Germany frees ex-Red Army Faction militant Mohnhaupt

Germany freed former Red Army Faction militant Brigitte Mohnhaupt (photo) yesterday more than 24 years after she was imprisoned for her role in killings by the radical left-wing group that shook West Germany in the 1970s.

Wolfgang Deuschl, director of the Aichach prison in southern Germany where Mohnhaupt was held, said the 57-year-old woman was released early yesterday.

Last month a court ruled Mohnhaupt, who had served the minimum sentence for her crimes under German law, would be freed on five years probation. She had requested early release. Relatives of her victims had condemned the court?s decision, partly because she had voiced no remorse for a campaign of kidnappings and murders which peaked in autumn 1977.

Mohnhaupt was arrested in 1982 and sentenced to five life sentences for her role in the murders of leading German figures. Also known as the «Baader-Meinhof Gang» after founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, the RAF rose from the student protests of the late 1960s and the anti-Vietnam war movement.

Prince Harry club scuffle reports denied

Britain?s royal family denied newspaper reports yesterday that Prince Harry had lunged at a photographer after leaving a club following a drunken night out in central London. Harry, a Second Lieutenant in the British Army, is due to serve in Iraq later this year when his Blues and Royals regiment is posted there in May or June. The 22-year-old was pictured on the front pages of a number of tabloid papers falling to the ground and holding onto photographer Nirach Tanweer.

But the red-haired prince, dubbed a royal ?wild child? for underage drink and drugs antics, did not swear or lash out, his spokesman said.

?He was very drunk. I took a few shots of him and he just came for me,? Tanweer told the News of the World paper. ?It was an assault. I?ve never known anything like it before.?

Harry?s spokesman said the prince had in fact tripped and stumbled as he left the club. ?All sides were laughing about it,? the spokesman said. ?There was no aggressive intent. He wasn?t fighting.?

India tests air-to-air missile

India successfully test-fired a short-range air-to-air missile yesterday, the defence department said. The Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), the agency responsible for carrying out missile tests, said a 3.8-metre solid-fuel propelled indigenous missile, Astra, was launched off the coast of eastern state of Orissa. The test of the Astra missile was due on Monday, but it was brought forward after a scheduled test of nuclear-capable ballistic missile, Dhanush, could not take place due to technical problems.

?We made use of the time today and the Astra test was successful,? a DRDO official told Reuters. ?It will be inducted in the Indian Air Force after a few more routine tests.?

Astra can be fitted into fighter aircrafts, has a range of 25 km and can jam ground radar signals, officials added. DRDO officials said they would conduct the first test of the Dhanush next week, along with several other missiles. Dhanush is estimated to have a range of 250 km. The latest missile test comes days after Pakistan successfully tested the Hatf V11 Babur nuclear-capable missile.

Armenian prime minister dies of heart attack

Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan has died of a heart attack, his spokeswoman said yesterday. «He has passed away,» his spokeswoman told Reuters, giving no further information. A dissident when Armenia was part of the former Soviet Union, Margaryan was appointed by President Robert Kocharyan in 2000. Margaryan, 55, left two daughters.