HARRY IN AFGHANISTAN.

Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, has secretly been in Afghanistan for the last ten weeks:

Harry, 23, who is third in line to the throne, has spent the last 10 weeks serving in Helmand Province.

"I finally get the chance to do the soldiering that I want to do," the prince said before he left.

The deployment was subject to a news blackout deal, but broke down when leaked by foreign media.

You may recall that Harry was expected to deploy to Iraq last year, but that the deployment was canceled when concerns emerged about his presence endangering fellow soldiers. Harry is currently in Helmand Province, which is relatively dangerous, but the article includes no details on whether or not he's yet engaged in actual combat.

It's not unusual for the "spare" to participate in British military action; Prince Andrew was a helicopter pilot on HMS Invincible in the Falklands War. Apparently, the Queen herself told Harry that he was headed to Helmand; it is rumored that she intervened in 1982 to make sure that Andrew wasn't removed from Invincible.

-- Robert Farley