LONDON: One British soldier was fined and another was stripped of his officer rank yesterday after admitting abusing civilians, including children, in Afghanistan.
A 22-year-old serviceman was fined £1,000 ($1,530) for indecent conduct towards a child, while a 23-year-old officer admitted racially abusing an Afghan man.
Their patrol commander was cleared of failing to deal with the offences.
Both men, neither of whom can be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at a court-martial at a British base in Sennelager, northwestern Germany.
The private, referred to as Soldier X to avoid reprisals against him and his family, admitted pulling the hand of an Afghan child towards his crotch. Judge Advocate Alan Large said although the behaviour was completely unacceptable, he was persuaded that there was no sexual motive behind Soldier X’s action when he held the child on his knee and told him to touch his crotch in December 2011.
Germany may stick to Nato drones plan
BRUSSELS: Germany will stick to its commitment to help fund Nato drones, despite cancelling a plan to buy its own unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere signalled yesterday.
“We have signed an agreement and Germany usually sticks to its agreements,” de Maiziere said on the sidelines of a Nato meeting.
On May 14, Germany withdrew from purchasing Euro Hawk reconnaissance drones, made by EADS and Northrop Grumman, due to the cost.
That decision raised questions over whether it would continue to back a Nato plan to acquire five high-altitude unmanned Global Hawk planes, also from Northrop Grumman, as part of Nato’s Alliance Ground Surveillance project.
Londoner killed in Yosemite accident
LOS ANGELES: A 28-year-old British man died in a rock climbing accident in California’s Yosemite National Park, officials said Monday, the second fatality in two days in the world-famous natural wonder.
Londoner Felix Joseph Kiernan and a climbing partner were scaling El Capitan, a huge granite monolith which dominates Yosemite Valley in the heart of the spectacular park, when he was struck by falling rock on Sunday.
The pair “were approximately 600 feet up the climbing route when a loose block was dislodged,” the park said in a statement, estimating the size of the rock at two feet by one foot. “The block .. fell approximately 150 feet before striking Kiernan and causing fatal injuries,” it said. Agencies
