US President Barack Obama intends to conclude the Afghanistan mission and withdraw most US troops within three years, the CNN reports.
Obama is also sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and ordering military officials to get the reinforcements there within six months.
The conflict in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of more than 900 Americans and nearly 600 allied troops.

Despite widespread rumours that the Renault F1 team could withdraw from Formula One, the team’s managing director Jean-Francois Caubet insisted that a working budget for 2010 has been approved and the team will race in F1 next year.
“We have already contracted our drivers, had our budget approved and are enrolled in the world championship. Season 2010 has begun already,” Caubet said, according to F1-live.com.
He added that Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has also laid out his …

Renault are to discuss pulling out of Formula 1 at an emergency board meeting in Paris today, however, they are not going to make the decision public today.
The French car company will decide whether to remain in the sport with their own team, switch to simply being an engine supplier or quit altogether, the BBC reports. The news comes on the day that Toyota announced their decision to quit F1, becoming the third car company to …

Toyota have confirmed that they are pulling out of Formula One racing after posting their worst ever financial loss, the BBC reports.
The world’s largest car manufacturer are leaving the sport to concentrate on their core business and to cut costs.
Toyota president Akio Toyoda said the Japanese team had no option but to pull out citing “the current severe economic realities” affecting the world.
Toyota did not win a race after making their F1 debut in 2002, …

Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said it would be best for the country’s troops to leave Afghanistan as soon as possible, after six were killed in a car bombing in Kabul, CNN reports.
A recent car bomb targeting allied troops killed six Italian soldiers in Kabul.
Berlusconi gave no timeline for a withdrawal and said any pullout would have to be coordinated with Italy’s allies.
“It is an international problem,” he said. “It is not a problem that …

Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday prepared the ground for a pre-election announcement of troop withdrawals from Afghanistan next year, The Times reports.
During a lightning visit to the front line in Helmand province, he announced plans to double a training programme for the Afghan army to reduce its reliance on British and American troops. “Stepping that up means the Afghans themselves take responsibility for their own affairs,” Brown said.
He also hinted that there could be a temporary …

The BMW Group will not continue their Formula One campaign after the end of the 2009 season, the car manufacturer announced today, as predicted.
Resources freed up as a result are to be dedicated to the development of new drive technologies and projects in the field of sustainability, the company said.
“BMW will continue to be actively involved in other motor sports series,” according to the company.
The landmark decision to restructure BMW Motorsport’s activities was made at …

BMW is expected on Wednesday morning to announce its withdrawal from Formula One at the end of the current season, The Daily Telegraph reports.
The fear is that any departure by BMW could prompt other manufacturers, specifically Toyota but perhaps Renault as well, into making similar decisions.
It is a situation that the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body, feared from the moment Japanese car giant Honda dropped its bombshell last December that it was leaving F1 as …

Coalition troops have started the withdrawal from Iraq, as US combat troops started withdrawing from cities.
US combat forces must leave urban centres by 30th June, and the entire force must be gone by 2012, according to a security pact signed between US and Iraq last year.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that the troop withdrawal is a great victory for Iraqis. “We are taking the first step toward ending the foreign presence in Iraq,” he said, …