World News-Bites

REPORTS FROM:

CNN:

Deadly Iraq war ends with exit of last U.S. troops

Early Sunday, as the sun ascended to the winter sky, the very last American convoy made its way down the main highway that connects Iraq and Kuwait.
The military called it its final "tactical road march." A series of 110 heavily armored, hulking trucks and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles carrying about 500 soldiers streamed slowly but steadily out of the combat zone. Watch video...

BBC:

N Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died at the age of 69, state-run television has announced.

Mr Kim, who has led the communist nation since the death of his father in 1994, died on a train while visiting an area outside the capital, the announcement said. Read more...

AL JAZEERA:

Iraqi PM expresses no confidence in deputy    

Move comes on day that one of Iraq's two vice presidents is escorted off plane and two of his bodyguards arrested.

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has called for MPs to withdraw confidence from one of his three deputy prime ministers in the deepening political crisis that worsened just as US forces completed their withdrawal.

"The prime minister sent an official letter to parliament, asking it to withdraw its confidence in Saleh al-Mutlak after his recent statements," Ali Mussawi, media adviser to Maliki, told the AFP news agency on Sunday.
Mutlak, who had been accused of being a supporter of Saddam's outlawed Baath party in the run-up to March 2010 elections in which he was barred from standing, said on Tuesday in a media interview that Washington was leaving Iraq "with a dictator".
Read more...           

CBC.CA

Thousands protest Russian election

Thousands took to the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg on Sunday, braving strong winds and torrential rains for a second week of protests over Russia's fraud-tainted parliamentary vote.
About 4,000 supporters of the Communist Party rallied just outside the walls of the Kremlin on a snowy afternoon, demanding a re-count and the government's resignation. Wind and rain later turned into a blizzard. Read more...

NEW YORK TIMES

Israel Frees Palestinians in 2nd Stage of Exchange

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel released about 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday night in the second half of a swap that freed one of its soldiers, Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas in Gaza for more than five years. Read more...      

SPIEGEL ONLINE

German Bundesbank Wary of IMF Help for Europe

European leaders last week agreed to outfit the International Monetary Fund with 200 billion euros to assist countries in the common currency zone. But Germany's central bank has its doubts: Some heavyweight countries are balking, and it also increases risks for German taxpayers...Read more

THE ECONOMIST

The European Union in disarray

A comedy of euros

Britain had a bad summit, but the euro zone had a worse one

AS YOU read this, lawyers are busily drafting a European fiscal “compact” designed to restore discipline to the euro zone’s economies. In the new year all but one of the European Union’s 27 members are to start thrashing out this treaty’s details. Meanwhile the British government, having fallen out with all its 26 partners, is promising that it will remain a central part of the union—and that London will remain Europe’s financial capital. All is well. Read more...

REUTERS: Exclusive

Secret U.S., Taliban talks reach turning point

(Reuters) - After 10 months of secret dialogue with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, senior U.S. officials say the talks have reached a critical juncture and they will soon know whether a breakthrough is possible, leading to peace talks whose ultimate goal is to end the Afghan war. Read more...

BLOOMBERG

IMF Bazooka Is Between Meaningless, Dangerous: Simon Johnson

Financial rescue plans for Europeare becoming ever more fanciful. Increasingly, policy analysts in Europe and the U.S. turn to the International Monetary Fundto provide what is termed “the bazooka” -- meaning a lot of money underpinning a scaled-up bailout for Italy, other troubled countries and, of course, Europe’s failing banks.

Read more...