France has 3,600 soldiers in Afghanistan. A thousand will be withdrawn this year. Only a few hundred will remain after 2013 to oversee the transition. The decision has surely been taken with public opinion in mind. In a survey published on Thursday, 84% of French people said they supported the full withdrawal of troops by the end of this year. France spends around 500m a year on its Afghan operations, and the government's commitment in Afghanistan is getting harder to defend.
法国有3600名士兵驻扎在阿富汗,今年将撤出1000名。2013年后将只保留数百人监督过渡程序,能做出这样的决定,当然是采纳的公众的意见。周四发表的一份调查表明,84%的法国人表示支持今年年底之前全面撤军。法国每年支出500亿美元用于阿富汗的部署,政府对阿富汗的承诺越来越难实现了。
South Sudan says it'll completely shut down its oil production because of a dispute over transit fees with its northern neighbour, Sudan. Talks between the two countries in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa have failed to resolve the disagreement. South Sudan's chief negotiator Pagan Amum told the BBC that all output of oil will be halted within two days.
南苏丹称,由于与北部邻国苏丹在过境费上发生争执,将全面停止石油生产。两国曾在埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴进行对话,但未能解决冲突。南苏丹首席协调员Pagan Amum告诉BBC记者,两天内将全面停止石油产出。