IRAQI PM TELLS MULLEN IRAQI TROOPS CAN TAKE OVER

Iraq's prime minister has told the top U.S. military officer that Iraqi forces are able to maintain safekeeping in their own country, as discussions intensify larger than whether to keep any U.S. forces in Iraq past this year.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made the remark during a late Thursday meeting with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. combined Chiefs of Staff. Mullen’s visit comes as U.S. and Iraqi officials are trying to decide what, if any, U.S. troop presence be supposed to remain in Iraq subsequent to the end of this year.An agreement between both countries stipulates that all American forces are to leave by Dec. 31.

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TROOPS TO OCCUPY BRAZILIAN SLUM

The military operation to clear a Rio de Janeiro slum of drug traffickers will effectively turn into an occupation of the area at least through October of next year, Gov. Sergio Cabral said in a radio interview Tuesday.

Rio state Gov. Sergio Cabral said that at least 2,000 troops will remain at the Alemao slum called a favela in Portuguese to keep up the effort to pacify the area. He announced the move after meeting with Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president-elect, in the capital, Brasilia. Originally, he had requested the troops for only six months. Rousseff offered her support for the security work being carried out in Rio, Cabral said. The troops are needed so that the government doesn't have to delay future operations in other communities overrun by drug traffickers, he said.

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