Lundy said Nato would press on with Operation Medusa, which began Saturday, in Panjwayi until it had "removed" all the Taliban militants. Nato says it has killed more than 270 insurgents since the offensive began and that hundreds more are massed in the district, west of Kandahar.. They were born within months of each other on the same remote South Pacific island where they grew up fishing and playing rugby. They died three days apart, separated by hundreds of miles, fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yesterday, the families of Ranger Anare Draiva and Gunner Samuela Vanua, both 27, were mourning in their home town of Suva, Fiji. Akesa Draiva, 52, surrounded by relatives and pictures of her smiling son, said she was proud he had been in the British Army His death they simply had to accept, she added. The family had one request of the country he had served ­ that he be buried with full military honours ­ and had asked the British High Commission if that was possible.. Hu Jia, a prominent Aids campaigner, has been arrested for the second time this year, in a crackdown on human rights activists. And the outspoken website of Baixing magazine was closed, seemingly because of a report about a villager killed while trying to stop demolition of his home. Last month, the Century China website, the last remaining bastion of relatively free speech in China, was closed. Tony Blair is likely to raise points about human rights and freedom of expression when he meets the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, next week during the Chinese leader's visit to Europe, which will include stops in Finland and Germany.But Beijing is equally likely to stick to its usual line that foreign governments should not interfere in China's human rights issues, an area jealously guarded as an "internal matter", and call for understanding for China's reform process.Before the arrest of Mr Hu at least 20 plainclothes police officers surrounded his house.

His wife, Zeng Jinyan, said the officers did not show identification or an arrest warrant, and merely said they were taking him to a local police station.Mr Hu, 33, is best known for his courageous advocacy work for Aids sufferers in rural China but he has also embraced the causes of Gao Zhisheng, an activist lawyer detained in August, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind rural campaigner who was recently sentenced to more than four years in jail.Already this year, Mr Hu was held without charge for 41 days. Other leading Chinese rights activists have been placed under house arrest, or moved to their home towns away from constant police scrutiny or gone into hiding in distant cities.Beijing is growing in diplomatic confidence. In some matters, such as the Iranian and North Korean nuclear stand-offs, China sees its role as an honest broker in international disputes. Mr Wen told a pre-visit briefing that Iran should heed concerns over its weapons programs, and called for dialogue, not sanctions, to help secure solutions to nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea.But China can wield this fresh muscle in its own spheres of influence in much less diplomatic fashion, such as the way it crudely tried to intervene in Zambia's upcoming presidential election. China's ambassador in Lusaka said Beijing might cut diplomatic relations with Zambia if voters elected the opposition candidate Michael Sata, who has referred to Taiwan as a "sovereign state" and criticised Chinese labour practices in Zambia.In its advance publicity for Mr Wen's trip to Europe, Chinese media have focused on how he will boost Sino-European partnership by signing a raft of trade deals The EU is China's biggest trading partner.