General Sir Richard Dannatt intervened after intelligence that a sniper, who has already killed six British troops in Basra, had been told assassinating the 22-year-old prince was his "priority".
A separate plot involved the nightmare scenario of Harry being seized and smuggled across the border into Iran - where a rescue operation would have been all but impossible.
Insurgents desperate to target the 'prize' prince have also recently been caught carrying photographs of Harry. And terrorist groups have
been boasting for months that they would capture him and "cut off his ears".
After two British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Maysan province driving the same type of vehicle as the prince would use, a Scimitar light tank, there was a warning that the security situation in Iraq was rapidly deteriorating.
The shock decision not to deploy him because there is a real risk he would be killed means military chiefs acknowledge that the country is on the brink of collapse.
But it makes a mockery of the 22-year-old prince's commission as a serving soldier.
And the way his on-off deployment has been handled - with the prince himself vowing to fight alongside his men or resign - has turned into a complete farce.
Sue Smith - whose son Phillip Hewitt, 21, was killed by a roadside bomb in 2005 - said: "Phil was my prince, and he had to go."
And Reg Keys, who lost his son Tom, 20, summed up the families' distaste when he said: "It makes Harry's life seem more important than those of our children."
Sergey Malinka, 22, who helped Murat, 33, set up a website, was picked up in a police swoop on his parents' flat in Praia da Luz.
Speaking just before being arrested Malinka, 22, said he also worked on a computer owned by the one-eyed Briton and had met him several times.
He added: “I did do some work for Robert and found him a really cool guy.
“He wanted a website created and I did a lot of work getting it together for him.”
Before being quizzed as a suspect, he insisted to The Sun: “I’m not the man — it’s definitely not me”.
Gordon Brown secures Labour leadership, but Britain faces a six-week wait for its new PM
Gordon Brown's confirmation yesterday as the sole candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party after his only rival threw in the towel means that he will be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. John McDonnell withdrew from the contest when it became clear that he could not muster the 45 nominations necessary to mount a challenge.
We would have preferred a full-blooded contest to decide Labour's next leader. Even a half-hearted contest in which the other participant was a token, left-wing challenger such as John McDonnell, would have been healthier for the party and the country than a coronation for Mr Brown. But the plain fact is that the Labour Party has been unable to put forward even a single challenger. And that raises an inescapable question: what are we waiting for?
The Guardian reports
Gordon Brown will be declared prime minister-elect today after John McDonnell, his would-be challenger, failed to get the 45 nominations from MPs required to force a leadership contest.
Mr McDonnell conceded defeat last night after becoming stuck on 29 nominations, while the chancellor was supported by 308 MPs, the number needed to make it mathematically impossible for his would-be opponent to make the ballot.
Mr Brown will accept the party's nomination in London today at an event to mark his unopposed election, and thank his fellow MPs for their display of unity. He won the support yesterday of Alan Milburn, a former foe, who made a speech last night saying he was confident that Mr Brown could pursue a public service reform agenda based on individual empowerment. The future of the public services is likely to be debated intensely within the party in the next few weeks.
The crown is Brown's as his only rival falls at the first hurdle says the Mail
The latest developments have created a sudden shift of power at Westminster, boosting Mr Brown's standing and putting more pressure on Mr Blair to justify his drawn-out goodbye.
Preparations for a handover will begin almost immediately.
Mr Brown will spend the time left before Mr Blair's formal departure to work on the transition of power.
Meanwhile on a related note the Times declares that
Blair will be welcomed into Catholic fold via his ‘baptism of desire’
Tony Blair will declare himself a Roman Catholic on leaving Downing Street, according to a priest close to him.
Father Michael Seed, who is known for bringing high-profile politicians and aristocrats into the Catholic fold and who says Mass for the Blairs in Downing Street each week when they are in London, made the prediction to friends at a recent memorial service.
Last night, when contacted by The Times, he did not deny his comments, but said he did not know if Mr Blair would ever be received “formally” into the Roman Catholic Church.
The Guardian leads with the strange story that
Russia accused of unleashing cyberwar to disable Estonia
A three-week wave of massive cyber-attacks on the small Baltic country of Estonia, the first known incidence of such an assault on a state, is causing alarm across the western alliance, with Nato urgently examining the offensive and its implications.
While Russia and Estonia are embroiled in their worst dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a row that erupted at the end of last month over the Estonians' removal of the Bronze Soldier Soviet war memorial in central Tallinn, the country has been subjected to a barrage of cyber warfare, disabling the websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks, and companies.
The Times leads with the claim that
Half of all A&E units marked for closure
Up to half of all hospital accident and emergency departments face cuts or closure under plans to improve patient care, presenting Gordon Brown with a massive dilemma as he takes over as Prime Minister.
Ninety-two out of 204 A&E departments are under threat if guidance attributed to the Department of Health by NHS trusts is followed, the Conservatives claimed last night.
Some NHS organisations are already using the guidance, which calls for A&E departments to serve a minimum population of 450,000 patients, to justify closures in smaller catchment areas. The average A&E unit currently serves just under 250,000 people.
To the interest rates and the Ft headlines that
Bank hints at further interest rate rise
Interest rates look almost certain to rise again after Bank of England inflation forecasts on Wednesday showed higher rates would be needed to bring down inflation and keep it close to the Bank’s target of 2 per cent.Mervyn King, the bank’s governor, said its the bank’s central projection was for “inflation to settle around target” in the event of a quarter point rate rise later this summer.
The deteriorating picture of medium-term inflation trends presented by the Bank led many economists to change their interest rate predictions on Wednesday. In a Reuters poll, 56 per cent of economists surveyed said rates would rise again this year, compared with only 33 per cent a week ago.
The Express carries the same lead story
INTEREST RATES TO GO EVEN HIGHER
HOME owners were last night warned to brace themselves for another punishing rise in interest rates.
Millions are still reeling from the Bank of England’s decision less than a week ago to raise the cost of borrowing to 5.5 per cent.But the Bank’s Governor, Mervyn King, yesterday signalled that another increase was on the way to attempt to keep a lid on inflation – although the rate of price rises is already starting to slow down.
The Telegraph reports that
Wolfowitz poised to quit World Bank
The bank's board was understood to be drawing up a deal that would allow him to step down while acknowledging that he was not entirely to blame for the ill-tempered saga over a pay package for his girlfriend.
Pressure on the former deputy US defence secretary, one of the architects of the Iraq war, had increased after Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, the German development minister, urged him not to take part in a two-day World Bank forum on development aid for Africa, which starts on Monday in Berlin.
A defiant Paul Wolfowitz was last night on his way out as President of the World Bank - a departure that will bring an end to a messy and debilitating crisis that has damaged the credibility of both himself and the premier global development lending agency.
But a final line may only be drawn today under his controversial two-year tenure, when the Bank's 24-man board reconvenes to consider his fate. A dramatic series of meetings yesterday apparently failed to resolve details of a settlement. reports the Independent
Cameron faces Tory revolt after retreat on grammar schools says the Guardian
Tory MPs turned on their leadership last night after David Cameron ditched a party article of faith, the superiority of grammar schools. About a dozen backbenchers used a meeting of their 1922 Committee to attack remarks by the shadow education secretary, David Willetts, that "academic selection entrenches advantage, it does not spread it".
Mr Cameron had also asserted that "a pointless debate about creating a few grammar schools is not going to get us anywhere", and pledged instead to concentrate on raising standards and improving discipline in all England's 24,000 state schools. The Tory leader said history had shown that establishing new grammar schools was extremely difficult and often unpopular. "Parents fundamentally don't want their children divided into sheep and goats at the age of 11," Mr Cameron told the BBC.
Good news for some in the Mirror
END OF BALDNESS
Scientists discover way to grow back full head of hair
AFTER years of quackery and bizarre treatments, scientists believe they have finally found the key to curing baldness.
Modern drug therapies can sometimes slow or stop the advance of hair loss, and transplants can cover up the effects.
But it had been accepted medical fact that once hair falls out of a follicle it is gone for good.
Now, in a major breakthrough with experiments on mice, Prof George Cotsarelis and his team at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found entirely new follicles can be regrown, from which fresh hair sprouts.
Whilst the Sun following up on yesterday's lead declares
We're waging war on terrier
A MASSIVE hunt was on last night to find Jose Mourinho’s pet dog amid fears it may have RABIES.
Two organisations joined forces to track the Yorkshire terrier, named Gullit, after a vet raised the alarm.
The City of London Corporation and Westminster City Council went on the warpath after Corporation officers failed to seize the pooch in a raid on the Chelsea manager’s home on Tuesday night.
Football? It's nothing. It's all about the dog. . says the Telegraph
Not for him Bill Shankly's verdict on whether football was more important than life or death (much more, was the Liverpool sage's opinion). Instead, the Chelsea manager, with the clash with Manchester United in Saturday's FA Cup final looming, discoursed on the importance of his family pet, Gullit. At the heart of the issue was the question: just what did happen between him, the police and Gullit?
The Guardian reports on the
Divided nation prepares for first cross-border train since 1950
Two trains were due to cross the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas for the first time since 1950 today in a major breakthrough for peace on the divided peninsula.
The test run by two trains - one from each side of the border - is seen as a step towards closer economic ties between rich, open South Korea and the poor, isolated North.
Despite huge disparities in the quality of the tracks and rolling stock, it is hoped that the lines will eventually link to the Trans-Siberian railway and allow connections spanning more than 5,000 miles from London to Seoul.
Prostitutes march over mayor's dirty tricks proclaims the Telegraph
Hundreds of prostitutes, anti-globalisation dissidents and bemused bystanders brought Padua to a standstill yesterday as they protested against the city’s clampdown on the world’s oldest profession
Builders wolf-whistled and elderly men stood open-mouthed as the colourful parade passed through one of Italy’s oldest university towns on its way to the town council.
Prostitutes danced to disco music and held up banners demanding the right to sell sex without interference from the police.
Finally to the Mail which has discovered
‘Poverty-stricken’ Syd Barrett and the £1.7m inheritance
Barrett, who shunned the limelight for more than 30 years, left almost £1.7million following his death from cancer aged 60 last summer.
Documents made public yesterday show that Barrett, who left the Floyd before they became one of the world's biggest rock bands, split his fortune between his two brothers and two sisters.
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