Sen. Clinton was giving a speech about how we repair our relationships around the world is sad."

Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams shot back with a tough statement that Team Obama was manufacturing an issue.

Clinton insisted she knew "nothing about" the photo and called questions about whether her campaign leaked it "really laughable."

Obama's campaign has spent the past year dousing Web-based rumors that he, a Christian whose Kenyan dad was Muslim, practices the Islamic faith.

In December, two Clinton volunteers in Iowa resigned after forwarding e-mails stating Obama is a closet Muslim planning to destroy America.

The image was apparently mostly unused by media outlets - until the tabloid National Examiner used it in a Feb. 4, 2008, story that aimed to smear Obama as having a link to the terror group al Qaeda.

Matt Drudge did not respond to an e-mail asking if he could verify that the e-mail came from a Clinton staffer.

NO CHANGE IN CUBA

Cuba's new leader has placed two army generals in key positions in his new government, giving the armed forces an even bigger grip on the civilian power structure, The National Assembly also filled the government's No. 2 position -- first vice president of the ruling Council of State -- with 77-year-old José Ramón Machado Ventura, a very hard-line communist.

This is a gerontocracy, Castro's inner circle is dominated by people into their 70s. Only 56-year-old Carlos Lage represents a younger generation in the upper echelon of power.

The new names indicate Castro was not likely to embark on the kind of profound political changes sought by the United States and other nations.

The National Assembly on Sunday elected Castro as president of its Council of State, the government's top body. It also elected the council's first vice president, five second-line vice presidents and one secretary, as well as 22 rank-and-file members.

Machado Ventura's recent duties have included making sure that communist ideology is integrated into education programs. Fidel Castro put him in charge of Cuba's education programs -- at home and abroad -- when he took sick in July 2006. Also advancing were key members of the armed forces and top subordinates of Raúl Castro, one of the world's longest-serving defense ministers.

Gen. Julio Casas Regueiro, 72, was promoted from rank-and-file member to one of the council's five vice presidencies, replacing Machado Ventura. Casas is vice minister of the armed forces and chairman of GAESA, the big military conglomerate that controls 60 percent of the economy, from hotels to domestic airlines.

And Gen. Leopoldo Cintra Frías, 66, a longtime Castro ally who has commanded the Western army -- one of three main military regions -- since 1990, was elected as a new rank-and-file member of the council.

TURKEY, AND NO THANKSGIVING

Supported by air power, Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq on Friday in their first major ground incursion against Kurdish rebel bases in nearly a decade. But Turkey sought to avoid confrontation with U.S.-backed Iraq, saying the guerrillas were its only target. The offensive, which started late Thursday after aircraft and artillery blasted suspected rebel targets, marked a dramatic escalation in Turkey's fight with the PKK rebel group even though Turkish officials described the operation as limited. A military officer of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq said on condition of anonymity that several hundred Turkish soldiers had crossed the border. The coalition has satellites as well as drones and other surveillance aircraft at its disposal.

Sky-Turk television said about 2,000 Turkish soldiers were in Iraq, operating against rebel camps about two miles in from the border. NTV television said a total of 10,000 soldiers were inside Iraq in an operation that had extended six miles past the frontier. The activity was reportedly occurring about 60 miles east of Cizre, a major town near the border with Iraq. It was not possible to independently confirm the size or scope of the attack on the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union. CNN-Turk television, citing Turkish security officials, said the operation could last two weeks.

Late in the day, the Turkish military said five of its soldiers and 24 rebels had died in a clash inside Iraq and estimated at least 20 more rebels were killed by artillery and helicopter gunships. It said sporadic fighting was continuing. Earlier, PKK spokesman Ahmad Danas said two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight wounded in clashes along the 240-mile border, but said nothing about rebel casualties. There was no way to confirm either report independently.

The advance was the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Turkey's army is believed to have carried out unacknowledged "hot pursuits" in recent years, with small groups of troops staying in Iraq for as little as a few hours or a day.Turkey staged about two-dozen attacks in Iraq during the rule of Saddam, who conducted brutal campaigns against Iraqi Kurds. Some Turkish offensives, including several in the late 1990s, involved tens of thousands of soldiers. Results were mixed, however, with rebels suffering combat losses but regrouping after Turkish forces withdrew.

The PKK militants are fighting for autonomy in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey and have carried out attacks on Turkish targets from bases in the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The conflict started in 1984 and has claimed as many as 40,000 lives.Turkey's government has complained that Iraqi and U.S. authorities weren't doing enough to stop guerrilla operations. The Turkish air force has been staging air raids on PKK forces in thenorth since December with the help of intelligence provided by the U.S., a NATO ally.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he called his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, on Thursday night to give him advance warning of the operation. Erdogan said he later briefed President Bush in a telephone call.

"The Turkish armed forces will return after they finish their job," Erdogan said in a televised speech. "The goal of the operation and of operations that will be conducted is just, and only, PKK camps located in the north of Iraq."

Confirming the advance notice, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the Bush administration was urging Turkey to show restraint."We were notified and we urged the Turkish government to limit their operations to precise targeting of the PKK — to limit the scope and duration of their operations — and we urged them to work, directly, with Iraqis, including Kurdish government officials, on how best to address the threat," Stanzel told reporters.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed solidarity with Turkey on Friday in Washington, noting the PKK "is a common enemy of the United States and Turkey."

"It is also an enemy of the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government because the Iraqi territory cannot be used for terror, should not be used for terrorist attacks against Turkey," she said. "We've also been very clear, though, that stability and progress for Iraq is in the interest of Turkey. And so, everything should keep in mind that nothing should be done to destabilize what is a fragile but improving situation in Iraq." Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, issued a statement saying the military would be careful in attacking the guerrillas in tough terrain and weather.

"Utmost care is being taken so that innocent civilians living in the region are not negatively affected," he added.Nihat Ali Ozcan, a terrorism expert with at the TEPAV research center in Ankara, said the operation was likely launched to hit at guerrillas before the traditional start of the fighting season in the spring. "I think it is aimed to keep the PKK under pressure before the group starts entering Turkey," he said on CNN-Turk television.

In one photograph, five soldiers in white suits walk up a snowy hill in the dark. Others show a soldier walking with a land mine detector and three military helicopters on the ground.Matthew Bryza, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for southeastern Europe, said Bush promised Turkey's prime minister at a Nov. 5 meeting that Washington would share intelligence on the PKK. "The land operation is a whole new level," Bryza said in Belgium.

"What I can say is that what we've been doing until now has been working quite well."U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern about the escalation. He said he recognized Turkey's need for security, but appealed to Turkey and Iraq to work together to promote peace.

"The protection of civilian life on both sides of the border remains the paramount concern," Ban said, repeating calls for the PKK guerrillas to end their attacks inside Turkey.The European Commission, the administrative body of the European Union, appealed to Turkey to act with restraint.

"Turkey should refrain from taking any disproportionate military action and respect human rights and the rule of law," commission spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said."The EU understands Turkey's need to protect its population from terrorism," she added. "We encourage Turkey to continue to pursue dialogue with international partners."

SERBIA TURNS CRAZY

Demonstrators attacked the United States Embassy and set part of it ablaze on Thursday as tens of thousands of angry Serbs took to the streets of Belgrade to protest Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

The United States has been a strong advocate of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia and was among the first countries to recognize the new state, stoking deep resentment. Rian Harris, an embassy spokeswoman, said that a body had been found inside the building, but that all embassy staff members were accounted for.

Witnesses said that at least 100 people broke into the embassy, which was closed, and burned some of its rooms. One protester ripped the American flag from the facade of the building. An estimated 1,000 demonstrators cheered as the vandals, some wearing masks, jumped onto the building’s balcony waving a Serbian flag and chanting “Serbia, Serbia!” the witnesses said. A police convoy firing tear gas dispersed the crowd.

Serbian television reported that the Croatian Embassy had also been attacked, and the state news agency said that the Bosnian and Turkish Embassies were also targets. The police said at least 140 people had been injured in the incidents, 32 of them police officers. Security sources estimated that 150,000 people joined the protests. Groups also broke into a McDonald’s in central Belgrade and destroyed its interior. Witnesses said vandals were attacking foreign-owned shops, including a Nike store, and were seen carrying off shoes and other goods as the Serbian police looked on.

He added that the security that had been provided was completely inadequate. The United Nations Security Council issued a unanimous statement of the 15 members saying they “condemn in the strongest terms the mob attacks against embassies in Belgrade which have resulted in damage to embassy premises and have endangered diplomatic personnel.” The action was taken at the urging of Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador.

In recent days, Western leaders have watched with growing alarm as Serbia’s hard-line prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who helped lead the revolution that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, has replicated the nationalist talk of the late dictator, who used Serbs’ outrage that their ancestral heartland was dominated by Muslim Albanians to come to power in Serbia. “As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia,” Mr. Kostunica told the crowd in Belgrade. “We’re not alone in our fight. President Putin is with us,” he said of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

In a sign of the divisions within Serbia’s government, the pro-Western president, Boris Tadic, was absent from the rally, on a state visit to Romania.

But while Moscow has gained in popularity in Serbia by blocking Kosovo’s integration into the international community, leading Serbian intellectuals said most Serbs realized that the Kremlin’s willingness to fight for their cause was limited. “

In the short term, analysts said an anti-European Union backlash would gain force after the West’s support for an independent Kosovo. But Marko Blagojevic, an analyst with the Center for Democracy and Free Elections in Belgrade and a pollster, stressed that recent polls showed that 65 percent of Serbs saw their future in the European Union.

Mr. Blagojevic said he did not believe this had drastically changed. He noted that only about 10 percent of Serbs supported going to war over Kosovo. Serbian analysts said that rather than reflecting a resurgence of dangerous nationalism, the protests over Kosovo reflected disenchantment by the “losers of the transition” — those Serbs who have not benefited from the country’s democratic transformation during the eight years since Mr. Milosevic fell.

Unemployment hovers at about 21 percent, while the country’s annual per capita gross domestic product of about $7,400 has made Serbia one of Europe’s poorest countries. Without European Union membership, Serbs do not enjoy the open borders of their neighbors.

Ljubica Gojgic, a leading Serbian commentator, noted that Mr. Milosevic had been overthrown by the Serbian people, who had recently put their faith in a newly elected moderate president, backed by the West. “If Tadic is good enough for the E.U. and Washington, why is he not acceptable to the Albanians in Kosovo?” she asked. “Milosevic is dead.”