British Army

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Prince Harry Leaving Army
 Prince Harry Leaving Army 

Prince Harry Leaving Army

10 years in military included 2 tours in Afghanistan

(Newser) - It's a soldier's life no more for Britain's Prince Harry. Royal officials say the 30-year-old prince will leave the armed forces in June after 10 years of service that included two tours of duty in Afghanistan. Harry's final army duties will include a four-week assignment in...

6 British Soldiers Arrested for Beating NYPD Cop

Soldiers, all rugby players, say he called one of them a racial slur

(Newser) - Six British soldiers have been arrested in New York, for allegedly beating and robbing an off-duty NYPD cop in a bar. According to court reports, three of four of the men, who are all rugby players with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, started beating on the rookie cop when he...

Mathematician Finally Cracks POW's Coded Letters

Hidden messages inside letters sent during WWII

(Newser) - British soldier John Pryor sent letters home to his family from a Nazi POW camp for five years during World War II. Seventy years later, they finally know what he actually wrote. A mathematician at Plymouth University has deciphered the coded messages hidden inside the innocuous-looking letters for the first...

British Soldier Gives Birth in Afghanistan

Gunner didn't know she was pregnant

(Newser) - War zone medics more accustomed to treating bullet wounds delivered a baby boy at Afghanistan's Camp Bastion after a British soldier came to them complaining of severe stomach pains. The mother, a gunner in the Royal Artillery, had no idea that she was pregnant before the baby arrived, healthy...

Britain Cutting Army by a Fifth

Budget cuts to shrink force by end of decade

(Newser) - The British Army is taking a sizable cut as part of the government's austerity drive. The country's defense secretary unveiled plans yesterday to cut the force's 102,000 troops to 82,000 by the end of this decade, axing a total of 17 units and merging others,...

Prince Harry Promoted to Captain

New rank comes after five years of service

(Newser) - Prince Harry? That’s Captain Prince Harry to you. The prince was promoted to his new rank in the British army after completing five years of service, the BBC reports. Harry, who trains as an Apache helicopter pilot, became the first royal in more than 25 years to serve in...

Prince Harry Taliban Kidnap Drama Irks Royals

Royal 'furious' at fictional depiction of Afghan snatching

(Newser) - Prince Harry begs his Taliban captors for his life in a British drama to be broadcast later this month, and the royal soldier is not amused. Channel 4's "dramatized documentary" The Taking of Prince Harry mixes footage of a kidnapped Harry, played by actor Sebastian Reid, with real interviews...

'Hurt Locker' Brit Dies Disarming Afghan Bomb

NATO preparing massive assault on Taliban stronghold

(Newser) - A British soldier with the kind of chillingly dangerous job featured in the movie Hurt Locker has been killed disarming a roadside bomb to clear a route for a new Afghan offensive. Warrant Officer David Markland, 36, had survived 8 stints in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Times of London...

Brits Waterboarded Irish Prisoners in '70s

Evidence of torture may overturn man's 1973 conviction

(Newser) - The British Army used waterboarding on prisoners in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, according to lawyers for a man appealing his 1973 conviction. Liam Holden was convicted of killing a British soldier on the basis of a confession which he says was extracted by torture: Holden, who spent 17 years...

Afghan War Could Last 40 Years: UK General

(Newser) - The Afghan war could last three to four decades, the new head of the British Army predicted today. “It will take time. This is nation building,” Sir David Richards said, “not the starry-eyed type, but nation-building nonetheless.” He allowed, however, that “the Army’s role...

Sadistic Brit Soldiers 'Made Iraqis Dance Like Jacko'

(Newser) - British troops called Iraqi detainees "apes," beat them so that their moans of pain sounded like an "orchestrated choir," and forced them to dance like Michael Jackson, a public inquiry into the death of one of the detainees heard yesterday. The inquiry panel was told...

Brit Families Can Sue Over Soldier Deaths

Court: Troops protected by human rights law, even on battlefield

(Newser) - A British court has ruled that defense heads can be sued for neglecting soldiers’ human rights—meaning decisions made on the battlefield could be subject to litigation, the Times of London reports. The ruling stemmed from an inquest into the heatstroke death of a soldier due to what the coroner...

British Town Honors War Dead With Silent Farewells

Impromptu silence as soldier's hearse passed grew into tradition

(Newser) - A lone man's silent salute to a military hearse grew into a tradition that now involves thousands who line the streets of a small British town, the New York Times reports. The bodies of UK troops killed in Afghanistan pass through Wootton Bassett on the way from the nearby air...

Wills Wants to Be a Real Soldier

Nightclub confession also touches on Harry's split with Chelsy

(Newser) - It may seem like England's Prince William has it all, but the News of the World is reporting that the 26-year-old is jealous of his brother's chance to serve in Afghanistan. An undercover reporter says he got the prince to open up at a party, reports the AFP, but a...

N. Ireland Police Nab 3 in Soldier Killings

Men aged 41, 32, 21 arrested in pair of raids

(Newser) - Northern Ireland police arrested three men today over the killings of two British soldiers last week in a gun attack at an army base by suspected IRA dissidents. Police in Belfast said that men aged 41, 32, and 21 were arrested in early raids at two separate locations and are...

Secret Army Units Stirred Up N. Ireland Violence: Adams

British PM visits site of shooting, calls for 'hunting down' of gunmen

(Newser) - Sinn Fein head Gerry Adams says Northern Ireland’s chief constable “made a huge mistake bringing in undercover British Army units” to Northern Ireland after two UK soldiers were killed at a barracks Saturday, the Daily Telegraph reports. “You don't understand the history if you don't appreciate that...

Army Hits Harry With Sensitivity School

Disciplinary action follows two racial gaffes

(Newser) - Prince Harry has been booted to sensitivity camp by his army higher-ups following back-to-back racial gaffes, People reports. Shortly after calling a fellow soldier a "Paki," the 24-year-old royal told a black comedian, "You don't sound like a black chap." The diversity lessons, slated to last...

Furor Follows Harry's 'Paki' Vid

Prince's taped words 'not acceptable in a modern army': official

(Newser) - Britain's defense ministry has launched a formal inquiry following widespread outcry over a videotape showing Prince Harry calling a fellow military trainee “our little Paki friend” and another cadet “a raghead,” reports the Telegraph. “This sort of language is not acceptable in a modern army,”...

Brown Announces July Withdrawal in Baghdad

Brown says troops home by July in surprise Baghdad visit

(Newser) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a surprise visit to Baghdad today and announced that all but a handful of British troops will leave Iraq by July 2009. About 4,000 British service members remain in Iraq, mostly around Basra, though at the height of the war 100,000 were...

Prince William Will Fly to the Rescue

Royal plans to be search and rescue pilot

(Newser) - Prince William’s next military stint  will be as a search-and-rescue pilot for the Royal Air Force, the BBC reports. Having served with the army and navy, the prince learned to fly with the RAP this year and said today, "I now want to build on the experience and...

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