I think the very British Prince Harry must be pretty pissed at the international media right now - and as far as I'm concerned, rightfully so. No, this time it's not some scandalous picture controversy involving Harry, a lot of booze and late night binge drinking - it's something a lot more serious. It seems that the royal offspring, who initially trained as a tank commander in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry of the British Army, has been secretly deployed in Afghanistan since last Christmas. This was apparently kept a secret following a deal between the army and the British media, aimed to protect Harry and keep his presence on the Afghan front as quiet as possible. But not anymore.

The news broke yesterday and the prince was immediately called back to his native land, much to the annoyance of the British army. "Following a detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command, the decision has been taken... to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan immediately. This decision has been taken primarily on the basis that the worldwide media coverage of Prince Harry in Afghanistan could impact on the security of those who are deployed there, as well as the risks to him as an individual soldier", reads a statement from the Ministry of Defense.

"I am very disappointed that foreign websites have decided to run this story without consulting us" commented Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the British Army, Chief of the General Staff. "This is in stark contrast to the highly responsible attitude that the whole of the UK print and broadcast media, along with a small number of overseas, who have entered into an understanding with us over the coverage of Prince Harry on operations. After a lengthy period of discussion between the MoD and the editors of regional, national and international media, the editors took the commendable attitude to restrain their coverage. I would like to thank them for that and I do appreciate that once the story was in the public domain, they had no choice but to follow suit" Dannatt added his statement.

The prince was supposed to stay in Afghanistan until April "on a secret mission against the Taliban". He told the press: "[I] finally get the chance to actually do the soldiering I wanted to do from ever since I joined". Well, not anymore. I have no idea why the media went and spoiled the prince's fun, but I have a feeling we'll be reading about it a lot in the days to come. You know, people will throw stones at us again and say we're critically endangering the lives of the British Royal Family. For all it's worth, we didn't publish any news regarding Harry's stay in Afghanistan, so my conscience is clean. Well, unless you count this article, but since the story had already been broken, it hardly counts as "reckless exposure", right?