LONDON - Britain's Prince Harry is being withdrawn from Afghanistan and sent back to England, British military officials said Friday."The decision by elements of the foreign media to report Prince Harry's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," said a statement posted on the Ministry of Defence's press Web site Friday. The statement said the royal had been scheduled to return "in a matter of weeks" with the remainder ... [full story]

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish military officials Friday said they have ended military operations in northern Iraq against rebel Workers Party of Kurdistan targets.Troops have begun withdrawing from the area after the week-long ground operation targeting the PKK, as the rebel organization also is known, the Kuwait News Agency KUNA reported. The Turkish withdrawal comes after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President George Bush called for a quick end to the cross-border incursion that began ... [full story]

GAZA - Five Palestinians, two of them children, were wounded in an Israeli Air Force attack on a Gaza rocket production facility Friday, Palestinian sources said.The attack in the Shati refugee camp was part of an operation aimed at halting Qassam rocket fire on southern Israel. Israeli planes also conducted two air strikes in the Jabalya area and one in Beit Lahiya,At least 18 Palestinians, including five boys under the age of 16 and a ... [full story]

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Canadian military in Afghanistan has resumed handing over prisoners to Afghan authorities, apparently satisfied detainees won't be tortured, officers said.Lt. Col. Grant Dame told reporters in Kandahar each transfer would be done on a "case-by-case basis," but said he couldn't disclose too much more, a Canwest News Service correspondent reported. "We cannot get into exactly when (transfers) started or when the decision was made to do so," Dame said, adding the number ... [full story]

TEHRAN - Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme ruler, reportedly has fully endorsed his country's nuclear program for the first time.And he gave his full backing to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the issue. "One example of an advance by the Islamic system has been the nuclear issue, in which the Iranian nation has honestly and seriously won a great victory," he said Friday.He praised Ahmadinejad's role in advancing the nuclear issue as "outstanding."The ayatollah clearly celebrated the ... [full story]

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The U.S. Navy has positioned the USS Cole and other ships in the Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon, Pentagon officials said.The deployment Thursday comes amid a political standoff over Lebanon's presidency between parliament's pro-Western majority and pro-Syrian opposition, CNN reported."It's a group of ships that will operate in the vicinity for a while and as the ships in our Navy do, the presence is important," said Adm. Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs of Staff ... [full story]

TORONTO - Five young Toronto-area women were seriously injured early Friday after their car hit a highway guardrail and flipped multiple times, ejecting two, police said.Ontario Provincial Police Constable Dave Woodford said the driver of the Nissan Sentra apparently lost control while merging onto Highway 401 around 2 a.m., the Toronto Star reported. All five women were 20 years old, and two in the backseat who weren't wearing seatbelts were flung from the car as it ... [full story]

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Authorities in Gwinnett County, Ga., are investigating the deaths of a deputy sheriff and her two daughters found shot to death in their home.The 40-year-old female deputy was a 7 1/2 year veteran of the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday. Her two daughters were ages 4 and 11. Law enforcement personnel were called by a neighbor who reported hearing shots being fired.The deputy's 17-year-old son came home while ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer has told Congress he would not endorse an outright ban on so-called downer cows entering the food supply.Schafer told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Thursday he also would not back stiffer penalties for regulatory violations by meat-processing plants following the largest beef recall in the U.S. history, the Washington Post reported. Current rules, he said, are "adequate."Schafer said the agency was seeking to determine why the USDA had ... [full story]

LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas police downplayed the discovery of the toxic substance ricin in a hotel room, saying no one was harmed and they weren't looking for suspects.Ricin, used in cancer research, was found Thursday by a man cleaning a suite at an Extended Stay America hotel, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Friday. The man, saying the material wasn't his, took the toxic substance to the hotel manager's office and the manager called authorities, ... [full story]