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MOSCOW December 19, 2008 (Reuters) - Russia will stop developing some strategic weapons if the United States drops plans for a missile shield in Europe, Interfax news agency quoted the commander of Russia's strategic missile forces as saying on Friday.

December 19, 2008 (Washington Post) - The Pentagon is drawing up plans to shut the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be prepared for any order from President-elect Barack Obama, who has promised to close the controversial facility after he assumes office Jan. 20, a defense official said yesterday.

December 18, 2008 (Al Jazeera) - A UN-backed tribunal has convicted Theoneste Bagosora, a former Rwandan army colonel, of organising the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

NEW YORK December 18, 2008 (AP) – Bernard Madoff's contention that he pulled off one of the biggest financial frauds in history without any help is being met with disbelief by his investors and experts in the securities industry.

BAGHDAD December 18, 2008 (AFP) – A top Iraqi general said on Thursday that security forces reportedly arrested in connection with an attempted coup were actually detained on suspicion of aiding "terrorism."

SEOUL December 18, 2008 (Reuters) - North Korea raised tension with the South on Thursday by accusing its rich neighbor of being behind espionage plots to undermine its communist system by trying to set up a secret religion and assassinate leader Kim Jong-il.

WASHINGTON December 18, 2008 (AP) – Former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales misled Congress when he claimed the CIA in 2002 approved information that ended up in the 2003 State of the Union speech about Iraq's alleged effort to buy uranium for its nuclear weapons program, a House committee said Thursday. 

December 17, 2008 (AP) - Oil prices tumbled below $40 for the first time since the summer of 2004 Wednesday despite an announcement from OPEC of a record production cut of 2.2 million barrels a day.

BAGHDAD December 17, 2008 (New York Times) — Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad.

PARIS December 17, 2008 (Reuters) - France will deploy hundreds of extra police at busy public places in its main cities after dynamite was planted in a Paris department store, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Wednesday.