Apart from the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, the British contingent will now include a reconnaissance troop of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards with eight Scimitar armoured vehicles stationed across the border in Kosovo, and specialist medical and bomb disposal units.There was criticism and scepticism over the deployment both nationally and internationally. Shadow defence secretary and Tory leadership candidate Iain Duncan Smith said “We have grave concerns over what is being undertaken. What worries us is that they are sending British troops into what is still effectively a war zone. The ceasefire is likely to be broken and British troops, in small numbers, could end up caught in the middle between the two sides.”Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed the mission would fail, saying: “I have grave doubts… because it is unlikely that the guerillas will really hand over weapons.”The fact Nato has sent highly-trained paratroopers and that advance reconaissance was undertaken by the SAS, makes it clear the alliance is fully aware of the risks facing its troops.

“Just because the Paras don’t have any heavy arms, doesn’t mean they can’t pack a powerful punch,” said British Major Alex Dick yesterday. The troops are in Macedonia despite the fact that a ceasefire Nato insisted was a necessary condition for deploying troops is not holding. The ceasefire is broken daily, and villages have come under four hours’ shelling.. The Christian Democrat candidate for Mayor in Berlin was urged yesterday to come clean about his allegedly racist behaviour during his youth. The Christian Democrat candidate for Mayor in Berlin was urged yesterday to come clean about his allegedly racist behaviour during his youth.
Frank Steffel, a 35-year-old businessman who is standing in the German capital’s elections in October, had apparently admitted to a journalist that he innocently used racially abusive language during his younger days. Later, Mr Steffel described the report as “plain wrong”, and part of a “dirty campaign”. This prompted the journalist who interviewed him to release the tape.Max, the magazine that had confronted Mr Steffel with sworn statements from witnesses, posted this part of the interview on the internet.

The reporter is heard to ask: “Did you describe blacks as ‘bimbos’, Turks as ‘kanaken’ and handicapped people as ‘mongos’? Mr Steffel replied: “I would not claim that I never said such things. I think such expressions are used quite normally by 13, 14, 15, 16-year-olds.”Mr Steffel’s denial of the report failed to convince his political opponents yesterday. “I cannot understand how someone’s mind could be infused with such national arrogance, even at the age of 16, 15, 14 or 13,” said Gregor Gysi, the mayoral candidate of the post-communist Party of Democratic Socialism “I find it intolerable He was already an adult. He must now provide credible proof that he has changed his opinions.

We must also think of the damage this does to Berlin’s international reputation.”Mr Steffelused to be on the right wing of Germany’s biggest opposition party but claims to have drifted to the centre. Until yesterday he was seen as the least colourful of the three politicians vying for the office of Mayor. Mr Gysi, the most popular of the three, has strenuously denied accusations that he had worked for the Stasi in communist times. Klaus Wovereit, the Social Democrat incumbent, started his campaign by announcing that he was gay..