BBC News with John Jason.
America's top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen has announced plans to send up to 30,000 extra U.S. troops to Afghanistan and said they could be deployed by next summer the latest. The figure is the highest yet quoted by a senior American figure and if approved,/will almost double the number of US troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan .Earlier announcement has suggested that the figure would be about 20,000. US commanders have long requested additional forces to fight the growing Taliban insurgency. Admiral Mullen said the US forces were determined to help build a better future for the people of Afghanistan.
"I wanna take a second to reiterate the very strong commitment to the Afghan people, the mission here, really is focused on that. We know the fight is real. We are very committed; this isn't just about a fight against Taliban extremists, but for the future of Afghanistan."
The Iraqi Parliament has rejected a draft law allowing troops from Britain, Australia and some other countries to stay beyond the end of this year. Many members of Parliament have said to have wanted a deal more like that already approved covering US forces in Iraq. Caroline Wyatt reports.
The agreement is vital in order to give British and other foreign forces the legal basis for staying on in Iraq beyond the end of the year .The current UN mandate runs out in just under two weeks, and it was hoped that the Iraqi Parliament would pass this new draft law. However, in a vote in the Iraqi Parliament the draft law was rejected by 80 votes with only 68 MPs in favor. The draft law may now be sent back to the Iraqi cabinet before being put to parliament again.
The Canadian government is to provide 3 billion dollars in emergency loans for American carmakers with operations in Canada. The Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the loans which will go to General Motors and Chrysler were a necessary step to protect the Canadian economy .The money will help the two companies to keep operating while they restructure their businesses. Mr. Harper also announced government measures to help motor industry suppliers and car buyers.
The Defense Ministry of Mali says 20 people were killed in an attack by Tuareg rebels on an army barracks in the north of the country. It’s the first major clash since a peace deal was signed in July. Military sources said a rebel column of more than 20 vehicles had raided the town of Nampala. The fighting came days after Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Toure reiterated his call for further peace talks. The Tuareg’s won more resources to be spent in their homeland in the Sahara Desert in northern Mali.
Protestors have again clashed with riot police in Greece two weeks after the fatal shooting of a teenager by a policeman sparked nationwide unrest. Dozens of demonstrators threw rubbish and tried to set fire to a Christmas tree in the main square in the capital Athens. Later, stones and petrol bombs were thrown at police.
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The Chinese government has been giving details of a naval task force it’s sending to the Gulf of Aden to help the international effort to combat piracy there. It says two navy destroyers and a support vessel will leave in a week’s time in what is thought to be China’s first naval deployment outside its immediate waters.
The American Space Agency NASA has made an appeal for public help with one of its strange experiments. NASA wants information on the fate of 90 rubber ducks deployed on a special mission to pinpoint where melt waters go under the Greenland ice shelf in summer months. The bathroom toys were put into one of the crevasses which drain vast amounts of Greenland's melt waters in the hope / they would pop out eventually and reveal the route taken by the water. NASA’s scientist Albert Behar says the agency is still hopeful of seeing its ducks again.
“We are always sort of thinking of different ways to get experiments out there. And we thought why don’t we try a cheap way of getting it out there and seeing what comes out. And so we have an e-mail address, and every day we check to see if anybody has found one of these rubber ducks, maybe a fisherman or a local hiker near one of the lakes. If anybody sees one and gives us a signal, we’ll be very happy.(www.hXen.com)
Technicians are trying to restore full Internet and phone services between Europe, the Middle East and Asia which were seriously disrupted after undersea cables were severed. A ship has been sent to the site in the Mediterranean so that repair work on the cables can begin. Officials think a ship’s anchor was the cause of the damage. Egypt was one of the countries worst hit by the disruption.
The American boxer Evander Holyfield has failed in his attempt to become the oldest world heavy-weight champion in history. Holyfield who is 46 was beaten on points by the Russian Nikolai Valuev in Switzerland. Valuev is 11 years Holyfield's junior as well as taller and more than 40 kilograms heavier.
BBC News.
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