The British government has thrown its backing behind an ambitious Afghan strategy to split the Taliban by securing the defection of senior members of the militant group and large numbers of their followers.
The strategy, spearheaded by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, reflects a significant shift in British policy, and is showing initial signs of success.
This would seem to me to be a classic case of divide and conquer, a sensible course of action I think as the ultimate goal is to bring peace to Afghanistan not to capture or kill every single member of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the country. It can only be a good thing if more moderate members of the Taliban who are not really adherants to the ideology but are members out of tribal loyalty can be persuaded to lay down arms. politics, terrorism
An Iraq War memorial is to be unveiled at the Trafalgar Hotel today to honour the sacrifice made by His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales and his first wife, the late Diana, Princess of Wales. [via]
Prince Henry of Wales, commonly called Prince Harry aka Sir Robin the Not-quite-so-brave-as-Sir-Lancelot and Harry the Nazi, holds the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry of the British Army, but due to "specific threats to kill or kidnap him" he did serve his tour of duty in Iraq with his regiment.
A pot of burning chilli at the Thai Cottage restaurant on Monday sparked fears of a biological terror attack.
Roads were closed and homes evacuated by police whilst firefighters wearing protective breathing apparatus broke down the door to the restaurant where they discovered the source was merely a 9lb pot of chillies.