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Obama to sign military budget bill
Washington (AFP) Oct 28, 2009 US President Barack Obama will Wednesday sign a 680-billion-dollar defense authorization bill, which includes funds to train Afghan security forces and for more mine resistant troop carriers. Obama will host a ceremony before signing the bill, after waging a campaign to purge the mammoth legislation of wasteful and bloated spending. The bill had earlier stirred fears of a presidential veto, after lawmakers permitted spending on a fighter aircraft the Pentagon opposes. "As commander-in-chief, I will always do whatever it takes to defend the American people," Obama said, in excerpts of remarks he was to deliver at the bill signing ceremony later Wednesday. "That is why this bill provides for the best military in the history of the world." But warning that the bill was not perfect, the president vowed to carry on fighting to cut waste in the defense budget, which is often packed with pet projects of lawmakers for their home states. "Wasting these dollars makes us less secure. And that's why we have passed a defense bill that eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense process. "Today we have proved that change is possible. It may not come quickly or all at once, but if you push hard enough, it does come." The authorization bill satisfied most of the funding requests made in the Pentagon's budget submission for the 2010 fiscal year that began on October 1. It reflected a compromise hammered out between the two houses of Congress. But lawmakers defied Obama's earlier veto threat and approved 560 million dollars to continue work on an alternative engine for the F-35 fighter jet built by General Electric and Rolls-Royce. The legislation also raises military pay by 3.4 percent and assigns 6.7 billion dollars for mine-resistant armored vehicles known as MRAPs, which is 1.2 billion dollars more than the administration had proposed. Another 7.5 billion dollars was inked for training and equipping the Afghan police and army. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Gurkhas in fresh court battle over British army pensionsLondon (AFP) Oct 26, 2009 Veteran Gurkha soldiers from Nepal are launching another court battle against the British government Tuesday -- this time over pension rights. The British Gurkha Welfare Society is taking action at London's High Court because it says around 24,000 veterans and dependants who served in the British army before 1997 receive only a third of the normal payments. In May, all Gurkha veterans ... read more |
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