Reuters: Basra returns to Iraqis 16 December

Britain now has 4,500 troops in Iraq, less than a 10th of the force that Prime Minister Tony Blair dispatched to help topple Saddam Hussein in 2003. Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, has said the force will shrink to just 2,500 by mid-2008.

There remains in the south some 4,100 British military personnel, just one tenth of the British contingent of the invasion force, and the signs are they could be substantially withdrawn by the end of 2008. The British troops presently spend most of their time training and advising their Iraqi counterparts, who now take the lead role in security. Reuters correspondent Stuart McDill has been with the British forces in the region.

Ayman al-Zawahri appears in a video posted on the Internet which says the transfer of security responsibility to Iraqi forces shows the insurgents are gaining the upper hand in the south.

Violence in the Iraqi capital is on the rise again, after months of relative calm. In the Sunni bastion of Adhamiyah residents are taking security into their own hands. A militia organisation is the self-proclaimed guardian of the area where it plans to impose order. An AFPTV report.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed security forces would battle Shi'ite militia in Basra "to the end" despite thousands of protesters marching to demand his resignation. Mehdi Army fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr remain in control of streets of Basra, Iraq's second biggest city and main oil hub, defying a three-day government offensive that has led to violence spreading across the south and Baghdad.

In the latest attack on the NATO-led force in Afghanistan this weekend, one soldier was killed and another wounded when their convoy hit a roadside bomb. This brings to 24 the number of Western troops killed in Afghanistan since January -- most of them slain in Taliban-led violence. It has been a deadly start to the year for the war-torn country, and some observers fear security is rapidly deteriorating. Foreign countries are now increasingly reluctant to commit their forces to the frontlines.

There are fears violence could erupt in Bolivia over moves by its biggest province to declare autonomy in a vote Sunday. The leftwing government has said it will reject the result, and is pressing on with a socialist agenda to nationalise foreign-owned energy companies and distribute more wealth to the poor.

Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered Shi'ite militiamen to surrender as a crackdown on followers of powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr spread across southern towns, leaving a ceasefire in tatters.

Exiled Tibetans have vowed to stage further protests in Athens when the flame is officially handed over to China's organisers of the Beijing Olympics.