The World

By: JournalNow Staff | JOURNAL WIRE REPORT
Published: December 14, 2008

Britain may send more troops into Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday that Britain could send extra troops to Afghanistan under a U.S.-led military surge aimed at stemming terrorism and supporting Afghan elections.

Brown visited the front line in volatile Helmand province only a day after four British troops were killed in the same region -- one in a roadside bomb and three when a teenage suicide bomber with a bomb hidden in a wheelbarrow blew himself up.

"There is a chain of terror that comes from the Pakistani and Afghan mountains right across Europe and can end up very easily on the streets of Britain," Brown said after he left Camp Bastion in Helmand and traveled to Kabul to see Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "British people are safer today because we have our troops working with the Afghan people to act against terror."

Police station and stores attacked by Greek youths

ATHENS, Greece -- Scores of youths attacked a police station, stores and banks yesterday, as candlelit vigils were being held to mark a week since the police killing of a 15-year-old boy that triggered massive riots across Greece.

Dozens of youths on foot and on motorcycles attacked a police station in central Athens, at least three banks, several stores and a government building, authorities said.

The youths threw at least one gasoline bomb at the police station last night before smashing paving stones and setting up barricades with burning trash bins.

The latest violence occurred as hundreds of schoolchildren holding candles gathered peacefully outside parliament and at the site where the teenager was shot to death.

Zimbabwe blames West for its cholera epidemic

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe accused the West yesterday of waging biological warfare to deliberately start a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people and sickened thousands.

The spread of the disease has focused the world's attention on the spectacular collapse of the southern African nation, which often attributes its troubles to the West.

The claims in state media came the same day the government issued an official announcement detailing the constitutional amendment creating the post of prime minister. The announcement also set out other changes necessary to go forward with a power-sharing agreement that has been stalled since September.

Iranian minister calls off visit to France after spat

PARIS -- A French official said that the Iranian foreign minister has called off a visit to Paris after a diplomatic spat with France.

The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador to Tehran this week to protest remarks President Nicolas Sarkozy made about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A French Foreign Ministry official said that Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had been due to meet his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, yesterday and to attend a foreign minister's conference on Afghanistan today.

Sri Lankan planes bomb ethnic Tamil separatists

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's air force bombed ethnic Tamil separatists yesterday near their de facto capital in the north, the government said, and a pro-rebel report said that artillery shells fired by government troops killed an infant and two others.

Fighter jets bombed nine times to the west and northwest of the Tamil Tiger rebel headquarters in Kilinochchi, Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said.

He said that pilots confirmed some rebel bunkers were successfully hit but no details were available.

Russians retake Georgian village they had vacated

TBILISI, Georgia -- Russian troops retook a village near the breakaway region of South Ossetia yesterday just hours after withdrawing, Georgia's Interior Ministry and European Union peace observers said.

The move drew criticism from Georgia, the EU and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who was on a half-day visit to Tbilisi.

Georgian police had already moved into Perevi yesterday to remove Russian-built roadblocks when Russian troops and helicopters unexpectedly returned, said Shota Utiashvili, an Interior Ministry spokesman.