I don't know if the news story has made the US, so first a bit of background.
The press have recently got hold of a video shot by Prince Harry as he was waiting to fly off on duty with his squad. His voice is clear on the voiceover. He is heard making what is being drummed up as a scandalous racist remark. Never mind that the video is several years old or that it was one squaddie talking about his mates, it's being played in the press as proof of his racism. To be honest though I didn't find it a very important sory.

What I found interesting, before I had seen the video was a discrepancy in the television reporting of the story.

Before I come to that there is one more piece of information that's needed for non-British readers - the word "paki", an abbreviation of Pakistani but applied to anyone of similar appearance, is unquestionably offensive. If I heard it I would assume that offence was not only given but actually meant. I certainly wouldn't use it.

Anyway, here's the discrepancy. On two news programs I heard the remark quoted in the following two ways.

"And here's my little Paki mate."
and
"And here's my little mate, Paki".

While neither of these is acceptable there is an enormous gulf between them. The first is using "paki" as an adjective and, while Harry may not have meant it offensively, it certainly is an offensive statement.

The second though is different. It was used in a news report by someone defending the prince. In this context, with an audible pause, it can only be interpreted as being a nickname. Now it's certainly not a nice nickname but if that is really what he said it isn't likely that it was anything other than the use of a name that others in the squad used and that was accepted by the soldier in question.

So which was it?
Sadly it was the former. Having watched the video it's actually slightly worse, "And here's my little Paki mate... Ahmed."
The use of the name at the end makes it absolutely clear that "Paki" isn't being used as a name but rather as a description.
With that said it's an old video and old news and not even worth reporting. Nevertheless I found that bit of language noteworthy.

Isn't it interesting how the transposition of two words can alter the tone and meaning?

My newspaper today had a long article asking "Isn't it about time Prince Harry grows up?" They totally ignored the fact that the video is three years old, made when he was 21. I'm not saying that he has shown that he has grown up since then, but presenting the video as if it were current is definitely misleading.

The name Pakistan was coined a little over half a century ago. It's based on an acronym of the three regions making up the area: Punjab, Afghania, and Kashmir. (Other stories include Sindh and Balochistan.) It uses the standard Persian-derived compound element -stan meaning 'land of': e.g., Afghanistan, Balochistan, Turkmenistan. Usually, an ethnonym is used with -stan, and indeed, Afghani, Balochi, and Turkmen inhabit each of those countries. Punjab and Sindh have interesting etymologies also: punjab means 'five rivers (lit., waters)' and Sindh is where the word India comes, via Greek, for the Indus river. (In Greek historical phonology, initial w- and s- were dropped or became h-.)