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(CNN) — Australia’s High Court on Wednesday rejected an extradition request from Hungary for a suspected Nazi war criminal, ending a legal battle that began in 2005.

Charles Zentai and two fellow Hungarian soldiers allegedly beat a Jewish teenager to death in November 1944 for failing to wear the yellow Star of David. They are thought to have thrown the victim’s body into the Danube River in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

In a 5-1 decision, the court ruled that Zentai could not be extradited because “war crime” did not exist as a legal offence in Hungary in 1944, according to Australian media reports.

In doing so, it upheld a 2010 Australian federal court ruling against an extradition order approved by former home affairs minister Brendan O’Connor in 2009. Hungary issued an international arrest warrant and extradition request for Zentai in 2005.

Zentai, now 90, has maintained his innocence, arguing that he left Nazi-occupied Budapest before the crime occurred.

(CNN) — Ethiopia’s prime minister is “recovering well,” a spokesman said Wednesday, amid frenzied speculation about the health of the usually visible leader, who has not appeared in public for two months.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, 57, came to power two decades ago and is considered a strong force in the frequently volatile horn of Africa.

He has not appeared in public since June, and the secretive nation has released little information about his whereabouts, prompting rumors and opposition claims that he is dead or facing a life-threatening illness.

After weeks of speculation, the government held a news conference last month and announced he got treatment for an unspecified illness.

Zenawi is “recovering well, resting and performing his duties as prime minister and head of state,” government spokesman Bereket Simon reiterated Wednesday. He declined to give exact details on Zenawi’s whereabouts or the nature of his illness.

His absence has been a hot topic in the nation, with bloggers launching a counter of the number of days he’s been missing. Citizens have taken to social media to discuss his whereabouts and exchange conspiracy theories.

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CNN reached several people in the nation who expressed their concerns about his whereabouts, but did not want to be quoted for fear of retribution.

“People are afraid to talk about it. This is a police state,” Hailemichael said. “They are talking about it, but they are looking over their shoulders. In bars, in taxis, coffee shops, that’s all people are talking about. But they are afraid.”

His absence was more evident last month when Ethiopia hosted an African Union summit in its capital of Addis Ababa. Zenawi, a key player in talks on the tensions between Sudan and its rival neighbor South Sudan, did not attend.

“Some people are worried, some people are crying,” said Jomanex Kassaye, 30, who lives near Addis Ababa. “While some people are worried about the instability that might occur … others are happy that he may be gone.”

Kassaye said, while he is not a fan of the leader, he wants him to leave through a democratic process.

“I need him to go because there is no democracy, no freedom of speech, no food, no justice, no accountability,” he said. “But not like this. If he leaves like this, we will have another dictator who will take over power and stay for too long.”

Ethiopia, which is a key Western ally often lauded for effective use of aid money, is surrounded by unstable nations such as Somalia and Eritrea. Zenawi has been credited with working toward peace and security in the region.

The Ethiopian army has sent peacekeepers to battle Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia. More recently, the prime minister was working to broker a peace deal in the negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan, which split last year but still have unresolved issues.

In an attempt to quash the rumors, the government censored a newspaper that tried to report information about his health, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“This weekend, the government ordered the state-run printing company not to produce the latest edition of the weekly Feteh, which was to have carried front-page coverage of Zenawi’s condition,” the media advocacy group said on its website.

Zenawi, a former guerrilla leader, is part of a group that toppled dictator Haile Mengustu Mariam in 1991. The shrewd politician is credited with economic progress and maintaining peace in the nation surrounded by volatile countries.

However, human rights groups have accused his government of a heavy hand and a series of abuses, including limiting press freedoms and cracking down on opposition political parties.

Last year, Ethiopia found two Swedish journalists guilty of supporting terrorism and sentenced them to 11 years.

(CNN) — Australia’s High Court on Wednesday rejected an extradition request from Hungary for a suspected Nazi war criminal, ending a legal battle that began in 2005.

Charles Zentai and two fellow Hungarian soldiers allegedly beat a Jewish teenager to death in November 1944 for failing to wear the yellow Star of David. They are thought to have thrown the victim’s body into the Danube River in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

In a 5-1 decision, the court ruled that Zentai could not be extradited because “war crime” did not exist as a legal offence in Hungary in 1944, according to Australian media reports.

In doing so, it upheld a 2010 Australian federal court ruling against an extradition order approved by former home affairs minister Brendan O’Connor in 2009. Hungary issued an international arrest warrant and extradition request for Zentai in 2005.

Zentai, now 90, has maintained his innocence, arguing that he left Nazi-occupied Budapest before the crime occurred.

London (CNN) — Britain’s Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Scotland Wednesday after the recurrence of a bladder infection, Buckingham Palace said.

The 91-year-old Duke of Edinburgh first suffered the problem in June.

He has been admitted for “investigation and treatment” and is likely to remain in hospital for the next few days, the palace said.

The Duke of Edinburgh was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure, the palace said earlier. He was staying at the royal residence in Balmoral, Scotland, where the queen traditionally spends part of the summer, UK media reports said.

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(CNN) — Australia’s High Court on Wednesday rejected an extradition request from Hungary for a suspected Nazi war criminal, ending a legal battle that began in 2005.

Charles Zentai and two fellow Hungarian soldiers allegedly beat a Jewish teenager to death in November 1944 for failing to wear the yellow Star of David. They are thought to have thrown the victim’s body into the Danube River in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

In a 5-1 decision, the court ruled that Zentai could not be extradited because “war crime” did not exist as a legal offence in Hungary in 1944, according to Australian media reports.

In doing so, it upheld a 2010 Australian federal court ruling against an extradition order approved by former home affairs minister Brendan O’Connor in 2009. Hungary issued an international arrest warrant and extradition request for Zentai in 2005.

Zentai, now 90, has maintained his innocence, arguing that he left Nazi-occupied Budapest before the crime occurred.

(CNN) — With New Delhi’s iconic Red Fort as a backdrop, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced Wednesday his country has set its sights on the Red Planet.

In a Wednesday speech marking India’s independence day, Singh said his government has approved plans to put an unmanned probe in orbit around Mars. The mission “will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology,” he said.

It’s an ambitious goal, with a planned launch in November 2013 for a 10-month flight, said Kiran Karnik, a former official with the Indian Space Research Organization.

“By the time the mission gets there, Mars will be comparatively the closest,” Karnik told CNN’s sister network CNN-IBN. “So there’s a small window in which we need to make a launch and that’s the reason the mission has to go up next year.”

The goal of the mission is to search for clues to the “geology, origin, evolution and sustainability of life” on Mars, according to an ISRO report published earlier this year.

India’s space program launched its first Earth satellite in 1975 and put an unmanned probe into orbit around the moon in 2008. It plans to launch its first manned spaceflight in 2016, though an Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma, flew aboard a Soviet space mission in 1984.

The announcement comes as the U.S. space agency NASA is basking in the successful landing of its Curiosity rover August 6.

If the 2013 mission is successful, India would become the first Asian country to reach Mars: A 1998 attempt by Japan failed to insert itself into martian orbit, while a Chinese probe was lost along with the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission in January. But Karnik said India shouldn’t be concerned with stunts.

“My only concern, if anything, is not the risk of failure,” he said. “It’s the risk that the program should not get diverted to these high-visibility, somewhat prestige-related events.”

CNN’s Ram Ramgopal and Christian DuChateau contributed to this report.

(CNN) — With New Delhi’s iconic Red Fort as a backdrop, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced Wednesday his country has set its sights on the Red Planet.

In a Wednesday speech marking India’s independence day, Singh said his government has approved plans to put an unmanned probe in orbit around Mars. The mission “will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology,” he said.

It’s an ambitious goal, with a planned launch in November 2013 for a 10-month flight, said Kiran Karnik, a former official with the Indian Space Research Organization.

“By the time the mission gets there, Mars will be comparatively the closest,” Karnik told CNN’s sister network CNN-IBN. “So there’s a small window in which we need to make a launch and that’s the reason the mission has to go up next year.”

The goal of the mission is to search for clues to the “geology, origin, evolution and sustainability of life” on Mars, according to an ISRO report published earlier this year.

India’s space program launched its first Earth satellite in 1975 and put an unmanned probe into orbit around the moon in 2008. It plans to launch its first manned spaceflight in 2016, though an Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma, flew aboard a Soviet space mission in 1984.

The announcement comes as the U.S. space agency NASA is basking in the successful landing of its Curiosity rover August 6.

If the 2013 mission is successful, India would become the first Asian country to reach Mars: A 1998 attempt by Japan failed to insert itself into martian orbit, while a Chinese probe was lost along with the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission in January. But Karnik said India shouldn’t be concerned with stunts.

“My only concern, if anything, is not the risk of failure,” he said. “It’s the risk that the program should not get diverted to these high-visibility, somewhat prestige-related events.”

CNN’s Ram Ramgopal and Christian DuChateau contributed to this report.