December 15 News international

Thursday 15 December, 2011.

TOP STORY Obama hails extraordinary US achievement in Iraq President Barack Obama on Wednesday honoured America's "fighting and dying, bleeding and building" in Iraq, hailing the extraordinary achievement of a war he once branded dumb. HEADLINES Any move to oust PPP govt may harm election process: Gilani Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has warned that any move to oust the PPP-led government could imperil democracy and the election process in the country. France's Chirac guilty of graft, escapes jail term  Popular former French president Jacques Chirac was convicted of graft on Thursday but escaped jail, receiving a suspended two year sentence for running ghost workers at Paris city hall. Syrian defectors kill 27 soldiers  Syrian army defectors killed at least 27 soldiers and security forces on Thursday in clashes in the southernprovince of Daraa, activists said, as the unrest in Syriagrows more violent and spirals toward civil war. US strongly believe in civil nuclear agreement with India  The US strongly believes in the civil nuclear agreement with India and was working with New Delhi to get past the "difficulties" associated with it, a State Department official has said. AFRICA & SOUTH AMERICA ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE NORTH AMERICA SOUTH ASIA WEST ASIA

OTHER TOP STORIES Boat accident kills at least 20 in southern Nigeria  Kuwaiti emir swears in new cabinet Philippine chief justice blasts Aquino 'dictatorship'  Egypt goes to polls again to seal the parliament  Zardari discharged from hospital, says aide  Australia PM reshuffles cabinet, targets jobs and workplace