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THE STANS
British military budget for Afghanistan to balloon: committee

British PM says 300 extra troops sent to Afghanistan
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday around 300 extra troops had been sent to Afghanistan to bolster NATO forces fighting Taliban insurgents in the south of the country. "The defence secretary and I have decided on advice from the defence chief, to approve until August, including the period of prepation for the Afghan elections, an increase in the number of British troops deployed to Afghanistan from just over 8,000 to around 8,300," Brown told parliament. Most of Britain's troops are based in the restive southern province of Helmand, where the Taliban has been waging a bloody insurgency since being ousted from power in 2001 by a US-led invasion. The extra 300 or so extra British troops were alluded to by government and military sources at the weekend, when Brown travelled to Afghanistan including a visit to Helmand.
by Staff Writers
 London (AFP) Dec 15, 2008
 Britain's military budget for Afghanistan is set to soar by more than 50 percent next year, as London switches its focus from Iraq to fighting the Taliban, according to figures released Monday.

Lawmakers on parliament's defence committee, which published the Treasury forecasts, urged the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to explain better the rising costs of military operations in future.

Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are forecast to cost 3.7 billion pounds (5.7 billion dollars, 4.1 billion euros) in the financial year 2008-2009.

Overall costs for operations in Afghanistan will grow from 1.51 billion pounds in the financial year 2007/08 to 2.32 billion pounds in 2008/9, a rise of 54 percent.

In Iraq the budget will drop from 1.46 billion to 1.4 billion, a fall of 4.1 percent, said the committee, in a statement which approved the figures for both countries.

"The 3,739.112 million requested to meet the forecast cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008/9 is a very significant sum of public money, but it is vital that our armed forces are properly resourced," it said.

But it added: "To provide us with a clearer sense of the reasons for changes in operational cost forecasts... we would for future financial years like the MoD to provide... a more detailed account of operational costs expected."

The figures come a week after media reports, not denied by the MoD, that Britain's 4,000 troops left in Iraq will begin pulling out in March, and could have mostly left the country by June.

On Afghanistan, Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed Monday that Britain has sent an extra 300 troops until next August, while US president-elect Barack Obama is expected to push for more troops there after taking power in January.

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THE STANS
Turkmenistan holds key vote as officials vow 'openness'
 Ashgabat (AFP) Dec 14, 2008
 Turkmenistan went to the polls Sunday in a parliamentary vote touted as a sign that the energy-rich central Asian nation is shedding its autocratic past, but Western observers say nothing has changed.






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